CANADA'S CHESS MAGAZINE FOR KIDS JUNE 2012 number 113 THE FOUR MOVE CHECKMATE CANADIAN CHESS CHALLENGE THE PAWN ON THE LAWN SSCCHHOOLLAARR’’SS MMAATTEE HHEELLLLOO,, CCHHEESSSS PALS! IS ON-LLINE !! Since October 2009, SCHOLAR’S MATE is no longer printed. But don’t be sad. You can still enjoy Canada’s Chess Magazine For Kids on-line, for free! The Chess’n Math Association continues to publish Scholar’s Mate five times per year as a digital DNL document, a great new format which has the same look as the printed magazine, including pages that actually turn! A printable pdf version of the magazine is also available. You can read the “e-magazine” directly on the CMA webpage or download it to your computer for viewing at any time. Either way, you will need a DNL Reader, which can be quickly downloaded for free at our site. www.chess-math.org THE SCHOLAR’S MATE BUS IS READY If you have any questions about the e-magazine, TO GO. IS EVERYBODY ON BOARD? please contact us at: The Chess Challenge nationals in Halifax were [email protected] awesome. Congratulations to everyone who took part. Our report starts on page 8. There are lots of other championships this time of year too, including many team events. Check out pages 34-36 for all the news. Have a good summer! Here’s the mag. Kiril 2 Scholar’s Mate 113 Scholar’s Mate 113 3 SCHOLAR’S MATE SCHOLAR'S MATE 3423 St. Denis #400 JUNE 2012 #113 Montreal, Quebec H2X 3L2 EDITOR Jeff Coakley Illustrator Antoine Duff CONTENTSCONTENTS photos Greg Peters page 13; Lefong Hua page 11 CANADIAN CHESS CHALLENGE 8 Scholar's Mate is published five times per year by the National Finals Chess’n Math Association. Dates of issue : October 15, December 15, February 15, April 15, June 15 Report From Halifax, Nova Scotia Reproduction by any means, mechanical or electronic, is forbidden except by permission of Scholar's Mate. THE FOUR MOVE CHECKMATE 14 Kiril’s Klass June 2012 (date of issue) ISSN 1923-6441 The Truth About Scholar’s Mate Legal Deposit National Library of Canada #D373119 THE PAWN ON THE LAWN 40 Hi, friends! Kiril's Korner Scholar’s Mate is now an e-magazine! Anyone can Be Careful Where You Step! read it for free on the internet, so there are no more subscriptions. But you will need a free program called How To Read Chess 6 Mate in 3 32 DNL Reader, which is available on our website. Or you can download a PDF version of the magazine. Summer Camps 7 Lily’s Puzzler 33 Ed & Alec 21 News 34 www.chess-math.org Kiril’s Address 21 Superfest 37 If you have any questions Canada Top Ten 22 Kiril’s Kontest 38 about the magazine, Tactics 101 23 Provincial CCC 47 please contact us at: Regional Top 10’s 24 Tournaments 48 [email protected] Top Girls 28 CMA Meeting 48 Combo Mombo 29 Who’s The Goof? 49 See you Mate in 1 30 Ratings 50 on-line! Mate in 2 31 Solutions 51 4 Scholar’s Mate 113 Scholar’s Mate 113 5 HOW T O READ A CHESS GAME SSUUMMMMEERR It's easy. The board has 8 files 8 rhb1kgn4 and 8 ranks. Files are the rows CCHHEESSSS CCAAMMPPSS of squares that go up and down. 7 0p0pdp0p Each one is named by a small 6 wdwdwdwd letter. Ranks are rows that go TORONTO MONTREAL sideways. Each one is named 5 dwdw0wdw by a number. 4 wdwdPdwd July 3 - 6 June 26 - June 29 Every square also has a name. 3 dwdwdwdw The first part is its file and the July 16 - 20 August 20 - 24 2 P)P)w)P) second part is its rank. In this July 30 - August 3 Chess’n Math Building diagram, a white pawn moved 1 $NGQIBHR to e4 and a black pawn to e5. August 13 - 17 3423 St. Denis abcdefgh When moves are written down, August 27 - 31 Here are some special symbols: the first capital letter shows the July 9 - 13 piece which moves. Q is queen. + check Northern District Library B is bishop. R is rook. N is used # checkmate 40 Orchard View Blvd. Olympic Stadium for knight because the king is K. If there is no capital letter, that e. p. en passant means a pawn moves. O - O castles kingside OTTAWA Next is the square that the O - O - O castles queenside July 2 - 6 piece moves to. Bc4 says that a 1 - 0 white wins bishop moves to the square c4. 0 - 1 black wins July 16 - 20 When a piece is captured, an x ½ - ½ draw is put before the square. Qxf7 July 30 - August 3 means a queen takes on f7. ! excellent move August 13 - 17 If a pawn captures, the letter ? mistake of the file it starts on is given !? cool move Parkdale Church first, then an x followed by the ?! weird (weak) move 429 Parkdale Ave square it takes on. exd5 says a pawn on the e-file captures on The game below is written in the square d5. algebraic notation. Kiril was OPEN TO AGES 5 - 14 When two pieces of the same new to chess and fell into an BEGINNERS to RATING 1500 kind can go to the same spot, old trap called Scholar’s Mate! FULL DAYS 9 am to 5 pm another letter is put after the ROCKY KIRIL piece to show what file it came HALF DAYS 9 am-1 pm or 1- 5 pm from. Rae1 tells us that a rook 1. e4 e5 groups divided by rating and age on the a-file moves to e1. 2. Qh5 d6 If the pieces that can move to 3. Bc4 Nf6 ? FOR MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION FEES the same spot are on the same 4. Qxf7 # file, then their rank number is CHESS’ N MATH ASSOCIATION added. N6e4 means the knight Oh no! Kiril got mated in just on the 6th rank moves to e4. four moves. That was no fun! 416 488-5506 514 845-8352 613 565-3663 6 Scholar’s Mate 113 Scholar’s Mate 113 7 oo AANNAADDIIAANN 22001122 CCHHAAMMPPIIOONNSS oo HHEESSSS 1 KEVIN LOW British Columbia oo 2 BENJAMIN LIN * Ontario HHAALLLLEENNGGEE 3 WILLIAM LAI * Quebec 4 JOSHUA DOKNJAS * British Columbia R E P O R T F R O M TH E O C E A N P L A Y G R O U N D 5 RICHARD CHEN Ontario The nationals finals of the 24th annual Canadian Chess Challenge were held on Victoria Day weekend 6 JOSEPH BELLISSIMO Ontario at St. Mary’s University in Halifax. It was the first time 7 JOHN DOKNJAS * British Columbia the tournament was ever held in Nova Scotia. 8 ADAM DORRANCE ***** Nova Scotia The Nova Scotia Scholastic Chess Association did a 9 ZHAO YANG LUO Quebec very impressive job organizing the event. The playing hall was the best ever, with cushioned theatre style 10 TANRAJ SOHAL ****** British Columbia seating for the spectators. They even arranged for warm 11 NIKITA KRAIOUCHKINE **** Quebec sunny weather. 12 MICHAEL KLEINMAN *** Ontario There were lots of fun activities for the players and previous national champion their families on Friday and Saturday, including tours * of the city and a blitz tournament, which was won by Lefong Hua (Montreal). The opening banquet featured Quebec was back in great form this year, placing a entertainment by a magician who could read people’s very strong second, and taking home ten medals. They minds. That would be a useful skill for a chess player! lost their 8th round match against Ontario by the The chess competition began on Sunday morning. smallest of margins, 6½-5½. Oh so close! As usual, a bagpiper played as the teams marched British Columbia came third, led by 10th grader into the hall, carrying their provincial flags. After the Tanraj Sohal (Surrey), who won his grade for the national anthem, sung by Blaine Gallant (Halifax), the seventh time. That’s only one short of the record held first pawns marched forward. by Lefong Hua and Lloyd Mai (Ottawa). B.C defeated When the last king was toppled on Monday afternoon, longtime rival Alberta 7-5 in round 1, but lost in round Ontario had captured first place, winning all of their 6 to Quebec 6½-5½ and in round 9 to Ontario 8-4. matches and earning twelve medals, one in every The battle for fourth place was between Alberta and grade, including four gold. Manitoba. Alberta prevailed after winning their round 4 By the way, the prizes at the nationals are trophies, matchup 7-5. as you can see in the photo on page 11. We just talk New Brunswick got the prize for Top Atlantic Team, as if they are medals, like at the Olympics! winning on tiebreak by a half point over Nova Scotia. 8 Scholar’s Mate 113 Scholar’s Mate 113 9 match individual 2012 TEAMS ONTARIO 9 92½ QUEBEC 8 87 BRITISH COLUMBIA 7 73½ ALBERTA 6 66½ MANITOBA 5 58 NEW BRUNSWICK 3½ 42 NOVA SCOTIA 3½ 41½ NEWFOUNDLAND 2 35 SASKATCHEWAN 1 24½ PRINCE EDWARD IS. 0 19½ The Most Improved Team was Nova Scotia, who scored 17 more points than 2011. The only team that ever improved more was Nova Scotia in 1999 (+25½). Fifteen players went undefeated. Perfect 9-0’s were 2012 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS turned in by Nikita Kraiouchkine (Montreal) and Tanraj front: Joshua Doknjas, Richard Chen, Kevin Low, Benjamin Lin, Sohal.