Rook Exercises
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CANADA'S CHESS MAGAZINE FOR KIDS June 2020 number 148 BEHIND CASTLE DOORS HOW DO YOU ZOO? ROOK EXERCISES SSCCHHOOLLAARR’’SS MMAATTEE HEllo, Chess Pals! Canada’s Chess Magazine For Kids On-line and free! The Chess’n Math Association publishes Scholar’s Mate four times per year as a PDF document. You can read the “e-magazine” on your computer screen or print it out. The magazine can also be viewed in DNL format, with pages that actually turn! A free DNL Reader can be downloaded from the CMA website. www.chess-math.org If you have any questions about the magazine, please contact us at: [email protected] Strange days have found us. We hope that you are all doing well. SCHOLAR’S MATE 3423 St. Denis #400 Scholar’s Mate is still rolling down the highway, Montreal, Quebec H2X 3L2 safe and sound on your computer screen. That’s one great thing about chess. It’s perfectly suited EDITOR Jeff Coakley for the internet. Illustrator Antoine Duff Good news for Canadian kids. The Chess’n Math photo, page 34 Jennifer Campbell lyric, page 31 Paul Simon Association is now holding tournaments, classes, Scholar's Mate is published four times per year by the and camps online. Check out the announcements Chess’n Math Association. Dates of issue : September 15, on pages 4, 42, and 43. December 15, March 15, June 15 Here’s the mag. Reproduction by any means, mechanical or electronic, is forbidden except by permission of Scholar's Mate. Kiril June 2020 (date of issue) 2 Scholar’s Mate 148 Scholar’s Mate 148 3 Chess’n Math Association SCHOLAR'S MATE JUNE 2020 #148 VIRTUAL CHESS CAMPS CONTENTSCONTENTS New ONLINE Camp Every Week from June 22 to August 21 ROOK EXERCISES 6 OPEN TO STUDENTS AGE 5 - 14 Kiril’s Klass Improving Your Endgame from BEGINNERS to RATING 1500 Activities include lessons, practice games, group CHESS WORLD ON HOLD 16 combats, surprise simultaneous games, and more! Canada And World News Tournaments Cancelled TORONTO MONTREAL HOW DO YOU ZOO? 24 based based Kiril's Korner Options Options Orangutan vs.Giraffe 5 days (Monday to Friday) 5 days (Monday to Friday) 11 am to 1 pm 10 am to 12:15 pm or 2 pm to 4 pm or 1 pm to 3:15 pm Virtual Camps 4 Animal Facts 32 2 days per week You Are Here! 5 Maze & Loyd 34 Tuesday/Thursday 11 -1 Mort & Marley 11 Regional Top 10’s 36 or Tuesday/Thursday 2 - 4 or Wednesday/Friday 11 -1 Canada Top Ten 12 Ratings 40 or Wednesday/Friday 2 - 4 Tactics 102 13 Top Girls 41 Master Profile 14 Online Classes 42 FOR INFORMATION ON FEES Combo Mombo 15 Tournaments 43 AND REGISTRATION News 16 Top Canada K-6 43 Visit www.chess-math.org or call us at: Mates 18 Links & Contacts 44 Toronto 416 486-3395 Kiril’s Address 20 Chess Notation 46 Montreal 514 845-8352 Lily’s Puzzler 21 Solutions 47 CHESS’ N MATH ASSOCIATION Kiril’s Kontest 22 Back Cover 48 4 Scholar’s Mate 148 Scholar’s Mate 148 5 ROOKS vs. PAWNS w________w KIRIL’S árdwdwdw4] KLASS ROOK àdwdwdwdw] EXERCISES ßwdwdwdwd] Þdwdwdwdw] Ýwdwdwdwd] Üdwdwdwdw] ÛP)P)P)P)] This lesson looks at ways to practice rook endgames. Údwdwdwdw] wÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈw This basic practice game is a battle between two mighty One way to get better at chess is to play practice games. rooks and eight passed pawns. There are no kings. It is But you don’t have to start with all of the pieces on the the only exercise with special rules. The others are all board. There are many exercises with fewer pieces that played like normal games. can improve your skills. And guess what? They’re fun! RULES In this class, we present five exercises for practising 1. White wins if a pawn reaches the last rank safely. with rooks. Rook endings are the most common kind of 2. Black wins by capturing all of the pawns. endgame. That’s because rooks are often the last pieces 3. White makes the first two moves. to be developed and traded. Being good at rook endings (Some people like a3 and h3; others e4 and d4.) is a useful skill that takes time to learn. It’s best to do the exercises with a stronger player, or Play this exercise from both sides. Eventually you will at least somebody as good as you. If you have trouble find that the rooks have the advantage. If you want to finding an opponent, you can also do most of them on a make it tougher on the rooks, change the rules so that computer. Programs usually have a feature that lets you White wins by getting a pawn to the last rank, even if it set up positions. can be captured immediately. Or, to make it tougher on the pawns, change the rules so that White only has one move on their first turn. 6 Scholar’s Mate 148 Scholar’s Mate 148 7 ROOK + 2 PAWNS vs. ROOK ROOK GAME w________w w________w áwdw4kdwd] árdwdkdw4] àdwdwdwdw] à0p0p0p0p] ßwdwdwdwd] ßwdwdwdwd] Þdwdwdwdw] Þdwdwdwdw] Ýwdwdwdwd] Ýwdwdwdwd] Üdwdwdwdw] Üdwdwdwdw] Ûwdw)Pdwd] ÛP)P)P)P)] ÚdwdRIwdw] Ú$wdwIwdR] wÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈw wÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈw Winning this game with White is harder than it looks. This game is the all-purpose exercise for rook endings. The white king and pawns must advance together and The “opening play” is a little strange, but usually after not let the black king set up a blockade. The rooks work about 10 moves, a normal “game-like” position arises. better at a distance: White’s from the side (on the a-file Then the real practice begins. or h-file), and Black’s from behind the pawns (on the 1st The main strategic principle in rook endings is rook rank). Losing a pawn usually means a draw. activity. We want our rooks to be active (free to move and attack), and the opponent’s rooks to be passive ROOK + 4 PAWNS vs. ROOK + 3 PAWNS (stuck guarding pawns). w________w Sometimes king safety is a factor, especially if a king is áwdw4kdwd] trapped along its back rank. But often an active king is àdwdp0pdw] an advantage. For example, when he can help support ßwdwdwdwd] the advance of a passed pawn. Þdwdwdwdw] Ýwdwdwdwd] Üdwdwdwdw] ÛwdP)P)wd] ÚdwdRIwdw] wÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈw Play this game from both sides. As White, your goal is to win. As Black, not to lose. Neither side is easy. White aims for a winning Lucena position, and Black for the Philidor draw. See our classes in Scholar’s Mate issues 122 and 123. 8 Scholar’s Mate 148 Scholar’s Mate 148 9 EX GAMES w________w w________w áwdbdkdw4] áwhwdkdw4] à0p0p0p0p] à0p0p0p0p] MMOORRTT and MMAARRLLEEYY ßwdwdwdwd] ßwdwdwdwd] Þdwdwdwdw] Þdwdwdwdw] Ýwdwdwdwd] Ýwdwdwdwd] Üdwdwdwdw] Üdwdwdwdw] ÛP)P)P)P)] ÛP)P)P)P)] Ú$wdwIwdR] Ú$wdwIwdR] wÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈw wÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈw When we are “up the exchange” (R vs. B or R vs. N), we are ahead in material. But it is the quality of the pieces, not the quantity, that gives us an advantage. The way to show the superiority of a rook over a minor piece is to open the position as much as possible. The more open the board becomes, the stronger the rook gets. A bishop also benefits when a game opens up, but not as much as a rook. So when you are ahead by “the ex”, the correct strategy is the same whether your opponent has Hey, Mort. It’s great to have an ape a bishop or knight. Open the position. This is achieved by for a friend, eh? means of trading pawns. Yea, and he’s really good at chess too. The defender should play to keep things closed and to hold their share of the centre. In general, the minor Did you know that the DNA for orangutans piece can deal with one open file, but two open files are and humans is 97 per cent the same ? a problem. Wow, so how can we tell them apart? A standard way to win when Well, long orange hair is one difference. you are ahead the exchange is to give back the rook for a minor But what about us, Marley? Are chess piece and pawn to simplify into pieces also like human beings? a won pawn ending. I don’t think so, Mort. Our DNA is more By the way, castling is allowed closely related to lego people. in these rook games. That’s it for this class. Happy Cool, some of my best friends are legos! endings, everybody! 10 Scholar’s Mate 148 Scholar’s Mate 148 11 l c a n a d a to p ten l TACTICS 102 KINDERGARTEN GRADE 7 TACTICS 102 1 CHEN Yu Xuan 1100 QC 1 CHEN Max 2370 ON 2 RONDON MORA Raul 769 QC 2 ZHENG Richard 2272 QC “WIN A PAWN!” 3 PAN Julian 660 ON 3 ZHAO Jeffrey 2180 ON 4 ZHU Edison 645 ON 4 ZHANG Chu Hang 2158 QC White to play and win material. 5 DEMOTTE Kamil 579 QC 5 LIU Henry 2056 ON 6 WEI Lucas 564 QC 6 AJITH Aayush 2044 ON solutions page 47 7 XIE Harry 555 BC 7 SRINIVASAN Hemant 1988 AB 8 MUTYALAPATI Modith 552 ON 8 HUANG Youhe 1972 ON 9 NOOKALA Abhiroop 516 BC 9 SHARMA Vishruth 1962 ON 10 PALANDE Sahil 496 BC 10 WANG Rachel 1839 QC GRADE 1 GRADE 8 1 PERLA Manny 1030 AB 1 RUSONIK Max 2278 ON 2 ZHANG Steven 965 BC 2 ISSANI Nameer 2271 ON w________w w________w 3 CERICOV David 944 QC 3 KANG Dorian 2267 ON 4 KATS Daniel 884 ON 4 WANG Paul 2074 AB 5 YAO Mike 868 ON 5 BUI Alan 2074 ON áw4wdw4kd] árdwdkdw4] 6 LOW Ethan 841 BC 6 GAO Raymond 2044 ON 7 DEGG Micah 813 AB 7 NOOR ALI Aahil 1997 ON 8 ZHANG Michelle 809 NS 8 CRACIUN David 1813 QC àdRdwdp0w] àdp0ndp0w] 9 WANG Lucas 791 QC 9 WINDRAM James 1747 AB 10 ZHANG Bryan 785 MB 10 TSUKERMAN Julia 1737 QC ßpdwdwdw0] ßwdwdwdw0] GRADE 2 GRADE 9 1 NAIBOGLU Onur 1250 ON 1 HUANG Qiuyu 2475 QC 2 WU Nicholas 1195 BC 2 TANAKA Tyler 2357 QC Þdwdw0wdw] Þ0wdw0wdw] 3 TSO Justin 1194 ON 3 HUANG Patrick 2256 BC 4 JUTRAS Arnaud 1180 QC 4 DOKNJAS Neil 2218 BC Ýw)wdPdwd] ÝwdBdPdwd] 5 GAO Heye 1125 ON 5 TIAN Sherry 2112 BC 6 IVANOV-YUAN Maksim 1119 QC 6 MAO Fengxi 2093 ON 7 MARCHAND Calix 1103 NS 7 RICHARD Leo 2085 QC Ü)wdwdwdP] Üdw)wdwdP] 8 AJITH Aarush 1094 ON 8 WU Tony 2068 QC 9 JOHNSON Joshua 1084 AB 9 ENGLAND Max 2050 ON 10 HUANG Justin 1075 ON 10 ZHAO Jeffrey 2044 ON ÛwdwdwdPI] ÛP)wdw)Pd] GRADE 3 GRADE 10