A quick prioritisation tool for chess

 (NB Shamelessly stolen from the original Eisenhower Matrix )

Start by thinking about the various skills involved with playing chess. The decide if you (a) Know/Don't know it and (b) it is important/not important

Then prioritise according to the following

Not important + Don't know - Ignore

Important + Don't Know - Learn

Not important + Know - Remember

Important + Know - Practice

The trick is moving these skill topics between categories. When you first start out, Checkmate with KQ or KR is important, so you firstly learn (Don't know -> know), and then practice. After a while you can shift this from Important to Not Important (mainly to make room for more important items), when you simply need to remember it.

This method becomes more effective if you attach it to a goal. 

Even more slightly weird kids rules

 This terms Interschool competition finished up yesterday in Canberra, and it gives me a chance to write yet another post on "rules kid's think are real". NB I have probably mentioned a few of these before

• You can castle to avoid checkmate - "Ummm, no" "Some people say you can" "OK, but I'm the arbiter and I'm telling you you can't castle out of check" "But some people say you can" (Added bonus - he changed the score on the result sheet to show he had won)
• Castling involves exchanging any two pieces on the back rank - To be fair, the player had never seen castling before and was attempting to copy what their opponent had just done
• You both get a point if the game is a draw - Because neither player lost :)
• You have to wait a move before replacing a pawn with the promoted piece - Actually this is a common belief, even if it is not a rule
• Pawns "save up" their double move if they don't use it immediately - I even thought this was a rule when I was 6
• You get less points if your opponent resigns rather than being checkmated - This would actually speed up a lot of school competitions

Time to ditch NAPLAN

 NAPLAN is a test the school kids in Australia have to do every 2nd year (odd numbered grades), and is supposed to measure whether schools are performing or not. In actuality the results are dependent upon the socio-economic level of the students, and are mainly used by parents and the media to 'rank' schools based on some imaginary scale. As you can guess, I really really, really hate NAPLAN. 

While abolishing all together is my preferred solution, I do offer an alternative. Replace NAPLAN with a nation wide interschool chess competition, divided into geographical zones. Results aren't necessarily based upon the scores in the tournament (although that is one factor), but instead on how many children from a school can follow basic tournament instructions and rules. Simple things like, remembering your own name, understanding that board 22 is after board 21, and my personal favourite, waiting for your opponent to turn up, instead of coming back to me and saying 'my opponent isn't there' while the opponent waits to tell you the same thing.

I feel this is a much fairer way of determining if a school is giving value for money in the field of education.

 

Major League Chess

 The current big event running at the moment is the Global Chess League, from Dubai. It is a cross between tradition team events, and T20 Cricket leagues, with teams not so much representing countries or regions, but represent franchises. The new league has 8 teams and has attracted most of the worlds top players. On the plus side it is actually being played in person (rather than online), although the G/15m+5s time limit is geared towards instant gratification rather than slow contemplation.

The most interesting feature is the scoring system - with a match win (over all 6 boards) earning a team 3 points, while drawn match is worth 1. However in the individual games a win for White is worth 3 points, but a win for Black is worth 4 (with 1 for a drawn game). So the effect is that in the case of a drawn match (in the traditional sense) the team with more Black wins, wins. 

Summer in Prague

 There are a few Australian's enjoying chess in the northern hemisphere summer. FM Albert Winkelman has just finished an event in Teplice before moving onto an event in Slovakia next month. Meanwhile FM Fred Litchfield is playing in Prague International Chess Festival (along with David Canon and Lillian Lu). This event has a couple of elite GM round robins plus a big open event. Litchfield started with a win in the first round, but is up against a 2400 rated IM in round 2.

 While all games were drawn in the top RR event, there was more excitement in the Challengers event, as the following game shows.

BARTEL,Mateusz (2609) - STALMACH,Richard (2436) [C02]
Prague International Chess Festival 2023 Hotel Don Giovanni Prague, Pra (2.5), 22.06.2023

Increasing levels of jerkitude?

 The diagram position is *not* from one of my games. However it is pretty close to the finish I played recently. The position of the pieces on the queenside are as played, but I have modified the kingside pawns for the purpose of making this post.

White to play and lose

In the real game I had basically calculated this ending position about 15 moves before. My opponent then resigned before I had a chance to queen the kingside pawns. But after the game there was a discussion about whether I should just get a boring queen, or the slightly more exciting rook. Then someone asked if I could get a bishop or even a knight. In the real game the answer was no (as a pawn was promoting on f1 or h1) but in this position Black can actually win with all 4 promotions. But to under-promote for the win may be taking it a little too far. So If I was to rank the promotions in terms of 'jerkitude' it would be (after 1.g4 gxf4 2.f5 g3 3.f6 g2 4.f7) 4 ... g1=N 5.f8=Q Ne2# at the top, followed by 4 ... g1=B 4.f8=Q Be3#, then 4 ... g1=R# with 4 ... g1=Q# being the least "jerk" move.

BTW this position does not appear to be original, as Chessbase said this position had been investigated 7 previous times in their online search database!

Near miss for Winkelman

 Young Canberran FM Albert Winkelman is currently playing in Europe, after a stop over in the Middle East. He has just finished playing in the Teplice pen in the Czech Republic, and fell just sort of his first IM norm. After 7 rounds he was in with a good chance (over 2450 PR) but a loss to GM Vlastimil Babula in round 8 left him needing a win over IM Audi Ameya in round 9.  Alas for Winkelman it was another loss, leaving him short of the required TPR. However it wasn't all bad news, as he did pick up 35 rating points, pushing him back towards his previous career peak of 2294.