This Week: Tata Steel and Faster Two-Move Checkmates

Dear Silverdale Chess Club Family  & Friends,

It’s my pleasure to announce a new Facebook page for the Silverdale Chess Club, produced

by our very own member, John Brandmair.  John is not only the father of our Facebook page but the father of the manager of one of largest chess clubs in the United States, the Columbia Chess Club in Columbia, South Carolina. 

The Silverdale Chess Club Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61571970053935  Do check it out and one be sure to “Follow,” “Friend”, “Like” and/or "Comment.”  And thank you, John B. for your great work!

This week, our "Two-Move Checkmate" contest will continue with a magnetic demo board. The previous demo board was not sufficiently “broken in,” so setting up the positions was difficult. We will be moving at greater speed this week with the magnetic demo board so put on your thinking caps.

We’ll also be checking out two major chess events. The Chess.com Puzzles Championship now underway is the first event of the 2025 Chess.com Community Championships and consists of two stages, Puzzle Rush Royale and Puzzle Battle Knockout, that take place over two days. Five-time champ Ray Robson will be looking to defend his title once again versus the world's speediest grandmasters!

The Tata Steel Chess Festival also starts this Saturday at Wijk aan Zee in The Netherlands. The top players competing in the Masters Section include the newly crowned world champion, Gukesh D., along with Fabio Caruana, Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Vincent Keymer, Wei Yi and Anish Giri among others.

See you on board!