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So here is the position that I took a photo of my phone at the chess club tonight and spent ages on. The main line is the ACTUAL moves played in the game. Winning the exchange is a mistake for me, although it jumped out for me at first. The other lines are various variations that I considered at the time, and also for some the computer's top move. After winning the exchange I did not consider Qb4 as a defence. Interestingly the move Nd6 is not the most important move, it is whether you follow up Qg5+ with Nd6 or go for the exchange. Anyway be interesting to hear other members views on this. I certainly spent ages thinking about what move to make!

Well here is a game I just played, and won. I was black in this game. I would like some comments from white's point of view, as I know my opponent in real life and would like to help him get better at chess. Just for avoidance of doubt my opponent is not Max, William or Thomas. Nor was it John.

"The hardest thing in chess, is to win a won game," (Frank Marshall, USA, chess player, 1877-1944.) The quote is probably as true now, as it was back when he said it. Technique is the technical term used to use conventional methods to convert winning positions in a game, into a win. The most important one of these is to learn how to convert a large material advantage into a win. It is therefore one of the first things we do, and one of my favourite things to do with a junior at the chess club. With any juniors, I do not use the word technique, but I simply tell them to "play normally," i.e. I am not looking for you to do a fancy trick or something, just play normally and you will win, because the material advantage is such, that even if I play against you normally, I can not stop you from winning. This would also be true even if one of the juniors was playing against the current world champion. Consider the following position Many might think well what is the point of this? Equally though what is the point of getting into this position in the first place, if you then can not win from this position? Knowledge of forks, pins and skewers is important (and is also covered at the chess club) but if you can not win once you are up a queen, they are not of any real use! From the starting position shown there is no help given to any of the juniors with this. They are on their own, and they have to try and work out how to win on their own, just as they would in a real game. Meanwhile their opponent (me) is trying to be as awkward as possible, exactly as I would be in a real game. So a possible idea to win might be as follows It was really easy for him, and only took a few minutes. Moving onto the second part of this leads us to winning with an extra rook. Obviously this is more difficult. The plan with the queen is to simply fork two of the pawns winning one of them, eventually leading to a passed pawn. With the rook simply attacking the pawns does not work. It would have been easy for me to say at any stage "you need to exchange pawns." But simply giving him the answer does not really lead to long term improvement. Eventually he worked out that pawns had to be moved and then exchanged, on his own. The starting positions shown might not be realistic, but the concept used most certainly is. Every player at our chess club is capable of blundering a piece, so the skill of learning how to win, when you are up a large amount of material is important and that should help whilst playing matches. As Frank Marshall said it is the most difficult thing in chess to win, a won game. But hopefully the introduction of technique and practising this will make it easier.

Black to move. Something for our club members to think about because in this position although the game is even in material it is unbalanced both in terms of the pawn structures and the fact it is bishop v knight. What would be your long term plan from this position both for white and for black.

If you are interested, we are open from 7:30pm, every Tuesday evening of the year (except Christmas week). Feel free to drop in and pay us a visit anytime. The club caters for all chess level players from beginners to the world champion. Postal Address: Brewood Chess Circle The Royal British Legion Club Shop Lane BrewoodStaffordshireST19 9EBTelephone Number: 07305258952Website Address: www.brewoodchess.webs.comContact Email: blowerd@hotmail.co.uk