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Hi all, stumbled across these well done handouts that drill basic tactics. Similar (perhaps lifted from) Bain's excellent "Chess Tactics for Students." Clear diagrams, copyright free, copy machine size. No answer key, however. https://srilankachessnews.blogspot.com/p/free-chess-tactics-puzzles.html

A fellow chess club advisor sent me info on an international online tournament for high schools worldwide that's coming up. It's free and it'll be held on Chess24.com. Alas, only ten schools per country will be accepted. Must apply by March 31. More info at the Chess24 press release (with video), the official website, and the Dossier with all the details (PDF).

Q: You find an article here at the SCT Lounge that you'd like your students to see. Your team has a Chess.com club already set up. How do you transfer the article, including diagrams, to your club's forum? A: For the main text, copy and paste it like you would any article. But the Chess.com game readers have to be manually inserted into the text of your club's forum post. For those, use the "share" icon at the lower left of the game or puzzle you wish to transfer.

From MooseMouse, for use in scholastic clubs, feel free to share. Learn from the GOATs Many of the Greatest Chessplayers Of All Time played in New York 1924, considered to be one of the strongest tournaments ever, with three world champions topping a ridiculously strong field. Expert Steve Lopez has graciously taken all 110 games of this tournament and explained them for us in terms that ordinary beginning chessplayers like you and me can understand and learn from. There are different ways you can benefit from this treasure trove of wisdom: You could just hit the autoplay button and catch the flow of entire games in a minute. You can click through the game quickly, and make observations, like: Do masters actually castle most of the time? How did one side win or lose material? If it's an endgame, does the side with the more active king usually win? If it's a draw, how was it reached? You can just play through the move at a normal pace, reading and learning from Steve's notes. You can play "Guess the Move." Pick a player and take time to try to guess their every move. Then after you see the actual move played, read the notes and learn why they did or didn't make the move you selected. Famous chess coach NM Dan Heisman recommends all of the above methods. He also gives three basic premises: "The more master level games you play over, the more you intuit how masters play chess. "The more text annotations you read, the more information about chess you receive. "The more times you play over the same game, you get diminishing returns on what you learn on each replay." So pull up a chair, relax, enjoy and learn from the GOATs! Who won? See the Wikipedia article on New York 1924.

From MooseMouse, for use in your scholastic clubs, feel free to share. PLAY GAMBITS - WHY AND HOW Hi, Coach Kaech here. Remember the Opening Game? The winner of the Opening Game is the first player to complete their development (connect rooks and activate a rook) without losing material. It should be your aim every game to get your pieces quickly onto active squares. WHAT IS A GAMBIT?A gambit is an opening where you're willing to give up a pawn or more to get your pieces out 1) even faster and 2) to more effective squares. For the price of a pawn (or sometimes more), you will open lines for your pieces and complete development quicker than your opponent, often while generating immediate attacking pressure. WHY PLAY GAMBITS? From "Gambiteer I" by GM Nigel Davies: "Having examined literally thousands of club player' games over the years, I have noticed several things: The player with the more active pieces tends to win. A pawn is rarely a decisive advantage. Nobody knows much theory. When faced with aggressive play, the usual reaction is to cower. "Accordingly I suggest that a different approach to that used by the 'big boys' and their opening science is in order. Activity is the key, pawns don't matter too much, and if you play something your opponent hasn't seen before he's likely to respond very passively. Therefore I suggest that gambits represent an excellent practical proposition to any club player with a decent eye for tactics." From "Openings for Amateurs" by Pete Tamburro: "At scholastic levels, gambits happen a lot. Why? Players have learned that, if you study a gambit, a good many scholastic or average players have no idea how to meet it. What happens is that the gambiteer often gets a great position and a win because the game is decided in the first few moves." "If you'e a scholastic player, you have a good chance of doing well with a King's Gambit, Max Lange Attack, Goring Gambit, Vienna Gambit, Boden Gambit or Danish Gambit. I know this because I taught this to my scholastic team of recent years and they ended up in the New York Metro Chess League championships seven years in a row, winning four of those times. Each year, I would change the gambit in case our opponents studied up." You don't see grandmasters play many gambits anymore because 1) they can research their opponents' favorite openings in advance, and 2) their opponents are excellent defenders. Compare that to scholastic chess -- you can't research what your opponent is playing ahead of time, and we're all normal chessplayers, not masters. Another reason to play gambits is -- they're fun! PLAYING A GAMBIT -- GUIDELINESIf you're giving up a pawn for rapid development and piece activity, great. Remember, every move counts. Get all of your pieces into the game, rapidly. Make sure you win the opening, that's why you've spent a pawn. You'll have the advantage of pressure and the initiative in the opening and middle game. But the endgame will not be friendly if you're down a pawn. So avoid unnecessary exchanges (until after you've won material!) HOW TO PLAY AGAINST GAMBITS From "Openings for Amateurs" by Pete Tamburro: "There's confusion about how to handle gambits. I say you should choose whatever makes you feel most comfortable. If you're one of those players who wants to take the pawn and hold it right to the endgame because you feel good about being able to defend, then by all means do that. If you want to turn the tables on the would-be attacker with a countergambit, then go for it! "In order to figure out what to do against a gambit, you have to understand what they are trying to do. Different gambits have different reasons for being played, but they pretty much fall into these categories: To gain control of the center To speed up development To try and hit an opponent's weakness To be tricky, in an attempt to catch their opponent sleeping To stick an advanced pawn in the other fellow's position To play a positional sacrifice for pressure "In the open games (1.e4 e5), here's some good advice to keep in mind when you're thinking about meeting gambits. Aggressively develop your pieces Look for a well-timed ...d5 as a freeing move Try not to abandon the center to your opponent Always have castling on your mind You can accept a gambit, decline a gambit, or sometimes accept it with the idea of giving the pawn back right away if it helps your position" So go find a YouTube video on an interesting gambit, learn it and have fun!

Posted from MooseMouse, for use in your scholastic clubs, feel free to share. Meet the Blackburne Gambit. It's a trap that you'll see now and then. Rick Kennedy says "From my students' experience, it works well up to the 1400 level". In this article, we'll see how it works, and how to SMASH anyone who tries it against you. Hey, didn't Black just unprotect his e-pawn? Hey, can't I take it with my knight and have a great attack against f7? This is the trap. Josh Waitzkin describes in detail in his book "Attacking Chess" how he fell for this trap in the last round of the National Elementary Championships, even though his coach had shown it to him earlier! It's oh so tempting. The only problem is, after 4.Nxe5? Black has 4...Qg5! I've seen three tournament games end in the following fashion. (Watch the footnotes to each move.) There are other lines, but you get the idea. So, don't fall for it. Don't take the e-pawn on Move 4. An article in the March 2011 "Chess Life" magazine give you two ways to refute this trap, a solid way, and a shocking way. Vincent Moret in his book "My First Opening Repertoire for White" shows a third way. Thrill seekers will go for the shocking way. No one will ever play the Blackburne Gambit against you twice! First, here's the solid way to bust the gambit. Almost any move except 4.Nxd4 will give White a good game with a large lead in development, but GM de Firmian in MCO recommends this method, which contains a cool trap as well (click on the subvariation to see the trap): Now here's the shocking way to bust the Blackburne Gambit. Play it with gusto and give your opponent's adrenaline glands a workout! (And yours, as well!) And for the third way, here's what a young Vincent Moret learned when he tried the trap in his first rated tournament. His expert opponent let him think he fell into the trap. How cruel! After Move 9, you have two pawns for a knight, a great attack, the entire center, and Black's king is stuck in the middle. (And the computer Rybka says you're better!) Have fun! -Coach Kaech