Starting Chess 13 - Board Visualization Recap

More Games from the L1 Chess Tournament

Further from the first online Chess Tournament:

I am publishing here one game won by each of the participants and also lightly commenting on the games. These will also serve as excellent examples to learn from as we go into L2 class.

• Arin caught Akshay in a miniature after losing a rook

• Atharv dominated initially but blundered and Vedansh won

• And our little boy Atharv defeats the tournament winner 

Games from L1 Chess Tournament for my class

I conducted the first online chess tournament for my L1 chess class students on Sunday 24th May.

It was great fun and though everyone was playing online very recently and first time in a tournament, it went quite well and all participants played vigorously. It was held on LiChess 

A total of 15 participants from 3 countries (India, UAE, US) made this a memorable first tournament.

It was a Blitz tournament with 5mins and 5s increment on every move - fairly fast but not unbearably fast. A total time of 55 mins means on average, people played 5 games each. 

Srusthi played an amazing 9 games (!!) while Ashish played 7 games!

            Tournament Statistics

Games played    37

Moves played    2,200

White wins        38%

Black wins          59%

Draws                 3% 

 

The games were full of tactics and inevitable blunders. There were miniatures, long hard fought games, seesaw battles - every drama possible.

Srusthi	10 yrs	Goa	1st
SaiPranav	11 yrs	Goa	2nd
Madhura	12	Pune	3rd

 

Special Mention of young Atharv: at just 8 yrs, he is not only a keen student but also was a serious player in the tournament.

 

Here are some games for your enjoyment ..

1. Srusthi won a miniature against the runner up. 
   
2. Sai Pranav won against the winner. 
   
   
   
3. Madhura won a long game against Arin. 
   
   
   
4. Akshay won a seesaw game against Sachi. 
   
5. Ashish won against sachi. 
   
6. Sachi won against the winner Srusthi, after missing consecutive 5 mate-in-1s. 
   

Chess in the Time of Lockdowns

Friends,  these are strange times of lockdowns and home incarcerations. India went into one of the strictest lockdowns in the world from 25th Mar. 

And just as I was chatting with a friend from US (we share chess as a common interest right from college days), he suggested "why don't you start an online chess coaching during this period ?"

That caught my idea. At my age, I can no longer be competitive in chess but it is a passion and I have spent a good deal of time in researching on chess, especially on the right way to learn and train on chess.

I decided to put this together and went into a quick prep mode and created a set of material for introducing chess to someone who barely knows the rules of the game but wants to learn systematically. 

I circulated the idea on my close knit groups on whatsapp and very quickly, I got some 15-odd students interested in getting coached.

So, here am I. I am going to share the thoughts and ideas on learning chess and my suggested methods. 

-- Shivaji