Term 1: Checkmate
Venue: Level 1, 667 Chapel Street, South Yarra, 3141, Victoria, Melbourne
Ages: 6-13
Term Fee: $0
If we treat checkmate as the goal, then we are learning to plan to achieve that specific goal. Chess helps us learn this key life skill to plan to achieve a desired outcome.
Date: Sunday, February 16, 2020
Session 1: Postponed/Cancelled due to the Coronavirus, click here to see some of Coronavirus tips and facts.
Date: Sunday, March 15, 2020
Session 1: Checkmate ends the game
Focus: Checkmate, attack, endgame
In order to win a game of chess, you must be able to deliver “checkmate”. As such, we will look at what a checkmate actually is and learn several basic endgame checkmates, as it is an essential skill to win a game of chess. Therefore, in this session we go over some important examples. King and queen and electric fence checkmates for newer players. Bishop & Knight and Queen vs Rook checkmates for more advanced players.
Date: Sunday, April 19, 2020
Session 2: Checkmate comes in many shapes and sizes
Focus: Checkmate patterns, attack, puzzle solving
Checkmates can occur at any time throughout the game, meaning that we need to be aware of the various ways checkmate can occur. Therefore, we will examine common mating patterns like the ‘Back-rank checkmate’ and ‘Arabian mate’, which can also occur at any time. We will do a lot of puzzle solving at various levels of difficulty, for the children to find the checkmate.
Date: Sunday, May 17, 2020
Session 3: How the attack happens
Focus: Checkmate analysis, attack, endgame
With a game analysis being the focus of this lesson, we will look at an example of an attack from start to finish (ie. Checkmate). By previously looking at checkmate as a concept, we will wrap up the term by seeing how a strong coherent attack leads to the various checkmating patterns we have previously looked at. This will involve a group discussion for the children to try and work out how they would have done the attack, and then compare that to how the game actually played out.
You will need to bring:
A water bottle to stay hydrated, snacks if you get peckish and any medication you require, such as an EpiPen or an asthma puffer.
About the coach: Anthony Hain (CM)
Anthony Hain has been a chess coach for over 10 years. He enjoys the mental challenge of mind games and puzzles, including playing chess blindfolded. In the 2015 Oceania Zonal Open Championship, Anthony received his Candidate Master FIDE title. Outside of chess his hobbies include squash & racquetball.
Here are some of Anthony’s achievements:
- 2015 Under 2200 rating prize winner at Doeberl Cup
- 2015 Candidate Master Title Achieved at the Sydney Oceania Zonal
- 2017 A Grade National Racquetball circuit champion
- 2017 A Grade Racquetball Australian Open Winner
- 2017 A Grade Racquetball Victorian Open Winner
- 2018 Top Cut Finalist at the Dragonball super card game national championships
Are you interested in our chess course? Register on our event page: https://youngsparks.net/events/
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