Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

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David Blower
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Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by David Blower » Wed Apr 13, 2016 5:54 pm

Hello everyone. Me again!

It seems as though this summer Brewood will not be entering any kind of league. In order to fill up the weeks, and to promote the social side of the club, we have been looking at the possibility of perhaps having opening evenings (i.e. we go through an opening with various members and look at different things,) plus going through various tactical worksheets, (against the clock etc.) We may try and organise some sort of correspondence chess match against another club, (although this is not an invite for a formal friendly just yet.)

Has any member/club got any experience of organising this sort of thing. Do you get a guest speaker in, or is it ok to just have the members of the club discussing an opening etc. And which openings should we go for?

The obvious ones Ruy Lopez, Italian Opening, Four Knights, Queen's Gambit (both declined and accepted) the objective is to make it fun, but interesting, catering for those just learning the game, to those graded 165.

I'm aware this is a very vague post. I suppose what I don't want is a feeling: "we already know all of this," but I also don't want a feeling of "its too complicated for us to understand."

J T Melsom
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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by J T Melsom » Wed Apr 13, 2016 6:55 pm

David, interesting idea. My first thought would be to consider what openings members currently play, or have struggled with in the past season. Then look to build a session by running through illustrative games perhaps played by some of the stronger members, so there is a shared sense of ownership in the session. The obvious openings may not necessarily be the most relevant, or even the easiest for structuring a discussion, but you might have an enthusiastic French player with some interesting material, or a Benko enthusiast. With time for study at a premium I suspect people won't want too much detail, but will want to feel that they are learning about positions which have a fair chance of appearing on the board at their level of play.

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Joey Stewart
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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by Joey Stewart » Thu Apr 14, 2016 5:57 pm

In the clubs I have been involved in it can be quite hard to get people along during the summer, many see it as an off season time and don't want to do anything resembling competition.

It sounds like a bit of a good idea though, so good luck setting it up. One big but of advice I would suggest is to approach your club mates individually to ask them about it, this would give you a better idea as to what they would like and help you put on something that gets good attendance
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

Clive Blackburn

Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by Clive Blackburn » Fri Apr 15, 2016 8:23 am

Joey Stewart wrote:One big but of advice I would suggest is to approach your club mates individually to ask them about it, this would give you a better idea as to what they would like and help you put on something that gets good attendance
Yes and also raise it at the club AGM (it is getting to that time of year!)

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Fri Apr 15, 2016 9:20 am

We have tried this at several clubs where I have been a member. We asked club members to give a fairly light overview of an opening. You can explain general ideas and maybe have a sample game or two. Imagine the Sicilian though. "1.e4 c5. Well, at this stage, most people play Nf3, or d4, or c3, or Nc3 or f4, maybe a3 or b4, and sometimes d3 or g3 or Bc4, or even Qh5. Oh, and Ne2 usually transposes to Nf3 lines." So you can't be too specific.

Having a good player demonstrate a game is good, maybe one of his/her own, as the audience can identify better with the game and the player can explain thought processes. Get the audience involved by suggesting moves. This can degenerate into an argument between two strong players of course, or weaker players suggest a move, you point out it loses a piece and they insist on going ten moves down the line, until they eventually realise that they are busted - so it needs to be chaired properly. (You also can't say, "That loses a piece you idiot - any sensible suggestions?"

You could also have 10 minute (e.g.) games from set positions, like R+P vs R, or a few moves into an opening.

David Blower
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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by David Blower » Mon Apr 25, 2016 10:24 pm

Thanks for everyones responses so far.

Although we have yet to do some sort of prototype yet, to be more specific we are thinking about setting up positions from "marginally won endgames" in a monthly puzzle sheet.

30 minutes per player.

Points system:

Winning with advantage 1 point
Drawing with disadvantage 1 point
Winning with disadvantage 2 points.

Yet again I am aware this is a very vague post. But nevertheless are there any good SPECIFIC "marginally won endgames" to do? (Please post the positions in the forum, saying whose turn it is to move.) I will thank the forum in advance for their suggestions.

Mark Jordan
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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by Mark Jordan » Mon Apr 25, 2016 10:59 pm

David Blower wrote:Hello everyone. Me again!

It seems as though this summer Brewood will not be entering any kind of league. In order to fill up the weeks, and to promote the social side of the club, we have been looking at the possibility of perhaps having opening evenings (i.e. we go through an opening with various members and look at different things,) plus going through various tactical worksheets, (against the clock etc.) We may try and organise some sort of correspondence chess match against another club, (although this is not an invite for a formal friendly just yet.)

Has any member/club got any experience of organising this sort of thing. Do you get a guest speaker in, or is it ok to just have the members of the club discussing an opening etc. And which openings should we go for?

The obvious ones Ruy Lopez, Italian Opening, Four Knights, Queen's Gambit (both declined and accepted) the objective is to make it fun, but interesting, catering for those just learning the game, to those graded 165.

I'm aware this is a very vague post. I suppose what I don't want is a feeling: "we already know all of this," but I also don't want a feeling of "its too complicated for us to understand."
Seems like a good idea in principle and some of the suggestions here are well worth consideration. I'm interested to know how it turns out and whether it benefits the participants next season.

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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by Ian Thompson » Mon Apr 25, 2016 11:13 pm

David Blower wrote:But nevertheless are there any good SPECIFIC "marginally won endgames" to do?
You might find a few in Karsten Muller's ChessBase Endgames column.

Why not also have in your list of endgames to be played ones that are drawn with best play, but lost with slightly inaccurate play?

David Blower
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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by David Blower » Tue Apr 26, 2016 12:38 am



So this position will feature in next months club newsletter.

The starting position (and the moves played) occurred in one of my actual games against Matthew Clark from Telepost.

I was black in the game.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Tue Apr 26, 2016 12:49 am

Nalimov says: every move except 1...Rf1+ is a draw.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Apr 26, 2016 12:54 am

David Blower wrote: So this position will feature in next months club newsletter.
It's a simple enough draw provided white plays Rf7+. You might find inspiration from the Shredder endgame database http://www.shredderchess.com/online-che ... abase.html

A vaguely similar position even with white to move isn't a draw.


David Blower
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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by David Blower » Tue Apr 26, 2016 1:00 am

I suppose the question is, will any of our juniors find a way to blunder the draw for white, into a win for black. Or is this a bit too easy?

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Apr 26, 2016 1:08 am

David Blower wrote:I suppose the question is, will any of our juniors find a way to blunder the draw for white, into a win for black. Or is this a bit too easy?
The risk factor is that the King is on e1 rather than g1. You can check positions using Shredder as to whether they are drawn or lost and how many only moves are needed to draw or win. You won't know the ability of your juniors to solve these problems until you put them to the test.

Paul Dargan
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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by Paul Dargan » Tue Apr 26, 2016 1:53 am

One of the Dutch clubs i played at ran a Summer tournament from set positions. Basically there were 6 positions possible - 3 from e4 and 3 from d4. White chose their first move and then Black chose which of the 3 defences they wanted to play .. it was 26 years ago, but I seem to recall that d4 e6; c4 Bb4+; was one of the d4 positions and e4 e5; Nf3 Nc6; Bb5 g6; was one of the e4 positions. 3 rounds per night (20-25 mins per player per game), played over 3 weeks. Possible to take 1.5/3 point bye for one week. Swiss system I seem to recall (though we might have been split into all-play-all groups of 4 at the start of the night based on current score)

Some discussion of the psotions by club's top players in the 4th week.

Paul

Jonathan Bryant
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Re: Tactics evenings/exploring opening evenings etc

Post by Jonathan Bryant » Tue Apr 26, 2016 9:27 am

David Blower wrote:

So this position will feature in next months club newsletter.

The starting position (and the moves played) occurred in one of my actual games against Matthew Clark from Telepost.

I was black in the game.

What were the previous moves? Black’s problem is the pawn on the 6th rank means that there’s nowhere to hide from the checks. If you go back a bit, you might have a more interesting position.

If you’re going to do something like this, why not do actual theoretical R+p v R positions? Lucena and Philidor for starters. "basic knowledge" but not so trivial that they couldn’t both be messed up in a game from the British Championship tournament a couple of years back.

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