Feel the buzz of junior chess
IT’S 4.45pm on Friday night. It’s getting dark, and it is cold and windy, with a bit of rain in the air. The traffic’s heavy, but not enough to prevent this early arrival at the junior chess club in Forest Hall. It is good to arrive early.
The junior club meets upstairs in a goodsized room. The room has not been used during the day and is cold. But the heating system is good and switched on it is soon blowing hot air into the room. There is another heater at the other end of the room but it is not needed as the warm air circulates.
Two of the children suffer from dust allergies but they are unaffected if they stay away from the blower. A chart has fallen off the wall and is reinstated. It has a chess puzzle on it, which is now replaced by a new one. These are cut out of a newspaper and show a position from a grandmaster game with a diagram and a question. “What moves did Black play to win the game?” A brief look at it acted as a reminder of the problem and its solution. It’s usually a good idea to know the answer before the children ask!
There will be two league matches later and probably 15 to 20 more people playing friendlies. So it is best to set up the match sets and boards for later and let the juniors use them in the meantime. They like playing with the match sets. They are collected from the store room and placed on a table. Boards, sets and clocks. Many of the children, initially, are not keen on using the clocks. Most of them play too quickly, anyway, but put a clock near them and they play even faster. “I was worried I would lose on time.” “But you had 30 minutes each on your clock and the game is over in 10 minutes’ total!” Some learn time management quickly. Others don’t. But that is true of some adults too.
It is 15 minutes before the start of the club, but the first children arrive. This timing is defined by the bus timetables and when cardriving parents get back from work. They immediately help with setting up boards and pieces. They are keen to get started. A quick check is held to make sure that this is being done correctly. When a player sits down to play there must be a white square at the right hand corner. “White to the right.” It is also easier to record the moves if the white pieces are on the ranks numbered one and two and the black on seven and eight. There’s usually at least one board the wrong way round but tonight they are all OK. A good sign of progress. There is an odd number of children so far. They pair up to play 15 minutes each in matches. The ‘odd’ one is set the task of solving the puzzle. Thirty seconds later he shouts across the room: “It’s black queen to g1 check, white knight takes g1 is forced, then black knight to f2 is mate.” He is correct and his speed in solving this problem is very encouraging. Another, harder one, is extracted from a file and he studies that. Soon one of the games comes to an end. A bad mistake in the opening has led to the loss of a black queen for a white knight. This would have usually have prompted a resignation in an adult game but rarely does with juniors. They usually want to play to the end. And this is good because they then learn the checkmate positions and sometimes too how to win with a serious material disadvantage.
The solution to the puzzle described above is a lesson in how to beat a grandmaster when a queen is down. Yes, there is a big difference between a well-calculated sacrifice and the loss of material by a blunder but it is something that has to be learned. What is the compensation for the material deficit? Clearly, check-mating your opponent next move is good.
The numbers have gradually swelled; 20-plus children aged five to 14 are playing. Two trainers are actively involved. For them it is interesting, exciting, frustrating, tiring, energising, inspiring and a lot more. It is also very worthwhile and rewarding. More helpers would make it easier and enable the children to improve faster, but it’s very successful as it is. Earlier in the week, two teenagers who came through this same programme a few years ago won the decisive games in a First Division match. Lots of others play less well but enjoy the game and get great rewards from it. They have learned or enhanced valuable transferable skills like sitting quietly, sustaining concentration, forward planning, good sportsmanship, and many more.
The development of this club has not always been a smooth upward curve. There have been some well intentioned initiatives and ideas that didn’t work but enough good ones to keep it on the right track. If you would like to be involved,or help to establish a junior club elsewhere email mikesmith41@yahoo.co.uk .
Basic training positions
In the puzzles above only the white rook can move. The black pawns do not move and cannot capture the white rook.