PLAYERS FOR JUNE 24 MATCH

Calling all Thomson Chess Club members  rated 1400 and above..

We are playing a 11 board match against BullDogs Team and would like to gather as many as possible. Naturally we would want to field a decently strong team to match their average rating of 1600.

Please email me soonest at johnwongfk63@gmail.com.

Thanks!

MATCH INSTEAD OF LECTURE IN JUNE

For June, we decide to take a break from the lecture series and instead, Thomson Chess Club is organising a friendly match with the BullDogs Team at our Club!

The BullDogs Team is made up of Filipino expatriates who are crazy about chess and mind you, they are strong and often finish highly in our local tournaments. My task is to rope in as many that they can muster.

Format of the match shall be 2 games of 15 min with 10 sec increment.  We shall do a blitz one sometime later.

Members who are interested to play please email me. The date is tentatively set at 24 June.

LECTURE ON CAPABLANCA MAY 27

The coming lecture by Bradley will be focused on the 3rd World Champion, Jose Raul Capablanca

He is Cuban, learnt chess at a young age by watching his father play. One day while his father was playing, he could even tell him that  an illegal move was made with the Knight. Mark of a genius.

We start 8pm this Friday at the Club, please come early to take your seats.

THOMSON CHESS FIESTA 28 29 MAY

The entry forms are available on the SCF Website.

CLOSED TILL MAY 27

Please note that the Thomson Club sessions will be suspended till May 27. We shall resume with the lecture on World Champion Jose R Capablanca then.

LECTURE ON LASKER APRIL 22

 The next World Champion featured will be the 2nd, Emmanuel Lasker

Emmanuel  M Lasker hails from a chess-playing family, his brother Berthold is also a master. He holds the title for the longest period of 27 years (1894-1921) and has battled the likes of Janowski, Marshall, Tarrasch and Schlechter before bowing out to J R Capablanca. 

He taught the world to play chess in his famous work " Lasker's Manual of Chess"

by expounding Steinitz's theories in great detail.

Bradley will be at the Club 22 April Friday at 8pm to say more about this great champion. Please reply via whatsapp or email me if you wish to reserve places.

TURNOUT AT STEINITZ LECTURE 18 MARCH

All present get to review the game Steinitz - Sellman which was a classic positional game expounding many of Steinitz's theories on the accumulation of small advantages as listed below:

1. Keep connected pawns

2. Create backward pawns in opponent's wing (medium weakness for opponent)

3. Create doubled pawns in opponent's wing

4. Isolate the  opponent's   pawns

5. Keeping our majority of queen side pawns to create remote passed pawn advantage in the end

6. Weakening of the pawns especially in front of the opponent's king

7. Create secure advanced posts and posting pieces there

8. Control of open files

9. Play in the centre

10. Advance the queen-side pawn-chain to cramp the enemy

11. Keep the Bishop Pair advantage with you and devoid your opponent from this
advantage if possible (exchange his one bishop with your knight)

12. Avoiding all such weaknesses in our camp (unless serious material loss is threatened) and create positional strengths

Steinitz has also expounded principles of conducting the game shown below, as listed in his writings in the Modern Chess Instructor:
1-At the beginning of the game, the forces stand in equilibrium.

2-Correct play on both sides maintains the equilibrium and leads to a drawn game.

3-Therefore, a player can only win as a result of an error made by the opponent (there is no such thing as a winning move).

4-As long as equilibrium is maintained, an attack, no matter how skillfully executed, cannot succeed against correct defense. Such a defense will necessitate the withdrawal and regrouping of the attacking pieces and the attacker will inevitably suffer disadvantage.

5-Therefore, a player should not attack until he already has an advantage, caused by the opponent’s error. That justifies the decision to attack.

6-At the beginning of the game a player should not seek to attack, instead a player should seek to disturb the equilibrium in his favor by inducing the opponent to make an error-a necessity before attacking.

7-When a sufficient advantage has been obtained, a player must attack tany weakness created or the advantage will be dissipated

Thanks to Bradley for having done a fantastic job in teaching the class these principles!