Story of Chess Playing Monkey

Every visitor wanted to play a game with first world champion Paul Morphy . So Morphy taught this monkey to to play with weaker players. Once an English player was playing chess with this monkey while Morphy was in an other room. Suddenly he heard  monkey screaming and rushed back to room. He saw that monkey was sitting on ceiling fan and was screaming. "What's the matter ", he asked the player. " I am really sorry ", said player "He check-mated me and I was so upset that I hit him in anger". "Please ask him to play another  game I promise not to touch him again", English man pleaded. Monkey was reluctant to play with him but agreed to play when Morphy offered him a banana. After some time Morphy again heard monkey's shout and saw that he was again hanging from fan. Morphy turned to other player. "I did not touch him and don't know what happened ", replied Englishman " after making his last move he started screaming for no reason". Morphy looked at the board and said "Oh, he saw this mate in three combination and was afraid you might hit him again".  

Youth Festival : Kenya

 Mrs Sandhya Deshpande from Kenya sent us some information and photographs about Kenya's national championship for youth. In under - 10 Girls category Sharanya Iyengar ( last year's U-8 champion ) won the title with 4.5/5 points. But last year's U-8 boy's champion Sumit could not retain first place and got only IV place. New champion is Ritvik. Sumit's elder sister Sanjana won a trophy in her category. Here we see young champions with their trophies.

 And in picture below Sanjna Deshpande with her trophy. In most cases ( but not always ) boy's champion is about 100-200 points stronger compared to girl's champion in their age group. But Sharanya is at least  300 points ahead of Ritvik in U-10. In fact Ritvik keeps his game very simple and does not lose his pieces easily as you can see in case of Sumit or other players of his age. But he needs to play much stronger if he wants to compete in international tournaments.  

Asian Youth Chess Festival - Philippines

Indian players who skipped World School Chess last month were present in full strength at Asian Youth Chess.They won 9 out of possible 18 medals in boys section including 4 golds. But in girls section their domination was complete. They won all 6 six gold medals ( in all 9 medals)!!
Boys 18 under --
1. D. Debashis (India); 2. G. Stany(India); 3. J. Vakhidov (Uzbekistan).

Boys 16 under
1. J. Garcia (Philippines); 2. N. Jabanbakht (Iran); 3. R. Sahoo(India).

Boys 14 under
1. K. Girish (India); 2. Y. Xu (China); 3. A. Azgarizadeh (Iran).

Boys 12 under
1. S. Lorpanizangeneh (Iran); 2. C. Aravindh (India); 3. J. Tin (Singapore).

Boys 10 under
1. B. Sankalph (India); 2. G. Mitrabah (India); 3. J. K. Rakesh (India).

Boys 8 under
1. A. Ram (India); 2. D. Gutierrez III (Philippines); 3. N. Abdulssatorov (Uzbekistan).

Girls 18 under
1. R. Pujari (India); 2. J. Fronda (Philippines); 3. A. Enkhtuul (Mongolia).

Girls 16 under
1. P. Nandhidhaa (India); 2. Y. Xiao (China); 3. C. Mejia (Philippines).

Girls 14 under
1. G. Monisha (India); 2. D. Derakhshani (Iran); 3. M. Mahalkshimi (India).

Girls 12 under
1. I. Furtado (India); 2. S. Revita (Philippines); 3. A. San Diego (Philippines).

Girls 10 under
1. R. Bidhar (India); 2. G. Tanini (India); 3. P. Bansi(India).

Girls 8 under
1. C. Lakshimi (India); 2. X. Bai (China); 3. D. Khamroeva (Kazakhstan).

Watch out for small young boy in first row Ram Arvind LN. He is going to be next youngest IM / GM.

World Schools Chess 2011

These championships in age group U-7 to U-17 were held in Poland from April 30 to May 8. In these festival players from East Europe and CIS countries participated in large numbers. But there were few entries from India, China, Vietnam and Iran and USA. Still competetion was tough as usual at that level.Hosts won Gold medals in U-13 Girls and both U-17 events, boys and girls.In U-7 girls category Assubayeva Kazakistan won with 9/9 points,in U-8 boys gold and silver were won by boys from Romania and Turkey. In U-9 girls Kazak girl won with 8.5/9 points.
If you look at older entries you can find a few articals about Kenya's U-8 girls champion Sharanya Iyengar. She played in U-9 girls and got 8th place with 5.5 points. It must be one of the best performance by an African chess player in any tournament at world level. This cute little girl has become a flag bearer of Kenya's chess team.
Here is her seventh round game.Move no 6 -In french white prefers Bd3 to attack king side.Move no-18 black should play Rxf6. Move no-20 black should play Qxc3.

Attack is best means of defence

Our member Bhavya Gupta (age 9+) played in Delhi State Under - 13(Girls) championship
and scored 3/5 point to finish at 9th position. In one of her games she blundered a piece early in opening. Then facing dangerous pin and likely loss of another piece went for attack in following position.

23...Bc5+ 24.Kh1 Bf2 25.Re2 Bxg3 26.Kg1 Bh2 27.Kf2 Rf3+ 28.Ke1 Bg3 29.Kd2 Rd3 30.Kc2 Ra3 31.Kd2 Ra1

And went on to win.Just see how position is transformed from first diagram to second.

Grandma Saved The Day

Our member Sumit S Deshpande wrote a poem for commonwealth poetry competition which he wants to share with others.

My Grandma takes us to Mall
And makes us to buy things
once for all.
She help us to buy things
at the best
So gets tired and takes rest.
We bought cakes, chocolates and
biscuits to eat.
And forgot to buy meat.
My sister bought lipsticks
and nail polish.
But forgot to buy shoe polish.
My father was at till
Ran out of cash to pay the bill.
My Grandma helped us
by paying balance money
And saved the day.
My Grandma is a Super Grandma.

Free Chess e-books

To prepare coaching material for our students we have collected several books in PDF format. We are willing to make them available to other chess players too. If you are interested you can contact us giving your area of interest like end-game, middle-game (tactics), middle-game(strategy), openings etc. Also if you indicate your present your chess standard then we will be able to select proper reading material for you.

Avoid Such Mistakes

I only publish games of young players but I am publishing one of my games played on playchess.com against a fairly good player so that children can avoid mistake made by my opponent. Game started with 1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Bc4 Ngf6 6.Neg5 e6 7.Qe2 . Look at the position after white's 7th move.White's knight is attacking f7 and Bc4 and Qe2 are attacking e6. Black should shut-out Bc4 by Nd5. Instead he played a very natural developing move 7...Be7 after which white simply finishes him off.

8.Nxf7 Kxf7 9.Qxe6 Kg6 10.Nh5 Kh6 11.d4+ g5 12.Nf5 Kg6 13.Qf7 Kxf5 14.Bd3+ Kg4 15.h3+ Kh4 16.g3 #
Question There are two better ways to finish game instead of 10.Nh5. Can you find them ?