Each week I will be looking at a player from our Chess @ 4 series. This will be the player of the week and it is possible to be Player of the Week more than once! To be considered for this position, all you need to do is score 15 points during the week in the Chess  @ 4 series on Tornelo. Chess @ 4 is a series of 5 round events that run Monday to Friday, starting at 4:00pm. Between the rounds there are interviews with players, analysis of games and positions, and chat about other chess related things.

Our Chess @ 4 events have 2 divisions, a Premier event and a Challengers event. These are both based on the ratings of the players. Anyone rated 800 or below plays in the Challengers while those above 800 play in the Premier. We have seen players improve through both events. For example, the Challengers used to be for players rated below 700, but because our players improved, their ratings went up and we didn't have many players below 700! In the past week the Challengers tournament has been very competitive but the outstanding player has been Michael Harding who has won two tournaments, finished second once, and finished sixth in the other. Michael is our player of the week!

Michael's rating was around the 500 mark for quite a while until he started playing Chess @ 4 events towards the end of May. Since then he has shot up to 769 and another winning performance might see him jump over 800! Michael likes to play risky attacking chess. He sometimes gets into bad positions in the opening, but his active style lets him fight his way back into the game.

Michael is White and in a tricky position. Black wants to do a Checkmate in 2 moves. Can you see what Black is planning? Michael played 1.Nb3 attacking Black's d4 bishop and discovering a queen trade and making the game even more complicated. The game continued until Michael was able to try the same trick again later, and this time it worked.

White to play and hit a discovered attack. Black didn't see the threat and Michael went on to win the game after being in a difficult position. See the finish here.

Michael fights hard to the end of the game. I have seem him finish off technical endings like king and rook vs king easily, and I also saw this nice endgame this week.
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Michael is White. See if you can find a winning plan for White. Funnily enough, in the game Michael didn't play the winning idea here, but did a bit later, although his opponent missed chances. See how the game went here.

I wonder how long before Michael is playing in the Premier section of Chess @ 4?

Endgames are the least studied part of the game by most players, and that makes playing them very difficult as we usually have little time left on the clock when we get to an endgame. So it's important to learn as much about endgames as possible so we can play the right plan almost automatically. Here are some good endgame ideas to follow:
- bring your king to the centre
- use your king to help your pawns promote OR to stop enemy pawns
- DON'T give up material
- pawns become more valuable in the endgame
- passed pawns need to advance as they become more dangerous the closer they get to promotion

Look at the following endgame that happened in Chess @ 4 last week. Who should be trying to win this position? What would be your plan to play this as White, or Black?

It is White to play. Try to work out some ideas before looking at what happened. The game can be seen here.

Each week I will be looking at a player from our Chess @ 4 series. This will be the player of the week and it is possible to be Player of the Week more than once! To be considered for this position, all you need to do is score 15 points during the week in the Chess  @ 4 series on Tornelo. Chess @ 4 is a series of 5 round events that run Monday to Friday, starting at 4:00pm. Between the rounds there are interviews with players, analysis of games and positions, and chat about other chess related things. 

​Our first Chess @ 4 winner is Michael Ooi who has been one of the regular players of Tornelo tournaments since they started in April. At the very first event, Chess @ Noon on 9th April 2020 Michael had a rating of 971. Since then he has played hundreds of games, and worked hard on his game. As a result, his rating has risen steadily up to 1352!

Michael plays different openings to most young players, preferring to push his c-pawn. As White he has been playing 1.c4, the English Opening, and as Black he likes 1.e4 c5, the Sicilian Defence. Both of these are strategic openings with less tricks and traps then the more popular 1.e4 e5 openings that a lot of kids play. Although Michael prefers strategic chess, he is very good at tactics too

Here Michael was White and he found a tactical way to create a checkmate. See if you can find what Michael played!

Michael has been one of the biggest improvers from our Tornelo tournaments. He still needs to work on parts of his game that will hopefully take him up to the next level. ​These are things that all players need to think about, and each week I'll be picking one game from our Player of the Week to highlight areas for improvement.

As well as being the star player from our Chess @ 4 series, Michael also won last week's Chess @ Noon  tournament on Saturday. This is a free tournament that any junior can join and is divided into 3 sections based on ratings. Michael won the top rated section that had 32 players and the lowest rated player had to be over 800. Michael scored 6/7 winning 5 and drawing 2 games, a great unbeaten effort. On the whole he played excellent chess, but his most difficult game was one of the draws, and that is the game I've analysed. Here are some key points in this game:

Michael as White won some material, first a pawn and then a knight for rook. It is White to move here and Michael followed the rule that when ahead, trade pieces by playing 19.Bxf6. But this wasn't the best move because White's dark squared bishop is a really good piece. We shouldn't trade if it leaves our position worse than it was before the trade!

Black has just played 33..a6 attacking White's knight. So White wants to move the knight, but Michael saw that if he moves his knight, then Black traps his queen with 34..Bd4. There was a way to move the knight and stay material ahead!

Endings are difficult, but there are some general guidelines that can help us. One of these is to bring the king to the centre. Michael played 49.Rb1 here to defend against Black's pawns, but the rook is a good defender from behind the pawns, so it's already in the right place. The best move was 49.Kd3 when White's king defends against the central pawns which means Black's rook only really needs to worry about the h-pawn.

Michael finds himself a bishop for pawn down, but he doesn't panic and with hardly anytime left on his clock saves the game. What is the best move for White here?

The game is fully analysed here, where you can find the answers to the questions I've set and also see more ideas from the game.

July 20th is International Chess Day, so a great excuse to play chess, teach chess, study chess, and....everything chess!

The reason we celebrate International Chess Day on July 20th is because that was the day in 1924 when the World Chess Federation, FIDE, was founded.

What chessy things will you be doing for International Chess Day?