Exeter Juniors 2½-1½ Seaton

ByDrDave

Our first win! Even without the point from ‘super-sub’ Ray Shepherd, we had a draw in the bank, and that would have been a good result too.

So, well done all round. In both other games there was a big chance for our side early on – so make sure you think right from the start, don’t ‘warm up’ during the game!

{A bit of a tired performance by White: Black picked up pawns every few moves
and went into an endgame four pawns ahead. There were a couple of chances to
hit back, and the one on move 8 might have given a very different result.
Look at every check and every capture, every move!}

3. d4 is the move most likely to cause problems. Have a look at this page:
http://exeterchessclub.org.uk/content/lessons-philidors-defence

{Black never really got going and eventually forgot about a threatened piece;
White actually had a chance to win a piece on move 6!}

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  • Said the Elephant to the Bishop…

    ByDrDave


    “What’s this piece called?”
    “A Bishop.”
    “What is it in Spanish, Sophie?”
    “Alfil”
    “And in French, Agathe?”
    “Fou!”

    Therein lies a story…

    The old Arab form of chess had a piece called the elephant, which, unlike most elephants I know, could jump two squares at a time, diagonally. And ‘al-fil’ means the Elephant in Arabic (Pil in Persian).

    But if you have a lump of stone, or wood, and you want to show that it is an elephant, you might carve two curving lines on it for tusks, or make two points on it to show the same.

    And if you then showed it to someone from England, you might hear them say, what’s that, a Bishop’s hat?

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Mitre_evolution.gif

    And if you showed it to someone from France, you might hear them say, what’s that, a hat for a jester, the court fool?

    http://a401.idata.over-blog.com/0/26/53/98/logos/eeg.jpg

    Here Bruno Fauditti has swapped a jester’s hat for a metal funnel:
    https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temp%C3%AAte_sur_l%27%C3%A9chiquier

    Now in modern Western chess, this piece doesn’t hop a little way, it can run right across the board. So the Germans adopted a different name for this piece, Läufer, the runner. There used to be played a version of chess in some parts of Germany which had both the old short-hopping Bishop, and the new long-running Currier, and that variant is called Courier Chess.

    http://www.chessvariants.com/historic.dir/courier.html

    There is a famous painting of some people playing this game:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courier_chess#/media/File:Lucas_van_Leyden…

    The Chinese form of chess still keeps the original piece with its original move; in fact, the name of the game, Xiang-Chi, means the Elephant Game.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangqi

  • Exeter Juniors 2-3 Torquay Boys’ Grammar School

    ByDrDave

    A well-fought match which could have gone either way, with lots of good ideas shown by the players. I think in most games the advantage changed hands a couple of times – exciting stuff!

    I’ve added the PGN file so you can play through the games and variations on your own computer.

  • |

    New season 2026/27

    ByDrDave

    8 Sept 2026

    I hope you all had a wonderful Summer.

    The first club night of the new chess season will be on Tuesday 8th Sept 2026, at our usual venue of the “DJ Room”, Heavitree Social Club, EX1 3BS.

    Membership fees of £15 will be due for this 2026-27 year from today; perhaps the easiest way for us both is to use this link:
    https://devonjuniorchess.co.uk/content/exeter-junior-chess-club-membership-fee
    Whatever PayPal try to persuade you, you don’t need a PayPal account to pay through PayPal.
    Instructions for BACS payments are also on that page.

    Looking forward to seeing you all again, and I hope you will not object if I notice you have grown.

    bw

    D

    P.S. I am busy trying to retire from work, which I hope to do some time in the New Year, after which I won’t be coming into the SHEU office in Exeter each week.  If there are any roles you could see yourself doing at the club, please let me know.

  • Our first match

    ByDrDave

    Our First Match

    Well, ouch! We lost four-nil, but I hope you thought that, however
    big and strong they were, they weren’t that much better than us, and
    they didn’t do anything very special to beat us. (Is that a good
    thing?)  But I was very pleased and proud with how well you
    played, how well you fought, and how well you concentrated.  It
    wouldn’t have needed much luck for us to come away with 2-2. 
    They’re just tall, that’s all…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di1-bB1w4wM

    In the end, we fell
    for a few simple tactics and there were a couple of chances that we
    missed, and that all comes with time and practice.
    The best books to start to practice spotting tactics are the blue one I
    wrote with Tim ([b]Chess Puzzles in One
    Move[/b]) and a yellow book by Tony Gillam, [b]Simple Chess Tactics[/b]. If you think
    those are too easy, try the website http://chess.emrald.net/

    These will help, but the main thing is to [b]think for both sides[/b]. There’s
    no point in spotting all the ideas for your side, but ignoring what
    your opponent can do to you.   Check each check and each
    capture on every move.

    Also, we do need some better openings to put pressure on our
    opponents. I have written a little guide that I think I’ve given to all
    the team players, but everyone can have a copy
    [url=/chessx/ftp/JuniorRepertoire.pdf]PDF[/url]
    if they like. The idea is
    to play the Scotch Gambit against 1…e5 and to go for IQP positions
    against everything else.

    [blockquote]
    “[em]There are no hopeless positions; there are only inferior positions
    that can be saved.

    There are no drawn positions; there are only equal ones in which you
    can play for a win.

    But at the same time, don’t forget that there is no such thing as a won
    position in which it is impossible to lose.[/em]”

    — Grigory SANAKOEV
    [blockquote]
    “[em]Playing safe is too dangerous[/em]” — Dr.Dave.

    Click on […] to see list

  • |

    Puzzle corner

    ByDrDave

    Mr.B was always very good at producing a puzzle for us each week. Today’s puzzle comes from Mr.Lees — many thanks!

    You’re Black, and you can checkmate White in two moves (you move, White moves, then you play checkmate).

    HINTS: select the text below the numbers

    1.

    [White doesn’t have many moves]

    2.

    [If you can play …Na6xBc7 it’s checkmate]

    3.

    [Can you force White to put their Bishop on c7? (yes!)]

    SOLUTION: reveal by clicking the [ > ] button.

  • Our Second Match

    ByDrDave

    Well, another rather lop-side score, but the games certainly weren’t
    lopsided.

    Click […] to see list