Dr Dave dug out one of his favourite puzzles, which is actually two puzzles in one (White to play and checkmate Black quickly).
But Dave, which way are the Black pawns going?
It doesn’t matter! It’s mate in three either way.
SOLUTIONS (select below to reveal)
a. bottom left = a1 : 1.Bc6 bxc6 2.Kc8 c5 3.Nc7#
b. bottom left = h8:
1. Kc6 b8=Q 2.Nc7+ Qxc7+ 3. Kxc7#
or 1…b8=N+ 2.Kc7+ Nc6 3.Bxc6#
n the Clubs/Organisations competition as part of the UK Chess Challenge, Exeter Junior Chess Club came out as South-West region winners. Well done to them!
| South West | |||||
| Rank | School | Score | No. of Players | GF Qualifiers | TF Qualifiers |
| 1 | Exeter Junior Chess Club | 21 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | Bournemouth Junior Chess Club | 19 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | Downend & Fishponds Chess Club | 17.5 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 4 | Frome Chess Club | 14 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 5 | Musketeers Junior Chess Club | 10 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 6 | Pete’s Potentials Chess Club | 8.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | Wellington Chess Club | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 8 | Wotton Hall Chess Club | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | Moonrakers Chess club | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Ringwood Chess club | 5.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
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.
A tale of three discoveries: a discovered attack proved the winning move in all three games.
Unmasked threats – discovered attacks and discovered checks – are the
most difficult threats to spot. You pay attention to the piece that
moves, but the threat comes from the piece behind.
I’ve attached a discovered attack training page – get your eye in! In 2010, the Devon U14 team lost an awful lot of points (or a lot of awful points) to discovered attacks, and the puzzles are all things that they missed.
{Some over-cautious play by Black gave White some chances early on, but it
fizzled out. White decided to save a pawn … but lost a Knight instead!
White then attacked very well and won the Exchange, leaving the balance Rook
against two minor pieces – about equal. But then Black sprang a deadly
discovery to win.}
{White’s home-made system against the Dragon got into a bit of a muddle, and
once it started going wrong, White jumped from the frying pan to the fire to
the furnace…}
{In a line Black was unsure about, White got an advantage in space and
development, which was used to put pressure on the Queen’s-side. After a big
chance was missed by White, the game fizzled out into a standard French
better-for-Black endgame, and Black took the chances that came by.}
Welcome to Elliott
We had an unusual game where the Black King charged up the board to e1! This is called a ‘King march’ if the player chooses to do it, or a ‘King hunt’ if the King is chased there.
One of the most famous King hunts was this one:
Exeter Juniors 1-3 Exeter School 22nd May 2015
default 0-1 Leif HAFSTAD
Ethan HWANG 1-0 Henry COLEMAN
Felix WATTS 0-1 Redmond COLEMAN
Ned RICHARDS 0-1 Nick ARMSTRONG
In a close match, where many of the players relied for support on a
mysterious brown elixir, the visiting team had an early boost when the
home team top board didn’t arrive.
It looked as though the home team was going to score a rapid equaliser
when a mate-in-one appeared on board 3, but the opportunity passed by.
The material balance wobbled several times before Redmond found a
back-rank mate later in the game.
Some excellent aggressive play from both sides on board 4 was also
brought to a close when Nick spotted a snap mate.
In the best game of the match, Henry tripled down the e-file, pinning
down all of Black’s pieces. Ethan then sent his Queen off in search of
counterplay, but it became cut off from the e-file, whence White could
have delivered the fatal blow. But the Queen proved distracting
enough, and gradually Black unhooked the pin and exchanged off
into a Rook endgame. White then allowed a Rook exchange when Black had
a distant passed pawn, and the home team finally scored a point.
Games to follow.
UPDATE: Taylor’s game added
{White avoided an early Queen swap, which might have been a nuisance, but it
was a move leading out of the frying pan into the fire.}
{Black improvised in the opening and while trying to sort out the position
wasted a lot of the time that should be used to develop and get castled.
White crashed through the middle to win.}
See also: http://exeterchessclub.org.uk/content/making-it-you-go-along
{An early mistake by Black left White needing only to avoid an accident to win}
{Black wasn’t playing badly but overlooked a few simple threats by White to go
a Rook, a Knight and a few Pawns behind. White should have won easily enough
after that but somehow lost hold of both the Rook and the Knight and then
chose not to swap off the Queens. A draw was a generous outcome!}
