USM RESULTS

Thanks to all who came to USM for their great annual tournament.

Our K-12 team for Muskego MHS took 2nd place.  Evan Seghers (4), Jason Markowski (2.5), Reid Seghers (2.5), Sam Miller (2), Rachel Gomoll (2), Jacob Gomoll (2) and Jorin McGuire (1) rounded out this strong finish for our MHS team in a strong, crowded field, including a very tough University School team who took first. A close third place was New Berlin Eisenhower.
Hopefully next time we will have more full teams for our schools!  A team is formed when 4 players or more from the same school play in the same division.  The top four scores are added for the team score, but every win helps the team!
In chess, you either WIN or LEARN.  Our other team, K-12 for LDMS had a bit of a rough go of things this time around.  K-6 for Mill Valley, and K-12 for Lake Denoon are very tough because MN is a K-4 school so there are only 4th graders to draw from, and with LDMS there are only 7th and 8th graders to draw from- who are playing against high schoolers!  This is where we dig in, study, play hard and play SLOW. We build CHARACTER.  Things get easier in 5th/6th/11th/12th grade, when you're at the top ages for your division.

Special congratulations go to:

• Evan Seghers for going 4-0 and winning the K-12 division (tied with two others with exactly the same tie-breakers).
• Matthew Redlinger and Will Schantz for winning 4 out of their 5 games and taking the 7hh and 8th place trophies in K-6.
• Charlie Luther for winning 3/5 and barely missing the RED division.  Alyssa Przedwiecki (RED since 2011) also had a nice 3/5 finish, including a win against a 717-rated player.
• Sophomore Sam Miller for losing only one game and raising his rating about 200 points, earning a win against a stronger player, and draws against a 900+ and 1200+ players.
• Tess Corners 2nd grader Nate May, for earning 2 wins in his first tournament!  Nate also earns his BLUE division wrist band.
• Other first-timers Adam Putz and Jackson Mallon for playing in their first tournament and playing hard.  This was a great experience for them and is something to build on.  It took a lot of guts for Adam, Jackson and Nate to jump into their first tournament before they'd earned their BLUE division wrist band, and we hope they learned a great deal from their first tournament experience. 
• Andrew Hirt, for jumping back into tournaments after some time off, and for showing strong character in a tough day for LDMS K-12.  Andrew has many good tournaments in the past, and he will again. Again, tough day for LDMS K-12, where our 7th and 8th graders were playing against high schoolers.

Overall, the MSCC was very well represented at the tournament, having 21 kids there from 5 schools.  Our focus now turns to the next tournament, December 14th, at Brookfield Academy!  Let's make sure we have several kids in the BLUE division and ready for tournaments by then.

Checkmate: King-Rook Vs. King

When you are up a Rook you should win.  Here's how to do it.  You'll need your King.

Checkmate: King and 2 Rooks vs. King

Every player needs to learn this one.  Very simple when you learn the trick of roping in the King and forcing them back- be careful and don't give away your rook to the King!

4-Move Checkmate (Scholar's Mate)

Beginning players need to learn this 4-move Checkmate- a common trap among beginners!

NO CLASS 11/27

There will be NO chess class on Nov 27th (the night before thanksgiving).
I am trying to arrange a special ONLINE event for the class- I will let you know about it, if we're able to get it going!
- Mark

BLACK Division - for our TOP players

The BLACK Division is for our TOP players (and our parent chess leaders).  These players are contenders for top spots in tournaments, and are some of the top players in the State.

Pre-Requisites:

·         Must attend MNSD

·         Must be well behaved and attentive in class

·         Red Division Player

·         Has achieved a USCF rating of 1300 or Higher

·         Must Demonstrate Knowledge of:

o   Advanced Tactics
o   K+2B vs K
o   Intermediate King and Pawn Endings
o   Exploiting a Large Material Advantage
o   Exploiting a Space Advantage
o   Basic Pawn Structure
o   One Classical game
o   Basic Minor Piece Endgames

 While a Black Division Player, a player should work on:

·         Openings

◦   Creating a Basic Opening Repertoire

·         Middlegame

◦   Pawn Structure

▪   Backward Pawn

▪   Isolated Queen Pawn

▪   Hanging Pawns

◦   Weak vs. Strong Pawns

◦   Stopping Enemy Counterplay

◦   Understanding where the Pieces belong

▪   Superier Minor Pieces

◦   Creation of Targets

◦   Bishop vs. Knight

▪   When the Bishop is stronger

▪   When the Knight is stronger

▪   How to fight Knights

◦   The Bishop Pair

▪   When and why to trade off

◦   Exchanging

▪   When to exchange

▪   WHY exchange

◦   Files

▪   Exploiting Open files

▪   Open files and attacking the King

▪   Outpost on an Open File

▪   7^th Rank

◦   Pawn Center

▪   Undermining the Pawn Center

▪   Closed vs. Open Center

▪   Wing Operations

◦   Sacrificial Attacks

▪   Sacrifice on f7 (Knight)

▪   Sacrifice on h7 (Bishop AKA Greek Gift)

▪   Sacrifice on g7 (Knight)

▪   Lasker's Combination

◦   Opposite Side Castling

·         Endgames

◦   K+P

▪   K and two Doubled Pawns vs Lone King

▪   Rook-Pawn (Stalemating the Stronger Side)

▪   Importance of Outside Passed Pawns

▪   Triangulation

▪   Outflanking

◦   Minor Piece Endgames

▪   Bishops of Opposite Colors

▪   King+Knight vs. Rook-Pawn on the 6^th or 7^th

◦   Rook Endgames

▪   Lucena Position

▪   Philidor Position

▪   Trapping the Enemy King Away from the Action

▪   Queen vs. King and Pawn

▪   Rook and Two Connected Pawns vs Rook

RED Division - Strong Tournament Player

RED Division players are strong for their grade level.  Note that a Blue division player who is in 8th grade could be better than a Red division player in 2nd grade!  These levels are somewhat relative to a child's age.

Pre-Requisites:

·         Must attend MNSD

·         Must be well behaved

·         Blue Division Player

·         Must have won 4 games in a 6 game tournament, or 3.5 games in a 5 game tournament OR have "tested into" the RED Division as approved by Mr. Seghers. 

·         Must Demonstrate knowledge of:

o   Intermediate Tactics

o   King and Pawn Endgames

o   Concept of Planning

o   Who is the World Champion?

o   Who was the only American World Champion?

o   Who was the first World Champion?

While a Red Division player, a Student should learn:

·          Advanced Tactics

o   Clearance

o   Interference

o   Zugzwang

o   Desperado

o   Decoy

·         Overkill Checkmate        

o   K+2B vs K

·         Intermediate K+P Endgames

o   Fox in the Chicken Coup

o   Deep Freeze

·         Minor Piece Endgames

o   Minor Piece vs a Lone Pawn

·         Middlegame

o   Exploiting a large material advantage

o   Space Advantage

o   Basic Pawn Structure

§  Pawn Islands

§  Isolated Pawn

§  Doubled Pawn

o   Importance of the Center

o   Attacking the King

§  Open H File

§  Cracking open a Fianchetto

·         Memorize One Classical Game Unique to the Player

o   Must be able to explain moves and relevant sidelines

o   Must be able to explain who each player is

Outside of Class, a Red Division player should:

·         Watch Red and Black level videos on MuskegoChess.blogspot.com
·         Practice tactics on ChessTempo.com
·         Study Master games
·         Choose a style of Play and at Least 2 openings for White and 2 openings for Black
·         Play online chess on Chess.com
·         Play in Tournaments!
·         Win 4 games in a 6-game tournament, or 3.5 in a 5-game tournament