The Annual UCU Summer School took place on August 9th/10th/11th 2023
We had a flexible timetable for each day and 3 excellent volunteers asissting - Geoff Hindley, Richard Morrow and Karina Campbell.
The gate into the Chess Summer School - a beautiful resource in the Ormeau Park. It leads to the Bowling Club. With a hall surrounded by bowling greens and a lovely garden. This was the gate into our Chess World.
The room waiting for the young players.
The timetable for day1:
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Time |
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Setup sets / Room |
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10:00 |
Introductions pair younger players with older players |
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10:10 |
Teaching Chess to new players – mini-games |
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10:40 |
BattleChess – a friendly – the rules |
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11:00 |
Study Opposition |
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11:20 |
Study Opposition |
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11:40 |
Battle Chess – the rules |
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12:00 |
Positional Chess Study |
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12:20 |
Battlechess round 1. |
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12:40 |
Lunch - other board games |
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13:20 |
group photo Positional Chess Study |
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13:40 |
Chess Round 1 |
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14:00 |
Endgames Study |
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14:20 |
Battle Chess Rd 2 |
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14:40 |
pair chess Rd1. |
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15:00 |
End |
We were told that to improve your chess was good but to be able to coach others to play and improve their chess was an even move valuable skill. So the first item of the day was how to teach other players how to play chess using mini-games with each of the pieces and some pawns. We also placed in pairs the students, one older player with a younger one with the view that this would facilitate an atmosphere of coaching each other.
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The format of day2 and day3 continued in this format. With a mix of worksheets and actual playing and working through studies on the Demo Board.
The pair team chess is always fun - having paired older players with younger ones. We get the pairs to play other pairs with the rules that moves are discussed between the players who move with an agreed move and through their discussion let their opponents team aware of their plans making for a much harder game! and plenty of chess related chat. Also asked the players to write down the moves - so some coaching as to how todo this.
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At lunch time students were given the opportunity to play from a selection of other games including Othello (reversi), Connect Four, Fanorona, Manacala, Jenga, Aberlone, the Game of Ur..... allowing the learning of a new game or fun playing an old favourite.
A chess Competition was run throughout the 3 days. With 15mins each on the clock and a total of 5 rounds. Results are below.
Round 1
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Leah Worbey [0] 1:0 Oisín Molloy [0] 2 Ryan Pettigrew [0] 1:0 Nisha Kadam [0] 3 Aditi Pandey [0] 0:1 Darsh Lalsare [0] 4 Shlok Thoke [0] 0:1 Eli Davison [0] 5 Odhrán Doody [0] 1:0 Diego Zaniel [0] 6 Aarav Jain [0] 0:1 Isaac Kirkland [0] 7 Thomas Kirkwood [0] 1:0 Arjun Kadam [0] 8 Alex McKeown [0] 0:1 Mark Kyselov [0] 9 Bradan MacNamara [0] 1:0 Suchita Pandey [0] 10 Shubham Saha [0] 0:1 Peter Murphy [0] 11 Cillian Burns [0] 0:1 Matthew Shirley [0] 12 Edward Cunningham [0] 0:1 William Cunningham [0] 13 Caolan McCready [0] 1:0 Daniel Shirley [0] 14 Pranav Pandey [0] 1:0 BYE
by Swiss Perfect (TM) www.swissperfect.com
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Round 2
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Eli Davison [1] 1:0 Bradan MacNamara [1] 2 Peter Murphy [1] 1:0 Odhrán Doody [1] 3 Isaac Kirkland [1] 0:1 William Cunningham [1] 4 Darsh Lalsare [1] 0:1 Thomas Kirkwood [1] 5 Mark Kyselov [1] 0:1 Ryan Pettigrew [1] 6 Matthew Shirley [1] 1:0 Aditi Pandey [0] 7 Nisha Kadam [0] .5:.5 Aarav Jain [0] 8 Arjun Kadam [0] 1:0 Daniel Pickering [0] 9 Oisín Molloy [0] 0:1 Alex McKeown [0] 10 Suchita Pandey [0] 0:1 Shlok Thoke [0] 11 Diego Zaniel [0] 1:0 Shubham Saha [0] 12 Daniel Shirley [0] 1:0 BYE
Round 3
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Ryan Pettigrew [2] 0:1 Eli Davison [2] 2 Thomas Kirkwood [2] 1:0 Matthew Shirley [2] 3 Peter Murphy [2] 0:1 Leah Worbey [1] 4 Odhrán Doody [1] 1:0 Arjun Kadam [1] 5 Shlok Thoke [1] 0:1 Isaac Kirkland [1] 6 Daniel Shirley [1] 0:1 Mark Kyselov [1] 7 Alex McKeown [1] 1:0 Darsh Lalsare [1] 8 Aarav Jain [.5] 0:1 Diego Zaniel [1] 9 Shubham Saha [0] 1:0 Oisín Molloy [0] 10 Nisha Kadam [.5] 0:0 BYE 11 Aditi Pandey [0] 0:0 BYE 12 Daniel Pickering [0] .5:.5 Bradan MacNamara [1] 13 Suchita Pandey [0] 0:0 BYE 14 Pranav Pandey [1] 0:0 BYE
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Round 4
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Eli Davison [3] 1:0 Thomas Kirkwood [3] 2 Diego Zaniel [2] 0:1 Leah Worbey [2] 3 Matthew Shirley [2] 0:1 Odhrán Doody [2] 4 Isaac Kirkland [2] 1:0 Alex McKeown [2] 5 Mark Kyselov [2] 1:0 Peter Murphy [2] 6 Darsh Lalsare [1] 0:1 Shubham Saha [1] 7 Pranav Pandey [1] 0:1 Shlok Thoke [1] 8 Arjun Kadam [1] 0:1 Daniel Shirley [1] 9 Oisín Molloy [0] 1:0 Suchita Pandey [0] 10 Aarav Jain [.5] 0:1 Ryan Pettigrew [2]
Round 5
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Odhrán Doody [3] 1:0 Eli Davison [4] 2 Leah Worbey [3] 1:0 Mark Kyselov [3] 3 Ryan Pettigrew [3] 0:1 Isaac Kirkland [3] 4 Thomas Kirkwood [3] 0:1 Peter Murphy [2] 5 Shlok Thoke [2] 1:0 Shubham Saha [2] 6 Daniel Shirley [2] 1:0 Diego Zaniel [2] 7 Alex McKeown [2] 1:0 Matthew Shirley [2] 8 Darsh Lalsare [1] .5:.5 Oisín Molloy [1] 9 Arjun Kadam [1] 0:1 Aarav Jain [.5]
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4 players are level on 4 points. Using the tie breaks of Medium Buchan (sum of opponents scores less highest and lowest), Buchan (sum of your opponents scores), Progressive ( the cumulative total of your own scores).
1st Eli Davison
2nd Isaac Kickland
3rd Leah Worbey
4th Odran Doody
Standings
Place Name Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.
1-4 Eli Davison 4 9.0 15.5 14.0
Isaac Kirkland 4 9.0 14.0 11.0
Leah Worbey 4 7.5 12.0 11.0
Odhrán Doody 4 7.0 12.0 11.0
5-11 Peter Murphy 3 10.0 16.0 10.0
Mark Kyselov 3 9.0 15.5 10.0
Ryan Pettigrew 3 9.0 14.5 11.0
Shlok Thoke 3 7.5 12.5 7.0
Daniel Shirley 3 7.5 11.5 7.0
Alex McKeown 3 6.5 12.0 8.0
Thomas Kirkwood 3 6.5 11.5 12.0
12-15 Diego Zaniel 2 8.5 14.0 7.0
Matthew Shirley 2 8.0 13.5 9.0
Shubham Saha 2 6.5 11.0 5.0
William Cunningham 2 6.0 6.0 3.0
16-19 Aarav Jain 1.5 7.0 12.0 3.0
Oisín Molloy 1.5 6.5 11.5 2.5
Darsh Lalsare 1.5 6.5 11.0 5.5
Bradan MacNamara 1.5 1.5 6.5 3.5
20-22 Arjun Kadam 1 7.0 12.5 4.0
Pranav Pandey 1 4.0 9.0 4.0
Caolan McCready 1 2.5 2.5 1.0
23-24 Nisha Kadam 0.5 1.5 6.0 1.0
Daniel Pickering 0.5 1.5 5.0 0.5
25-28 Suchita Pandey 0 4.5 9.0 0.0
Edward Cunningham 0 3.5 3.5 0.0
Cillian Burns 0 2.0 2.0 0.0
Aditi Pandey 0 1.5 5.0 0.0
To practice endgame play with pawns and Kings we played a swiss tournament of Battle Chess of 5 rounds. Battle Chess is where each player has 4 pawns and a King and these are placed by each player - the pawns on rows 2 to 4 and the King on a square on rows 1 to 3 - with the use of a separator (plastic sheet - or spare chess board) so that each player cant see the other players pieces. When both are ready the separator is lifted and the game of chess is continued to a finish with the normal rules. There is skill and fun in experimenting in the initial position of the pieces and then the playing of the endgame. As the games are quite fast we didnt use clocks and players played each other twice once as White and once as Black.
Battle Chess Round 1
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Leah Worbey [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Oisín Molloy [0.0] 2 Ryan Pettigrew [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Nisha Kadam [0.0] 3 Aditi Pandey [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Darsh Lalsare [0.0] 4 Shlok Thoke [0.0] 1.0:1.0 Eli Davison [0.0] 5 Odhrán Doody [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Diego Zaniel [0.0] 6 Aarav Jain [0.0] 0.0:2.0 Isaac Kirkland [0.0] 7 Thomas Kirkwood [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Arjun Kadam [0.0] 8 Alex McKeown [0.0] 1.5:.5 Mark Kyselov [0.0] 9 Bradan MacNamara [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Suchita Pandey [0.0] 10 Shubham Saha [0.0] .5:1.5 Peter Murphy [0.0] 11 Cillian Burns [0.0] .5:1.5 Matthew Shirley [0.0] 12 Edward Cunningham [0.0] 0.0:2.0 William Cunningham [0.0] 13 Pranav Pandey [0.0] 0.0:2.0 Daniel Shirley [0.0]
Battle Chess Round 2
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Thomas Kirkwood [2.0] .5:1.5 Leah Worbey [2.0] 2 William Cunningham [2.0] 2.0:0.0 Aditi Pandey [2.0] 3 Daniel Shirley [2.0] 0.0:2.0 Odhrán Doody [2.0] 4 Isaac Kirkland [2.0] 1.5:.5 Bradan MacNamara [2.0] 5 Peter Murphy [1.5] 1.5:.5 Ryan Pettigrew [2.0] 6 Matthew Shirley [1.5] 1.5:.5 Alex McKeown [1.5] 7 Eli Davison [1.0] 2.0:0.0 Shubham Saha [.5] 8 Mark Kyselov [.5] 1.0:1.0 Shlok Thoke [1.0] 9 Nisha Kadam [0.0] 1.5:.5 Diego Zaniel [0.0] 10 Arjun Kadam [0.0] 1.5:.5 Daniel Pickering [0.0] 11 Oisín Molloy [0.0] 0.0:2.0 Aarav Jain [0.0] 12 Darsh Lalsare [0.0] 1.0:1.0 Suchita Pandey [0.0]
Battle Chess Round 3
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Odhrán Doody [4.0] 1.5:.5 Isaac Kirkland [3.5] 2 Leah Worbey [3.5] 1.5:.5 Eli Davison [3.0] 3 Matthew Shirley [3.0] .5:1.5 Peter Murphy [3.0] 4 Ryan Pettigrew [2.5] .5:1.5 Thomas Kirkwood [2.5] 5 Shlok Thoke [2.0] 2.0:0.0 Alex McKeown [2.0] 6 Aarav Jain [2.0] 2.0:0.0 Daniel Shirley [2.0] 7 Arjun Kadam [1.5] 0.0:2.0 Mark Kyselov [1.5] 8 Diego Zaniel [.5] 1.0:1.0 Darsh Lalsare [1.0] 9 Suchita Pandey [1.0] 0.0:2.0 Shubham Saha [.5] 10 Oisín Molloy [0.0] 2.0:0.0 Pranav Pandey [0.0]
Battle Chess Round 4
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Leah Worbey [5.0] 0.0:2.0 Odhrán Doody [5.5] 2 Peter Murphy [4.5] 1.5:.5 Thomas Kirkwood [4.0] 3 Isaac Kirkland [4.0] 2.0:0.0 Shlok Thoke [4.0] 4 Mark Kyselov [3.5] 2.0:0.0 Aarav Jain [4.0] 5 Eli Davison [3.5] 1.0:1.0 Matthew Shirley [3.5] 6 Shubham Saha [2.5] 1.5:.5 Ryan Pettigrew [3.0] 7 Alex McKeown [2.0] 1.5:.5 Oisín Molloy [2.0] 8 Darsh Lalsare [2.0] 0.0:2.0 Daniel Shirley [2.0] 9 Diego Zaniel [1.5] 1.5:.5 Arjun Kadam [1.5] 10 Suchita Pandey [1.0] 0.0:2.0 Pranav Pandey [0.0]
Battle Chess Round 5
Results
No Name Total Result Name Total 1 Odhrán Doody [7.5] 1.0:1.0 Peter Murphy [6.0] 2 Mark Kyselov [5.5] 0.0:2.0 Isaac Kirkland [6.0] 3 Matthew Shirley [4.5] .5:1.5 Leah Worbey [5.0] 4 Thomas Kirkwood [4.5] 2.0:0.0 Eli Davison [4.5] 5 Daniel Shirley [4.0] 2.0:0.0 Shlok Thoke [4.0] 6 Aarav Jain [4.0] .5:1.5 Shubham Saha [4.0] 7 Ryan Pettigrew [3.5] 1.0:1.0 Alex McKeown [3.5] 8 Oisín Molloy [2.5] 2.0:0.0 Diego Zaniel [3.0] 9 Arjun Kadam [2.0] 2.0:0.0 Darsh Lalsare [2.0]
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Battle Chess Champion: Odhran Doody
2nd Isaac Kirkland
3rd Peter Murphy
Battle Chess Standings
Place Name Score M-Buch. Buch. Progr.
1 Odhrán Doody 8.5 19.5 30.5 27.5
2 Isaac Kirkland 8 15.5 28.0 23.5
3 Peter Murphy 7 17.0 30.0 22.0
4-5 Leah Worbey 6.5 16.0 29.0 22.0
Thomas Kirkwood 6.5 15.5 26.5 19.5
6 Daniel Shirley 6 11.5 22.0 16.0
7-8 Shubham Saha 5.5 13.5 22.5 13.0
Mark Kyselov 5.5 13.0 25.0 16.5
9 Matthew Shirley 5 15.5 27.0 17.5
10-14 Aarav Jain 4.5 17.0 29.5 14.5
Eli Davison 4.5 17.0 27.5 16.5
Ryan Pettigrew 4.5 16.5 28.0 15.5
Alex McKeown 4.5 14.0 23.5 13.5
Oisín Molloy 4.5 12.0 21.5 9.0
15-17 Shlok Thoke 4 16.0 28.5 15.0
Arjun Kadam 4 12.0 20.5 9.0
William Cunningham 4 9.0 9.0 6.0
18 Diego Zaniel 3 13.0 23.5 8.0
19 Bradan MacNamara 2.5 10.0 10.0 4.5
20-22 Darsh Lalsare 2 12.0 20.0 7.0
Aditi Pandey 2 9.0 9.0 4.0
Pranav Pandey 2 8.5 16.5 2.0
23 Nisha Kadam 1.5 7.5 7.5 1.5
24 Suchita Pandey 1 8.5 16.0 3.0
25-26 Daniel Pickering 0.5 6.0 6.0 0.5
Cillian Burns 0.5 5.0 5.0 0.5
27-28 Edward Cunningham 0 7.0 7.0 0.0
Caolan McCready 0 0.0 0.0 0.0
During the three days chess puzzles were solved from a puzzle sheet of some 22 puzzles these were collected and marked on the last day.
Puzzle Solving Competition
| Name | puzzles | |
| 1 | Ryan Pettigrew | 18 |
| 2 | Leah Worbey | 11 |
| 3 | Odhrán Doody | 9 |
| 4 | Peter Murphy | 8 |
| 5 | Matthew Shirley | 8 |
| 6 | Isaac Kirkland | 6 |
| 7 | Eli Davison | 5 |
| 8 | Daniel Shirley | 4 |
| 9 | Diego Zaniel | 3.5 |
| 10 | oisín Molloy | 1.5 |
| 11 | Alex McKeown | 1 |
Some of the harder puzzles (solutions at the end of the article.
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The worksheets included working through endgame positions such as opposition, opening principles, rule of the Square, counting Squares, Critical Squares, Corresponding Squares .....
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At the end of the three days all the students recieved an attendence certificate with a group photo and some activity photos from the week and went away with a folder containing worksheets and resources.
Many thanks for a brilliant 3 days of chess to the volunteers, Damien Cunningham, Belfast Ormeau Park Bowling, Belfast Council and most important of all the young chess players. Looking forward to next year.
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1. White to mate in two 1. Nd3+ exd3 2. f4# |
2. White to mate in two 1. Be5+ Nxe5 2. Qg5# |
3. White to mate in two 1. d3+ Kf4 2. Ne2# or 1. … Kxd3 2. Bf5# |
4. White to mate in two 1. Qe5+ Rxe5 2. fxe5# |
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13. Black to move (1001W-691) 1. … Bf5 2. Nxf5 Qxf5 3. Qxf5 Nxd2+ 4. Ka1 Rc1# |
14. Black move. (1001W-692) 1. … Bxe4 2. Qxe4 Qf1+ 3. Rxf1 Rxf1# |
15. Black to move (1001W-694) 1. … Qxf2+ 2. Rxf2 Rb1+ 3. Rf1 Bd4+ 4. Kh1 Rxf1# |
16. Black to move (1001W-695) 1. ,,, Qb2 2. Rc2 Qb1+ 3. Qf1 Qxc2 |
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17. Black to move (1001W-696) 1. … Nxe3 2. fxe3 Qxe3+ 3. Kh1 Rd1+ 4. Rxd1 Rxd1+ 5. Bxd1 Qe1# |
18. Black to move (1001W-693) 1. … Rxc5 2. Rxc5 Qxb7 2. dxc5 Qd1# |
19. White to move (1000CC-238) 1. Ng6+ Ke8 2. Qxf7+ Nxf7 3. Rxf7 Kxf7 4. Rf1+ Ke8 5. Rf8# |
20. White to move (1000CC-239) 1. Ra5+ Kxa5 2. Qxc5+ dxc5 3. Nc4+ Kb5 4. Rb6 # |
From the excellent books :
Chess 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games by Laszlo Polgar.
1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations – Fred Reinfeld
1000 Checkmate Combinations – Victor Henkin
