How to beat your Dad at Chess!

You know sometimes coincidences just happen. My 9yo daughter and her 2 friends entered their first real chess tournament less than 2 weeks ago. GM Alexander Baburin was running it for 6-14 yo. Out of the more than 60 competitors, only 4 were girls and GM Baburin gave them each a medal. They were thrilled since they were all absolute beginners. At any rate there were a few books on sale and 1 of them was "How to beat your Dad at Chess by Murray Chandler" which my daughter is now reading. She is up to Chapter 5.

Chapter 2 is entitled "The Missing Defensive f-pawn". To cut a long story short, I joined her up to Chess.com and let her play a 'Live game with a total stranger'. I told her to click on a rating about 700-900 and off she went. It was a close game until her opponent made a terrible blunder and lost their queen. This totally changed the course of the game and a few moves later a position arose that she instantly recognised from the same Chapter 2. I thought it was uncanny!

Here is the position. I have made it into a puzzle playing the moves exactly as they happened. Have a go at it yourselves.

...White has just attacked the threatening Knight on e4 with the move f3...

very nice. If your daughter was able to find this mate, then she is definetly improving!

Thank's Odessian! There was definately a great deal of luck involved as well. She had learned off 4 mates out a possible 50 in the book and she gets a chance to show off in her very first 'real life' attempt using the 2nd one she has memorised. She was so excited that she came into the living room and showed her mother (who doesn't play chess) exactly how and why it worked. I truly was amazed how she had understood the concepts and her explanation was verbatim 'Murray Chandler'.

I think it is a wonderful book for children. Well written and simple to use, I wish I had read it myself a year ago!! :)

nice mate.

i'm not 9 but i'm still very proud when i recognize a pattern in my game. 

It's common accepted that's GMs know 100,000+ patterns, your daughter learn 4, apply one successfully : a pretty good start 

have you take a look on http://www.chesskid.com/ ? It's the "kid-friendly" chess.com where parents manage all online activity.

I'll tell her she has only 999,998+ to go to be a GM, Muetdhiver!

That looks like a great site. I'll have another look at it this evening when I get back from work. Thank you!

Yes, Chess tournaments are wonderful for children.

This is great, very nice pattern recognition at her age!

I think I was mostly fumbling around with the pieces back when I was 9

I hope you're shuffling your dates for the next one in April!

By the way, how does "The Ross Chess Club" sound?

 I was getting hammered by my mother at draughts!

One more note: GMs don't memorize 199,000 positions. :)

So how many positions do you think GM's memorize?

Wow

I've read that book,its a great book.

Read all of the only New Zealand GM's books."Chess Tactics For Kids" is another great book by him

Wow, she's amazing.  Nice work.

 I'll be on the look out for that one after this one...

@Muetdhiver, I signed her up to www.chesskid.com . She prefers it already! I think it's under development at the moment since not everything is working yet. There are no videos for example when she clicks the links. Hopefully they'll get it up and running soon.

I would never have thought of this, I couldn't solve the puzzle. Nice work!

That's really great for you daughter. For a 9 y.o. to spot that, that shows real promise. I hope she keeps her enthusiasm for the game. Also, that Murray Chandler book is NOT just for kids IMO... I think it's a great practical book -- everyone should be familiar with the material in it.

You should ask your daughter if she can figure out if her first move -- 1...dxc3+ was better/worse/the same as: 1...d3+. If she can't get it, show her White's other defensive try:

2.Rf2 Bxf2+ 3.Kf1 Qc4#  If the pawn had been pushed to d3, Qc4 doesn't mate and the game is prolonged.  So, 1...dxc3+ was best.

 We played out the game again just now. When it came to her move 17...dxc3, I asked her why she didn't play 17...d3 and she replied 'free pawn'. I played 18.Rf2 as you suggested and she found the mate you described by thinking about it. She says, she never saw Chandlers Mate until the king went to corner (every mate so far has had the king on h8 or h1). When I went back and made her play 17...d3 she realised Qc4 was blocked but so far hasn't found a mate from there...I'll let you know what she eventually decides to play. Here is the position from a few moves back so you can see how she got this far.

Excellent post.  Don't tell anyone, but I didn't find Ng3 till after the King went to h1 either.  I'll have to get a copy of that book for my kids (8 and 5).

Yes, it's a great little book and easy to use. Your children will benefit alot from it, I bet. I have picked up a lot of tips myself from it. It's amazing when you see the same tricks turn up on the tactics trainer and you find you can solve them instantaneously. By the way, I see we're classmates!