Thursday 17 June 2010

Puzzle time

Here's a challenging puzzle for you all.

It was set by Andrew Martin IM at the recent coaching session. White is about to queen its c-pawn but has to be careful about that black bishop!

White has the move, how can he force a draw? It's a very tricky solution but very beautiful. If you can find it, leave your answer as a comment here.

Sunday 13 June 2010

Star coach for Shropshire juniors

International Master Andrew Martin conducted a fantastic coaching session for Shropshire juniors on Saturday 12 June. The event was organised by Shropshire Junior Chess Academy.

Local juniors worked through a tough series of challenges set for them by Andrew and in the prixze competition Sam Eardley and Laura Newey won special prizes of Andrew's chess DVDs.

The session was a great success and we look forward to all the juniors putting what they have learnt into practice in the forthcoming season.

Following the coaching session there was a simultaneous match involving Andrew playing 19  opponents at the same time. The juniors did very well at this as well with Matthew Best getting into a winning position only to be squeezed out by a mating attack and Heath Pearson being one of the last to finish.

The final result of the simul was Andrew Martin 17.5 Shropshire 1.5 with Peter Kitchen, Shrewsbury getting a striking win and Andy Tunks getting a well-deserved draw.