Visitation Academy Winter Chess Club (Grades 1 through 4)

Beginner Class Description

•  Rules of the game: how pawns/pieces move & capture; what is attack, castle, 'en passant', pawn promotion; check; checkmate; notation – I.e. The “abc’s” of chess.
•  Basic strategy:

1. checkmate -or the goal of the game
2. development of pieces (more squares means stronger pieces)
3. stalemate
4. capturing the opponent’s pieces
5. piece value (absolute, and relative)

•  Check Mate Concepts (The common‘how to's”)

1. mate with queen & king against king
2. mate with 2 rooks, or 1 rook 1 queen (Ladder mate)
3. mate with 1 rook and king against king
4. mate traps in the beginning of the game (scholar’s, fool’s, Legal’s)
5. mate traps in the middle game (Batteries, plus Smother, anastasia, Arabian, etc.)

• Basic End-Of-Game principles

1. King becomes strong at end-of the game
2. Pawn & King against King (opposition, flanking)
3. Simple end-game positions for practice