Hovnanian School Chess Club Spring Semester

BEGINNER I and BEGINNER II CLASSES

• 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:
  a. checkmate -or the goal of the game
  b. development of pieces (more squares means stronger pieces)
  c. stalemate
  d. capturing the opponent’s pieces
  e. piece value (absolute, and relative)
• Check Mate Concepts (The common 'how to's”)
  a. mate with queen & king against king
  b. mate with 2 rooks, or 1 rook 1 queen (Ladder mate)
  c. mate with 1 rook and king against king
  d. mate traps in the beginning of the game (scholar’s, fool’s, Legal’s)
  e. mate traps in the middle game (Batteries, plus Smother, anastasia, Arabian, etc.)
• Basic End-Of-Game principles
  a. King becomes strong at end-of the game
  b. Pawn & King against King (opposition, flanking)
  c. Simple end-game positions for practice
  

ADVANCED BEGINNER / INTERMEDIATE CLASSES (at least two semesters of chess) 

• Brief review of chess rules: capture; castle, 'en passant', pawn promotion; check; checkmate; stalemate (all from beginner class)
• Basic tactics I (tactical devices to gain material for purpose of later strategic victory)
  a. Pin
  b. Double attack (i.e. fork)
  c. Discover threat/check/attack (also double check!)
  d. Skewer
• Basic tactics II (simple combinations)
  a. Piece values (relative to each other, position)
  b. Unique piece combinations (i.e. Bishop, rook, etc.)
  c. Deflections, Decoys, “In-Between moves,”
  Overloads
• End-Of-Game (continue)
  a. Rule of the square of the pawn
  b. Zugzwang (possible in middlegame, probable in most endgames)
  c. Tempi (Triangulation as a means of losing tempi at end to force Zugzwang)
• Chess Tournaments