Midseason Moves

League weeks 5 and 6 recap, plus the art of trading decisions in chess.

Matthew Zeitlin
November 12, 2024

Hello Rookly students, parents, teachers, and administrators! Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Rookly Newsletter, where you can find updates on Rookly League standings, mini-lessons to sharpen your skills, and news about upcoming events, classes, and goings-on in the wider chess world. Thanks for reading and for being a part of the Rookly community!

The Rookly Leagues continue to set new attendance records, with as many as 94 players participating in one match! I’ve also been seeing many games with great double attacks as covered in last newsletter’s mini-lesson. Nice work!

The Game of the Match was Diego vs Xavier from the Nov. 7 match in the Thursday Central League, where Diego made a good decision about whether to trade pieces:

Diego (Lausanne) vs Xavier (Cristo Rey)

7 Nov 2024

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nd7 4.dxe5 dxe5 5.Nc3 f6 6.Bc4 Nc5 7.Qxd8+ Kxd8 8.O-O Be6 9.Bxe6 Nxe6 10.Be3 Ne7 11.Rad1+ Ke8 12 Nd5 c6 13.Nxe7 Bxe7 14.c3 Rf8 15.Rfe1 f5 16.exf5 Rxf5 17.Bc1 Nc5 18.Rxe5 Rxe5 19.Nxe5 Rd8 20.Rxd8+ Bxd8 21.f3 Bf6 22.Nc4 Nd3 23.Be3 b5 24.Nd6+ Kd7 25.Ne4 Bd8 26.Nc5+ Kc7 27.Nxd3 b4 28.Nxb4 a5 29.Na6+ Kb7 30.Nc5+ Kc7 31.Ne6+ Kd7

Should White make an equal trade with 32.Nxd8 Kxd8 here? Yes - see mini-lesson below on when equal trades should be welcomed and when they should be avoided.

32.Nxd8 Kxd8 33.a4 Kc7 34.Bc5 Kd7 35.Kf2 g5 36.Ke3 Ke6 37.Ke4 h6 38.Bb6 Kd7 39.Bxa5 c5 40.Bb6 Kc6 41.a5 c4 42.h4 gxh4 43.f4 Kb5 44.f5 Ka4 45.f6 Kb3 46.f7 Kxb2 47.Bd4 Kb3 48.f8=Q h5 49.Qb4+ Kc2 50.Qxc4 Kc1 51.Qa2 Kd1 52.Be3 Ke1 53.Qd2+ Kf1 54.Qf2#

Weekly Match Recap

In the Monday Early West Coast League, Westside Neighborhood School of Los Angeles CA won the Oct 28 match and the Nov 4 match was a tie between The Meadows School of Las Vegas NV and Legacy Christian School of San Jose CA.
In the Monday Late West Coast League, The Lawrenceville School of Lawrenceville NJ won the Oct 28 match and Saint Joseph Notre Dame High School of Alameda CA won the Nov 4 match.
In the Tuesday Rook League, the Oct 22 match was a tie between New Heights Charter School of Brockton MA and Nativity Preparatory School of New Bedford MA, New Heights Charter School won the Oct 29 match, and Nativity Preparatory School won the Nov 5 match.
In the Wednesday League, Donoho School of Anniston AL won the Oct 23 match, Daystar Academy of Chicago IL won the Oct 30 match, and the Nov 6 match was a tie between The Open School of Santa Ana CA, Cristo Rey Jesuit of Minneapolis MN, and Canterbury School of New Milford CT.
In the Thursday 3:30 PM Central League, Chess in the Schools of New York NY won the Oct 24 match, Lakeside School District of Garland County AR won the Oct 31 match, and Lausanne Collegiate School of Memphis TN won the Nov 7 match.
In the Thursday Day School League, Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy of Stamford CT won both the Oct 31 match and the Nov 7 match.

When to Make Equal Trades

An equal trade is one in which neither side makes a profit. For example, here White can trade queens:

1.Qxd8+ Rxd8 captures 9 points and loses 9 points - an equal trade, neither good nor bad. Here it’s fine to make an equal trade, and it’s also fine not to make an equal trade, for example with 1.Qc2 instead. In terms of points, it doesn’t matter whether you make the trade or not.

But there is an important rule of thumb: if you are ahead in points then you SHOULD make equal trades. This is because eventually equal trades will leave your opponent with no points at all, while you will still have points left. For example:

White is up 2 points, so it’s good for White to make an equal trade with 1.Qg3+ Qxg3+ 2.Kxg3, after which White is still up 2 points but it’s 2 to 0 instead of 11 to 9. Would you rather play a soccer game with 11 players against 9, or with 2 players against 0? In terms of winning the game, it’s an easy choice - the fewer defenders the other team has, the easier it is for your team to win.

The inverse of this is that if you are behind in points then you SHOULDN’T make equal trades, because that would just help the other team beat you more easily. For example:

Here White is down 3 points (Black has an extra knight), so White should avoid trading queens with something like 1.Qd3. This will make it as hard as possible for Black to win. Black may end up winning anyway, but keeping things more complicated is our best defensive try.

Take another look at Diego’s trading decision in the Game of the Match above, and look for similar opportunities in your own games!

Chess pieces atop the words News and Events

Rookly leagues will not run the week of Thanksgiving (Nov. 25-29).
An often requested feature lands next week - students will be able to spectate other games while waiting between matches!
Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi of India has achieved a new peak rating of 2809.3 in the ongoing Chennai Grand Masters tournament. This is the 14th highest peak rating in history, well above the peak ratings of former World Champions Anatoly Karpov (2790.9) and Bobby Fischer (2789.7). And at only 21 years old, he has plenty of peaks left to scale.
The 2024 National K-12 Grade Championships will take place December 6-8 in National Harbor MD. The tournament is open to all school-age players in the USA, with sections based on rating. Registration is still open!

- FIDE Master Alex King and the Rookly team