Welcome to the Fall 2025 weekly newsletter! This is where we share weekly updates on league standings, highlight some great moments from each week’s games, learn a thing or two from our coaches, and of course, share any news about Rookly.

First let’s look at last week’s scores. You can click on the name of any league to view the full standings for that league. The standings pages are public, so please feel free to share with parents, friends, or whoever you think might be interested!

And now, without further ado, here are the results of the sixth week of the Fall 2025 season:

Week #6 Standings

Thanksgiving Schedule Reminder

Thank you to all of our schools and students for a superb Fall 2025 Season at Rookly thus far!

We will not be holding any league matches for the week of November 24th. Please enjoy a well-earned break before the competition heats up again for the last three weeks of the season in December!

We will then return to our regular league schedule starting December 1st.

Game of the Week

The game of the week goes to two of our heavy hitters in the Tuesday Queen League!

Phoenix D (Stanford Online) and Sebby S (Branson) were both undefeated (as they often are) going into this one in the latter half of the match day.

The game reached a sharp position early, with white forgoing king safety in lieu of some aggressive pawn activity on the kingside. White was able to get a pawn to h7, leaving black no room for error.

And no errors did black make! After some solid defence, careful trading, and effective counterattacking, black came out ahead in the endgame and this one ended by resignation on move 36 with a mate-in-eight sequence on the board for black.

Great job by both players! Check out the game here:

Move of the Week

The Move of the Week this week goes to Peter P from Boys’ Latin for this cheeky checkmate! Check out the final move of the notation here: O-O#.

Peter walked the white king all they way to the 8th rank and then castled to land checkmate. Amazing!

Coaches’ Corner

Coach Lucas’s tip of the week:

This week, let’s talk a bit about pawn promotion! We all know that in the endgame, a one pawn difference is enough to decide the fate of the game—but not all pawns are created equal.

The rook pawns, or the a and h pawns, cannot be promoted, assuming correct play from the defending player. Let’s take a look at how do defend properly, and why promotion isn’t possible in this situation.

The situation in question

Let’s start from here, where white needs to promote the h-pawn on the h8 square:

In order to promote successfully, white will need to defend the h8 square with the king so that the pawn can safely promote:

Black’s strategy, and the two inevitable positions

To combat this, all black has to do is stay in the corner, and this game will end in a draw one way or another, whether it’s by threefold repetition, stalemate or otherwise.

Inevitably, we will reach one of two positions, with either the black king on g8:

Or the black king on h8:

The black king on g8

What are white’s options at this point? Let’s look at possible king moves first:

Moving backwards definitely won’t help, and neither will Kf5. It simply doesn’t compel black to move away from the g8/h8 squares.

So, what about pushing the pawn?

After white tries the pawn check, black has two options, e8 and h8:

If Ke8 then white promotes, and this is game over.

So h8 it is! Now white can only move the king, and the only king move that maintains defence of the pawn is Kh6:

And after Kh6, black has no legal moves, so this game ends in stalemate:

The black king on h8

Now let’s go back to the other possible position, with the black king on h8:

If white tries to push the pawn…

We have stalemate immediately!

What about a king move for white? Kf5, Kg5, and Kh5 move backwards, so we can exclude them immediately. Let’s look at Kf7 and Kf6:

If white tries Kf7, black is left with only one move, Kh7, which puts pressure on the white pawn:

And leaves the white king is unable to defend the pawn, which will end the game in a draw.

So what about Kf6 instead?

Unfortunately for white, just like before, this move still doesn’t force black to do anything, and black can continue to play for a draw on those two corner squares, g8 and h8.

The takeaway

Now you know why only having a rook pawn in the endgame is not enough to win! Next week, we’ll take a look at how and why the other six pawns are able to be promoted (and why the knight pawns need to be promoted in their own specific way).

More to come on this next week!

If there’s anything that you need help with this week, or if you have a submission for the game/move of the week, please feel free to get in touch with Coach Lucas at lucas@​rookly​.com.

Looking forward to another great week of chess!