Scheduling Note

The Green Dot Summer League is planned to run through to Wednesday, June 17th.

Welcome to the Green Dot League newsletter! This is where we share updates on league standings, highlight some great moments from league matches, learn a thing or two from our coaches, and of course, share any news about Rookly.

Our next Rookly League is Wednesday, June 3rd, starting at 3:45 PM. Over the past few weeks the Rookly Green Dot League has continued in spectacular fashion. Dozens of students from each of Green Dot’s 16 campuses are competing in Rookly’s weekly chess league.

Rookly’s Green Dot League meets weekly, empowering students of all ages and skill levels to test out their chess skills. A few schools and students have separated themselves as particularly advanced, but the season is long.

Let’s look at the current standings. The standings page is public, so please feel free to share with parents, friends, or whoever you think might be interested!

Standings

Now let’s take a quick look our top performers from last week:

Game of the Week

The Game of the Week goes to Angel C from Ánimo Leadership (White) and Gaivan M from Ánimo Florence-Firestone (Black) for this excellent game by both players.

Black had the advantage for most of the game, but White showed some solid defensive play in an endgame that left no margin for error.

We join this game on move 53 with Black to move. How would you proceed?

Black chose to exchange the rook for the knight on f2. This nicely simplifies the position, though the computer prefers Black to take the pawn on f3 with the king.

White recaptures with king.

Black now has a big decision to make. The best move in this position is to advance the h-pawn straight away.

Black chose a perfectly natural move here instead, opting to force a pawn trade and simplify the position even further.

This is a mistake however, and we are now in a drawn position. We will soon find out why. White captures on g4.

Black recaptures with king.

And now the white king can stop Black from promoting.

The black king is forced back to g5.

The white king puts pressure on h4.

The black king has to keep the pawn on h4 defended. Take note of this position with the kings one square apart and the pawn in the middle — we’ll be seeing it again.

The white king is forced backwards. Progress for Black?

The Black king moves forward.

The white king blocks the black king from making forward progress. This is called taking opposition.

Black advances the pawn with check.

White blocks further progress by moving to h2.

Black is forced to defend the pawn by moving the king to h4. Does this position look familiar? It’s the same king-pawn-king arrangement that we had before, but this time one square further down the board.

The white king is forced to h1 after this.

The same dance repeats again, only this time, there’s a problem. Black has advanced one additional square down the board, but the white king has nowhere left to go, so this game ends in a draw!

Excellent work by both players in this endgame position!

Move of the Week

The Move of the Week goes to Damian G from Ánimo Compton (White) for an excellent move in this position. Can you find the best move for White?

It’s bishop to b5 with check! The black king has nowhere to run, and only one piece to block with.

The only legal move is for Black to block on d7 with the queen.

White takes the queen, of course, with check.

Black recaptures on d7, but now there’s a new threat to worry about.

The white queen swoops in and takes on b7 with check, forking Black’s king and rook.

This one ends in checkmate five moves later. Excellent attack by White!

We are looking forward to an excellent week of chess this week and moving forward. Tune in this week for more amazing games! We will see you every Wednesday afternoon.

If there’s anything that you need help with this week please feel free to get in touch with Coach Matthias at Matthias@​rookly​.com.