The Season Intensifies

Hello Rookly students, parents, teachers, and administrators! Welcome to 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 are going strong, with participation increasing and attendance breaking 70 players in multiple matches! I saw several games where players successfully avoided the Scholar’s Mate as covered in the last newsletter’s Mini-Lesson. Good looking out!

In this Game of the Match, Gabriel blocked the Scholar’s Mate and went on to win with a ladder mate:

Eitan vs Gabriel

10 Oct 2024

^{1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Qf3 Nf6 (Blocking Scholar’s Mate!) 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.d3 O-O 6.Bg5 d5 7.Bxf6 Qxf6 8.Bxd5 Nd4 9.Qxf6 gxf6 10.Nb5 Nxc2+ 11.Kd1 Nxa1 12.Nxc7 Rb8 13.Nf3 Bxf2 14.Rf1 Bd4 15.Nxd4 exd4 16.Rxf6 Kg7 17.Rf4 Bd7 18.Be6 Bxe6 19.Nxe6+ fxe6 20.Rg4+ Kh6 21.h4 Kh5 22.Rg5+ Kxh4 23.Rg7 Rbc8 24.Ke2 Rc2+ 25.Kd1 Rf1#}

Ladder mate! Congrats to Gabriel.

CONGRATS TO ALL OF THE WINNERS

Double Attack vs Double Team 

One of the fundamental tactics in chess is the double attack (also known as the fork), where a piece attacks two enemy pieces simultaneously:

The queen on d4 is attacking both the rook on a7 and the king on g7. When Black defends against one of those attacks (here Black must save the king), White will take the other piece.

Any piece can deliver a double attack, and any two pieces can be the targets of a double attack. A double attack could even target a piece and an empty square, for example if that empty square is checkmate:

The queen on c4 is attacking the rook on b3 and the checkmate square on c8. Black must prevent the checkmate, and then White gets to capture the rook for free.

Since a double attack means one piece attacking two targets, that’s not the same thing as two pieces attacking one target. This pattern doesn’t actually have a standard name in chess, but I like to call it a double team:

The bishop on b5 and the rook on c1 are both attacking the knight on c6. Even though that knight is guarded by the pawn on b7, White can win material with 1.Bxc6+ bxc6 2.Rxc6 with a profit of 1 point, since White captured a total of 4 points (a knight + a pawn) and Black captured 3 points (a bishop). Some people call a double team a twofold attack, since twofold means twice.

The Scholar’s Mate that we learned about in last issue’s mini-lesson is also an example of a double team:

White’s queen and bishop are double-teaming the f7-pawn and Black needs to be careful to defend against the threat of Qxf7#.

There are many different types of chess tactics, but double attack and double team are great ones to start with - practice them and look out for them in your games!

MONDAY BISHOP LEAGUE

New Rookly League attendance records were set in both matches - 75 and 78 players respectively!

MONDAY EARLY WEST COAST LEAGUE

MONDAY LATE WEST COAST LEAGUE

TUESDAY ROOK LEAGUE

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON LEAGUE

THURSDAY 3:30 PM LEAGUE

THURSDAY 4:00 PM LEAGUE

THURSDAY JEWISH DAY SCHOOL LEAGUE

• Rookly Leagues will run as usual on Halloween, Thursday October 31.

• The 2024 U.S. Championships are almost finished, with Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana leading the Open section with 5.5/8 and

  International Master Carissa Yip leading the Women’s section with 8.0/9. The final round takes place on Wednesday, October 23.

• The 2024 National K-12 Grade Championships 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