time pressure story

Lauren here!
Here's a interesting story I'd like to share....

A couple of years ago, when I played at the all women's tournament,
I remember when my opponent got
into time pressure (about less than 1 minute) and so
she started to move really fast. I was in a winning
position and had about seven minutes left.
Since she was moving so fast, I ended up moving my
pieces quickly too, which was a big mistake. I ended
up stalemated her! She got really lucky that I
didn't beat her!!

Here's what we can learn: don't move fast unless you really have to!

Triva question answered!

The question was: What famous singer knew Bobby Fisher?
The answer is Barbara streisand!

Famous people and chess

Here's Barbara!

Here's a trivia question.

What famous singer knew Bobby Fischer?

Find out tomorrow!

Do you know that Tiger Woods, Dustin Diamond, Albert Einstein and Will Smith plays chess?

another simple chess website.

If you are starting out in chess and just learning the game, I recommend playing at:
www.cupofchess.com. Click HERE to check it out!
It's a great site to just quickly get a game with another beginner player.

If you are advanced, I don't recommend playing here.
If you know of any other great playing sites, please let me know...

Watch "Chess Diva" on TV

Lauren is here!
For the local folks who live in Palo Alto, Atherton, Menlo Park, Stanford, and East Palo Alto in California,
you can watch "Chess Diva" on television. Click HERE for times!
Chess Diva #4 should be airing very soon now.

Basic Queen mate

Lauren here!
Black is checkmated by White's queen and king. If white's queen was a rook, would it still be
checkmate? The answer is yes!
Most of the time, you'll promote your pawn to a queen, but this a great example why you don't have to
promote it to a queen!
In rare cases, it is a good idea to promote a pawn to a knight, or and bishop!

Cute street name

If you go to Foster City (about 20 miles south of San Francisco) in California,
there's actually a street called Chess Drive! Chess Drive is a busy street.

Do you know of any other street names that involve chess?

17 year old girl chess player article

Lauren here!
My dad just e-mailed me an article and I'd liked to share it with everyone.
The article is about a 17 year old teenager who had to face very difficult
challenges when she was growing up. She found chess very relaxing!
She will be honored by the local Boys and Girls Club in the San Francisco bay area.
I find her story very inspirational.
If you want to read the entire article, please click HERE

Chess Diva #5

Lauren is typing this.
If you have any suggestions and ideas about what you want on
our fifth episode, please let us know! We'd like to hear from you!
We will be recording the episode late next month!!

P.S.
For the girl chess players reading this blog:
The Kasparov Chess Foundation is hosting their fifth annual all girls'
national chess champioinships in Texas!
To find out more information, click HERE!

In case you don't know who Kasparov is, he is the former world champ!

More about triple pawns!

Barbara here again!

Triple pawns
Triple pawns are almost always bad. Try to avoid having this weakness.
These pawns are unable to support and protect each other.

Triple pawns are when there are 3 pawns of your own on the same file.

Lauren here!
About tripled pawns...
Do you know of any master game where the triple pawns occur in the game?
Do you know when tripled pawns are practical?
Have you seen a game where there has been "quadtuplet" pawns? How about "five or sixtuplet" pawns?
Please let us know because I haven't seen a game like that before

pawn tips

Lauren here!
There are so many pawns in chess.

How to take care of your pawns in your game:
Pawns like to support each other. Pawns are generally not happy if they are isolated because they are weak and will
most likely be a target. If this happens, then try to trade the pawn.

It is important to have good pawn structure. Try to have the least pawn islands as possible.
Try to make a pawn chain (where the pawns support each other).

If you have isolated pawns, then try to trade them off.

In this position, black has four pawns islands. The pawns on the 'f' file are isolated double pawns. None of his pawns are not supporting each other.
White has better pawn structure, so white has a better chance of winning this position.

People's Replacement tournament results

Lauren here!

The People's Replacement tournament ended yesterday and it was a really fun tournament to go to.
There were a lot of children and adults competing.
I ended up undefeated with three draws and a bye.
Barbara ended up with 1.5 out of four points.
There were a lot of tough chess players at this tournament.

Michael Aigner, a local master won the 'Open' section with a perfect score!

If you want to see pictures of the tourney, click HERE
Click HERE to see the results of the tournament!

I got about 40 minutes of footage of the tournament, so we'll be using this footage for our fifth episode of "Chess Diva"!

chess tournament!

Lauren here!

Today, Barbara and I went to the People' Replacement Tournament, which is a four round tournament.
There were two rounds today and both of us have one point out of two.
I drew in the first round, but I made a couple mistakes towards the end.
At the end, there was a bunch of pawns and no one could break through.
Barbara won her first game, then lost the second...



In the second round, I took a "bye" so I filmed for the fifth episode of
"Chess Diva". I will continue tomorrow to film between rounds.

Barbara Here!

Hello! I'm just doing OK in the first day so far. I won the first game and lost the second game.

another cool website about chess!

Lauren here!
A great website to learn about chess is www.chess.com!
They have daily puzzles to learn from. They also have great forums so you discuss anything about chess!
They have a lot more too!

Happy Valentine's day!!!

Lauren here!
Hope everybody has a great day today! I heard a lot of people eat chocolate on this special day!
Did you know that they make chocolate chess sets?! I have never played on one but I'm sure it'll be so much fun playing on one.
Have you played on a chocolate chess set before? After you capture a piece, then you can eat it! Yum, yum! Make sure you don't play in a hot place that has direct sun, or all of the pieces will melt by the sun.


Anyway, yesterday, I added the "Chess Diva" #4 page on our website.

answer and cool web link

Lauren here!
Yes, you can checkmate the long enemy king with just your king, one bishop, and one knight!

I'd like to share a wonderful website that has a lot of pictures of the world's top women chess players!
The website is HERE

Two bishops Solution

Barbara again!

Yes! It's possible to checkmate the lone king with the two bishops and the king.
I've done the checkmate practice against Lauren. At first, the checkmate is hard.
Once you've know the pattern well, the checkmate is easy.

False or True? It is possible to checkmate with a knight, a bishop, a king vs. a lone king.

I'll answer tomorrow.

Two bishops

Barbara here!

Two bishops vs. one rook

In a open position, which piece is generally the strongest in an endgame?

Generally in an open position, the two bishops are stronger than the rook.

Why? The two bishops can dominate the rook by working together.


True or False? A checkmate is possible by using one king, and the two bishops.

Find out tomorrow!

Strongest female chess player in history

Lauren here!
Judit Polgar is the strongest woman chess player in the world.
Her two sisters, Sophia and Susan are very strong chess players too.
Judit became a grandmaster in 1991, when she was 15 years old.
She is from Hungary, a country in Eastern Europe.
I feel that since she is so good at chess, she has a great chance to became
world champion!!
What do you think?

Chess Diva #4 is here!

Lauren here!
I finally finished editing "Chess Diva" #4, our latest episode.
Visit San Francisco's Mechanic Institute's all women's chess class.
Barbara and I also play a five minute blitz game with our comments.
There are a lot more goodies in this episode!
Check it out HERE!

Daniel Naroditsky on magazine cover!

Lauren here!
We interviewed Daniel Naroditsky on our second episode. He is on the cover of the latest United States
Chess Federation's "Chess Life" magazine. I also want to say "Happy Chinese New Year" to everybody!
It is the year of the rat!!

queen sacrifice

Yes, the queen is the most powerful piece in chess.
Sometimes, you can sac it to checkmate the enemy queen.

I have done this once or two times.
Check out this problem:
It is black to move. He can force a checkmate in three moves.
First, how can black create a weak back rank?
Hint: Use your queen.
Each move has to be a check otherwise, white will checkmate black first.

Answer to puzzle

Lauren here!
The answer to yesterday's puzzle is Bishop takes the knight on d5. Black
can't take back because of the weak back rank. If Black does take back on d5, then
White's rook will simply checkmate the black king by going to e8.
There's a lesson to be learned. Both players should move a pawn next to king, so he'll
have room to breathe.

Back rank tips

Lauren here!
Once you get to a rook (or) queen endgame, it's a good idea to move one pawn up so you can avoid back rank checkmate.
In this puzzle, how can White take advantage of black's weak back rank?

Quickest Checkmate in Chess!

Lauren here!
Here is the quickest checkmate in chess and Black delivers the checkmate, not white.
This checkmate is called "Fools Mate". Notice that White moved pawns that opened the king's diagonal.
I have never delivered this checkmate before, how about you?

There's actually an opening for white called the "Bird's Opening" where the first move is pawn to f4 (which slightly exposes
the white king a little bit.) This opening is playable, but you have to be careful.

KQED talk radio on Hip Hop chess

Lauren here!
We have some very exciting news!! A couple days ago on KQED radio, they had a talk show on chess hip hop, which
was hosted by Michael Krasny. Special guests included Daniel Naroditsky (watch our second episode of "Chess Diva"),
Joshua Waizkin (author of "The Art of Learning"), and Adisa Banjoko, the creator of the Hip Hop Chess Federation.
If you keep on listening, Michael Krasny also mentions our "Chess Diva" TV show too!!!!
We hope our "Chess Diva" TV show will motivate more women and girls to play chess!

Click HERE for the audio file!