Otley All Saints CE Primary School Blog

Thanks to those parents who collect the Active Schools vouchers from Sainsburys, we have recently been able to get a load of playtime equipment. One of these items is a very large chess board, perfect for our newest members of chess club to be learning the names of the pieces and how they move!

Hi Chess Club Members!

There will be a new puzzle here for you to try every morning from 8a.m.  They are very tricky but correct answers will receive a trendy Blog Sticker!

You can find this post in future by clicking on the chess club category on the right hand menu. 

Play online chess!

Today I had the pleasure of accompanying some of our chess club players to a tournament held at The Alcuin School.  It was a really well-organised and friendly tournamnent and great for our children to try their hand at competetive chess.  I was so proud of all the children.  The ‘A’ Team scored 3.5 points overall and the ‘B’ Team scored 2.5 points.  Both teams were commended by the organiser for performing so well at their first chess tournament.

 Well done: Zac, Harry, Jay, Samuel, Ruth, William, James and Patrick!

A massive congratulations to Samuel, Ruth and Zac who travelled to York today to compete in the regional megafinals of the British Land UK Chess Challenge.  They took part in a demanding day of chess, each playing 6 other opponents.

You all performed brilliantly, representing our school in a very positive way and I was very proud of all of you.

Thanks also to Mums, Dads and Grandads who gave up their Bank Holiday to supprt the children. 

Well done!!

Chess Club:

Do you know the French phrase “J’adoube”?  I only found it out this evening!

It is French for I adjust, and it is used in chess games when a player wants to touch one of his pieces during a game (to put in the middle of a square etc) but doesn’t want it to be counted as a move.  Maybe I’ll hear some “J’adoube” being used in the next round of our tournament?!

Make sure you don’t use it to try and take back a bad move though.  One Grandmaster was known to have done this at least once.  His name was Milan Matulovic, but lots of people called him Milan J’adoubovic after he tried to cheat using this method!

See you after half term!

Last Thursday saw chess fever grip theYear 4 classroom at lunchtime as we began the 2008 British Land Chess Tournament in school.

Even the two B.Ed students got involved – Miss Bramley teaching Mr Taylor a valuable lesson in chess!

I was so proud of five of our Chess Club members today. 

Maisy, Zac, Jack, Louis and Joshua travelled with their parents to the Regional Megafinal of the British Land Chess Challenge 2007 in York.  As you will see, the venue was a large hall filled with chess boards.  The games had to be played according to strict International Chess Rules and no parents or freinds were allowed in the hall during the games.

All the children played so well today and all of them won at least two of their matches.  Joshua and Jack just missed out on the chance to go to Manchester for the Northern Finals. 

It was a really well organised event and the day passed very quickly.  Thanks to the parents for making the trip and to the organisers for such an enjoyable day – but most of all to the children, who more than held their own against some very talented opponents and represented the school in such an excellent manner.

There are 169,518,829,100,544,000,000,000,000,000 ways to play the first ten moves in chess! A few more to learn then Chess Club members!

You are white.  What move can you make to best punish black’s pieces?  This is a hard one.  Sticker for the correct answer!

Good Luck!

This is a hard post for me to write because it means admitting to defeat.  Yes for the first time since starting Chess Club in September, one of the Students has become the Master!

I was beaten today in a game by Zac, Year 4.  I was not just ground down in a long, drawn-out game, I was hammered.  Trounced.  Flattened.  The floor was wiped and I was the mop.  Zac’s chess has come on in leaps and bounds and his win against me consisted of pins, forks, gambits, sacrifices and ultimately in a very clever check mate. 

Well done, Zac.  

Mr Robertson

PS I did win the second game !