Largest 9 Queens Academy at Bookmans
Over 45 participants attended the Bookmans 9 Queens Academy on June 14, making this our largest 9 Queens Academy ever! It was exciting to see the Bookmans’ community room packed with so many women and girls of all ages playing chess. There were lots of new faces including several girl scouts who earned their Chess Activity Patch.
This week Jenelle Wallace taught the advanced group about decoys. Here is what Jenelle had to say about her lesson:
This was a particularly fun lesson to do, since although some of the girls may have used the concept of a decoy in a game before, none of them knew the term or had consciously tried that style of thinking. A decoy is defined as a move that lures one of your opponent’s pieces to a disadvantageous square, often allowing you then to try some other tactic such as a fork or a checkmate. Decoys often involve temporary sacrifices, although not always. After I had shown a few positions from grandmaster games, including Polgar’s, the girls worked on decoy puzzles with a partner. We found that it helped to approach the puzzles looking for some goal that could be accomplished, if only one small thing about the position was different. Then a decoy could be designed to force the other player to change that thing about the position, falling into your trap. All of the girls successfully solved the six puzzles, earning them glittery chess pencils from the House of Stanton!
Many thanks to the House of Staunton for donating all the fantastic teaching materials, to Jeff Smith at www.fotosmithusa.com for taking photographs, and to Bookmans for continuing to sponsor our 9 Queens Academies. Don’t miss our upcoming 9 Queens Academies on July 12 and August 9 at the Bookmans on Wilmot and Speedway. For more information email jhoffman@9queens.oirg.
