Emerald Valley Chess Camp
Emerald Valley Chess Camp
10 week program
Date
Novice Level (under 800)
Intermediate Level (800-1200)
Jun-11
Piece Movement, Gameplay
Game, Analysis
Jun-18
Practice game
Tactics, Puzzles
Jun-25
Basic Tactics, Simple puzzles
Mating Patterns ,Mate in 2 puzzles
July-2
Mating patterns, Mate in 1 puzzles
End games
July-9
Simple end games
Opening Concepts, Standard Openings
July-16
Practice game
Strategy, Best Piece Positions,
July-23
Simple openings
Pawn structure, Positional Play
July-30
Simple strategy concepts
Calculation, Improve your pieces (puzzles?)
Aug-6
Practice game
Practice Game, Analysis
Aug-13
Tournament
Tournament
Novice Session 1 :
Basic Piece Movement
Novice Session 1 :
Special Piece Movement
Castling
Promotion
En-passant
Novice Session 2 :
Basic Tactics
Discovered Attack
Pin
Overloading
Double Check
Sacrifice
Windmill
Fork
X-ray
Interference
Skewer
Deflection
Desperado
Session 2 : Reference Information
Tactics
SIMPLE TACTICS
1. Pins (w Rook, Bishop, Queen)
2. Terminal Pin (Pinned to a check)
3. Forks (w Knight, Bishop, Rook, Queen, King)
o Royal Fork, Family Fork,
o Knight Forks are safest
o Bishops can fork rook, Rook can fork bishop
o Fork a attacking higher rank piece with pawn
support
4. Skewers
5. Baits, Poisoned pawns
6. Discovered attack, discovered check
7. Double attack, Double check (by knight or bishop
moves; or pawn captures only)
o Double attacks are always discovered attacks
8. Removing the defender, Deflection
9. Interference
10. Perpetual check (to get a draw)
11. Desperado (damage by a doomed piece)
12. X-ray
COMPLEX TACTICS (for intermediate players)
1. Traps
o Trapped Piece (Knights in corners, Bishops in
h2-h7, Rooks/Queen tough)
o Trapped King (Smothered mate)
2. King Attack
o Breaking the pawn barrier
o Choke - take away the escape square
o Pawn Storm
3. Controlling Squares, not attacking
4. Blocking - stop the potential interposer
5. Clearance
o
File, Rank, Diagonal Clearance
o
Square Clearance
o
Deflection (of a defender of a piece or square)
o
Decoy
Combinations, Mate in 2,3,4 moves
1. Good Sacrifice, Bad Sacrifice
2. Windmill
3. Queen Mating Patterns
Novice Session 4 :
Simple Queen Mating Patterns
Main Pattern
With Bishop
With Bishop
With Knight
With Pawns
Own pawns
blocking
With Knight
With Rook
Main Pattern
With Pawn
With King
Novice Session 5 :
Simple Checkmates
With Two Major Pieces (2 Rooks or Queen+Rook)
With King and Queen
With King and Rook
Novice Session 6 :
Openings
What to do in an opening ?
1. Develop your pieces
o Knights before bishops
o One side before other (to
enable castle)
o Few pawn moves
o No traffic jam
2. Keep your king/queen safe
o Castle
o Don't get queen out early
3. Control the center
What is Opening ?
What is Defense ?
Novice Session 6 :
Openings
Novice Session 7 :
How to play great chess ?
Space. No Traffic Jam
Develop  Improve 
Regroup  Attack
Limit Exchanges
Center Control
Slow down
64 square vision
Tempo
Attack King or Queen
to gain tempo
No Helicopter Hands
Brain 100m/hr
Teamwork
Guess opponent’s best move ?
No Bench
Novice Session 8 :
Piece Positions (Rooks/Knights/Bishops)
Connect on Back Rank
Double up on Open File
Center and Forward
Knight on Rim is Grim
Knights
Push to 7th Rank
Back Rank Mates
Rooks
On Long Diagonals
Point towards King
Bishops
Novice Session 9 :
Putting it all together
OPENING
o Develop your pieces
o Knights
o Bishops
o Rook (Castle)
o Rook (Queen battery/fork)
MIDDLEGAME
o Improve your pieces
o Outposts for knights
o Active Bishops
o Rooks on open files
o Double up rooks
o Rook lifts
o Queen batteries
THINKING
When to exchange :
•Exchange if piece up
•If opponent on attack
•When in trouble
•If you want a draw
•Don't exchange if piece down
•Don't exchange your way to the end
game
•Guess your opponent’s moves
CALCULATION
Can I check mate ?
Can he check mate ?
Opponent pieces (Queen, Rooks,
Bishops, Knights, Pawns)
• unprotected
• under-protected
• over-worked (over-loaded)
My pieces
• unprotected
• under-protected
• over-worked
Look for tactics
Create a plan
Teamwork
Assemble the pieces
Attack
When Checked :
• Capture the attacker
• Attacking Interpose
• Passive Interpose
• Escape Square
When Checking :
• Don't fly solo, have a co-pilot
• Check without mate threat is
meaningless
• Smothered mates, back rank
mates
GUIDELINES
•Don’t attack needlessly. Don’t check
needlessly
•Every move should have a purpose, in
fact Double-Purpose
•Look for double attacks
•Start the battle with the least
valuable piece
•In a battery, lead with the
rook/bishop (not queen)
•Understand why is center control
important
•Don’t send your queen away from war
for pawn shopping
•When in enemy area, queens and
rooks can vaccum clean
•Play Actively, not passively. Seize the
initiative.
•Attacks - King-side, Queen-side,
Center
•Strong attack on one side, or multiple
attacks.
•Do not overprotect pieces. Do not
preemptively protect if not necessary
•Attacking interpose better than
passive interpose