Knight Award

As noted in “Pawn Award”, I created my awards based youth chess curriculum twenty years ago. It provides structure to lessons in after school clubs and with individual students. It assures that those who stick with the program acquire certain skills that provide a foundation for lifelong chess improvement.

Many students skip the Pawn Award because they have been playing and even competing before I start working with them. For some of them, the Knight Award is earned in the first or second session. For others, some work is necessary.

1. Previously earned Pawn, or achieve a NWSRS rating over 500.

In Washington state, unlike many parts of the United States, casual players are not required to join the US Chess Federation* in order to compete in tournaments. More than likely, this difference partly accounts for the level of youth chess activity activity in our state—our annual state elementary is among the largest chess events in the US and certainly represents the highest per capita activity level in the 50 states.

Our rating system is the Northwest Scholastic Rating System. It employs the same formula as the US Chess Federation, but is free to organizers and participants. A student who has a NWSRS rating above 500 has scored enough tournament wins that familiarity with basic rules can be assumed. Even so, some of these students may yet have some confusion with rules for castling and en passant.

2. Demonstrate understanding of checkmate of lone king with heavy pieces:

* queen and rook,
* queen and king, and
* rook and king (each from two random positions selected by the coach).

Checkmate ends a game of chess. Everyone knows this and yet not every chess player begins by learning basic checkmate skills thoroughly.

When testing understanding of checkmate with queen and rook, I generally look for understanding of the first two endings in Bruce Pandolfini, Pandolfini’s Endgame Course (1988). Most students have learned the “rolling barrier” by the time I test them. This elementary checkmate is also called the ladder mate. It was the first checkmate that I learned nearly sixty years ago.

However, Pandolfini’s first mate, the “queen and rook roll”, is not one beginners have generally mastered in my experience, although it should be learned first. Learning it assures the student can coordinate two heavy pieces well both to control the opponent’s king and to assure that both are safe from capture.

Pandolfini presents this position with White to move.

Black is threatening to capture White’s rook. Students who need work on this elementary mate will often withdraw the rook to a safer square. Others will lose the rook, which still allows them to complete a different checkmate test (see below).

The correct move, however, is to bring the queen up where it checks the king and protects the rook from capture. Doing so leaves Black’s king with a single legal move. A post in 2011 explains the technique with some useful diagrams (see “Lesson of the Week: Elementary Checkmates”).

Checkmate with queen and rook should be understood so well that exhaustion and time pressure will not interfere with success. When Ryan Ackerman** was Mead High School’s top player, he and I practiced performing this at the Spokane Chess Club one Thursday with only ten seconds on the clock. We consistently played ten perfect moves in six seconds. Our starting position was a version of the “hardest position” (the longest distance to mate with such material).

White to move

Performing this checkmate in the optimal ten moves requires understanding of how to coordinate both pieces well and requires some calculation. If a student can do it in fifteen moves, they pass the test. If they move the queen systematically until the defending king is cornered with only two squares, and then bring up the king, it will require more than fifteen moves, but I still award a pass.

I encourage all students to learn optimal technique. Here’s my play against Stockfish this morning These moves and some variations can be viewed at my Lichess study, "Simply Perfect". Note that Black’s king was never put in check until checkmate. Control by restriction is a vital skill, and one that young chess players do not easily learn.

My post, “Teaching Elementary Checkmates” has some instructive positions for learning this technique. Some of these positions are from a book published in 1822 that I find more useful than more recent books: William Lewis, Elements of the Game of Chess. The author was England’s strongest player for a few years at the time and is most remembered as one of those who hid inside the famous chess playing “machine” sometimes called “the Turk”.

Checkmate with a rook and king against a lone king takes sixteen moves with perfect play from the hardest position. If the student demonstrates technique sufficient to accomplish the task in 25-30 moves, I consider it a passing performance. The second game in "Simply Perfect" on Lichess shows one example of perfect play.

3. Demonstrate understanding of “fox in the chicken coop” pawn promotion technique.

The tactical advantages of an outside passed pawn in the endgame is one of the aspects of fundamental endgame knowledge upon which it is possible to build advanced skills. Jeremy Silman calls a winning technique with such material the “fox in the chicken coop” in Silman’s Complete Endgame Course (2007). One of the early posts a few months after I started Chess Skills (this blog) in 2007 shows a position from which I played a somewhat forcing ten move sequence to reach such a pawn ending in a tournament game. Calculating that deeply occurs rarely (see "Kings and Pawns"). Moves 31-34, I exchanges two rooks and a knight for two rooks and a pawn. Moves 35-39, both kings raced to capture the opponent's weakest pawn. At that point, I had the move in this position.

White to move

40.b3 struck me as the simplest way to assure that my queenside pawn majority would assure the creation of a passed pawn.

A few moves later, we reached another critical position that was easy to play because of understanding the core idea of how to use an outside passed pawn.

White to move

The only winning move is 47.c5, leading to exchanging two queenside pawns for Black's remaining pawn on that side of the board. The point (as I understood at move 31) was to lure Black's king far from the action on the kingside, where my king mowed down Black's last two pawns. My opponent resigned one move before checkmate on move 65.

In testing this skill, the student will be presented with a made-up position or perhaps one from a game that requires demonstration of understanding how a pawn majority on one wing of the board leads to certain victory with a dominating king on the other wing. For instance, this position, which arose while playing the position from my game against the computer instead of my human opponent.

White to move

4. Complete “Knight Award: checkmates and tactics” worksheet.

The Checkmates and Tactics worksheets consist of a series of exercises of increasing difficulty: Pawn Award, 6 mates in one; Knight Award, 8 checkmate puzzles with mate in 2-5 moves, and 4 exercises where material gain is forced; Bishop Award, 24 exercises, half leading to checkmate; Rook Award, 48 exercises, less than half lead to checkmate; and Queen Award, 60 exercises. These have been published with solutions as Checkmates and Tactics (2019). The book version also has a useful glossary of tactics. Naturally, I prefer that students working the awards do not look at the answers in the book while completing the worksheets.

5. Demonstrates ability to read chess notation.

Chess notation is the language of chess. Today, the system known as algebraic has become standard all over the world. When I was young, the US, England, and other English speaking countries used English descriptive. For the Knight Award, I present the student with a game score and have them show me the game.

Here is an example:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bc4 Nxe4 5. Nxe4 d5 6. Bxd5 Qxd5 7. d3 Bg4 8. O-O Nd4 9. Be3 Nxf3+ 10. gxf3 Bh3 11. Re1 Be7 12. f4 O-O-O 13. Qf3 Be6 14. f5 Bd7 15. c4 Qxd3 16. b3 Bc6 17. Red1 Qxe4 18. Rxd8+ Rxd8 19. Qxe4 Bxe4 20. Rc1 Bxf5 21. Kg2 f6 22. f4 exf4 23. Bxf4 Bd6 24. Be3 Be4+ 25. Kf1 Bxh2 26. Bc5 f5 27. Be7 Rd2 28. a4 f4 29. Bg5 f3 30. Bxd2 Bg3 31. Be3 h5 32. Rd1 h4 33. Rd4 Bf5 34. Bg5 Bh3+ 35. Kg1 f2+ 36. Kh1 f1=R# {Eric Rosen won by checkmate} 0-1

The game comes from IM Eric Rosen's speedrun.

My YouTube video, Reading Chess Notation, explains what students need to learn (and also features a game that will help with the mate in five in the Checkmates and Tactics exercises).



*Nonetheless, we are pushing strong players to join the USCF so that Washington state will be well-represented when the USCF Grade Level Nationals come to Spokane in December 2025.
**Ryan is now a professional chess coach. He won the Spokane City Championship in 2022 and again in 2023.

Cutting Off

Young chess players are quick to attack pieces directly. Learning to anticipate the opponent's plans and prevent them does not come naturally. In my experience, young beginning players must be shown this simple mate in two many times before the idea of cutting off sinks in.

White to move

It is an ancient exercise that I first recall seeing and beginning to use with students while perusing Bruce Pandolfini, Pandolfini's Endgame Course. With a group of students who are finishing the Pawn Award and beginning to work towards the Knight Award, I prefaced this position with two others from this week's online play.

These positions are more difficult for beginners, so we spent some time on them.

Black to move

Facing a threat to my a-pawn that would upset the material equilibrium, I confined White's king to the first rank with a checkmate threat.

43...Bg3

White failed to find the most stubborn defense, played 44.Rd6? and resigned while I was contemplating how to remove the rook. After 44.Re8+ Kh7 45.Rf8, there is no checkmate threat. Nonetheless, Black is winning a pawn after 45...Rd3 46.Kf1 (46.Rf3 Rxf3 47.gxf3 Be5 is worse, and White's a-pawn still falls) 46...Rxa3.

The second illustration shows the same cutting off idea with a piece on g3, although Black had many ways of winning.

Black to move

24...Qg3 (24...f4 is best) 25.Rf1 Re1 26.Qc4 Rxf1 27.Qxf1 Re1 and White resigned.

My intent was to show these two positions from recent online play, then have the students solve the mate in two from Pandolfini. Hopefully, the idea of restricting the opponent's choices, rather than direct and often futile checks, will sink in.

Continuing the theme of cutting off, I found several instructive exercises in László Polgár, Chess Endgames. This study by Nikolai Antonovich Kopaev was the first.

White to move

White must find a sequence of "only" moves. Alternatives draw. This exercise and those that follow in Polgár's massive book build endgame technique.

Outside Passed Pawn

In Jeremy Silman, Silman's Complete Endgame Course (2007), he uses the term "the fox in the chicken coop" for the concept that I learned as "outside passed pawn". It is a skill that I routinely teach beginning students and require for completion of my Knight Award. The core idea that Silman explains--abandoning a passed pawn to create another--appears in the endgame book that I have had since my youth. Irving Chernev, Practical Chess Endings (1961) presents this position. Perhaps that is where I first learned the concept many years ago.

White to move

Chernev explains, "White abandons his passed pawn. Capturing it will keep Black busy on one side of the board, while White gets time to win on the other" (39). He gives the moves:

1.Kf5 Kh6 2.Ke5 Kxh5 3.Kd5 Kg6 4.Kc6 Kf6 5.Kxb6 Ke7 6.Kc7

When young players learn this simple idea, they have a requisite skill for navigating a great many pawn endings that will occur in their own games.

Chernev gives a second solution that employs a fundamentally different set of principles, but that leads to a faster checkmate. Hence, the position is less than ideal for my purposes. Even so, I had the exact position in a blitz game in July 2021 and played it according to book.

Silman's illustration is cleaner. While there are several winning moves that can be played, his solution appears to follow the top engine moves.

White to move

1.b5 Kb7 2.Ka5 Ka7 3.b6+ Kb7 4.Kb5 Kb8 5.Kc6 Kc8 6.Kd6 Kb7 7.Ke6 Kxb6 8.Kxf6 Kc7

White to move

9.Kxg5

Silman writes, "the rest is mindlessly easy" (67).

I would play 9.Ke7, which wins faster.

When teaching or testing students, I usually compose positions on the spot. But, perhaps it would be useful to have a printed sheet in my chess bag with some of the most instructive positions from books and game. Paul Keres, Practical Chess Endings (1974) offers one that is excellent. His term is "distant passed pawn" (55). As he notes, without the passed pawn that will be sacrificed (or exchanged for Black's passed pawn), White would be lost. 

White to move

1.f5 Ke5 2.f6 Kxf6 3.Kxd4 Ke6 4.Kc5 Kd7 5.Kxb5 Kc7 6.Ka6

Reviewing my own internet games stretching back to the late-twentieth century produced many positions where the basic idea of using a passed pawn to deflect the opponent's king from the main scene was required. In many cases, the correct move was not played.

I played it correctly in this position from the Internet Chess Club in 2001.

Black to move

38...b3! was the only winning move. My opponent resigned after 39.Kxb3 Kxd5 40.Kc3 Ke4 41.Kd2 Kf3

Thinking I was applying this idea, I managed to throw away the win in this game from 2001.

White to move

I played 45.h4 and succeeded in forcing Black's king to the h-file while gobbling Black's two remaining pawns with my king. However, Black's king was able to get back to the a-file in time. This position shows that calculation is necessary in pawn endings and sometimes there is more than one idea in play.

1.Kf4! is the only winning move.

If Black then goes after the a-pawn, White needs to win a queen vs. pawn ending where it is important that Black's pawn is two squares from promotion. If the Black king tries to get the the h-file, then the distant passed pawn is far enough away that White will be able to promote the a-pawn.

Beating Your Dad at Chess

Game of the Week

My exercise set for the Knight Award has this position.

White to move

It is the exercise that my students find most difficult among the dozen in that set. The position arose in a game Paul Morphy played against his father when he was twelve years old.

An earlier position from this game appears as the third position in Thomas Engqvist, 300 Most Important Chess Positions (2018).

White to move

In the game, Paul Morphy's father, Alonzo, made several errors. Maybe he was not a very strong chess player. Maybe he sought to help build his son's confidence. Young Paul's moves are not in every case the first choice of today's engines, but his overall play demonstrates that already at the age of twelve, he understood the importance of rapid mobilization of his pieces and was not afraid to sacrifice material to exploit a vulnerable king.

Morphy,Paul C -- Morphy,Alonzo [C51]
New Orleans, 1849

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Bc5 6.d4 exd4 7.cxd4

7.0–0 became a common reply in the 1860s. Both moves score well for White.

7...Bb6

7...Bb4+ is possible

8.0–0

Black to move

8...Na5

The elder Morphy neglects development, but as his son is usually credited with discovering the importance of development, our judgement should not be too harsh.

8...d6 would have been better.

9.Bd3 d5

Opening the e-file cannot be good for Black. The king's vulnerability will create the conditions for young Paul to show the skills that would become his signature.

9...Ne7;
9...d6

10.exd5 Qxd5

Father seems determined to help his son.

10...Ne7 11.Ba3 0–0 12.Qc2

11.Ba3 Be6 12.Nc3 Qd7

See Engqvist's position above.

13.d5!

Morphy understood that material does not matter when Black's king is vulnerable.

13... Bxd5

13...0–0–0 14.Qc2 (14.dxe6 Qxd3 15.exf7 Nf6 16.Be7)

14.Nxd5

My main line while looking at the position in Engqvist's book was 14.Bb5 c6 15.Re1+ Be6. I had not yet recognized the game as the source for my exercise.

14...Qxd5

White to move

15.Bb5+

Engines like 15.Re1+ Kd8 16.Be4 Qd7 (16...Nf6 avoids checkmate) 17.Qxd7+ Kxd7 18.Rad1+ Kc8 19.Bf5+ Kb8 20.Re8#

15...Qxb5 16.Re1+ Ne7 17.Rb1

Much better is 17.Rxe7+ Kf8 18.Ne5.

17...Qa6

This move offers White a forced checkmate.

17...Qd7 18.Rxe7+ Qxe7 19.Bxe7 Kxe7 White still has a decisive edge, but has much work remaining after his relatively weak move 17.

White to move

18.Rxe7+ Kf8 19.Qd5

There is a faster checkmate, but it is hard to fault Morphy for pursuing a checkmate in two that can be delayed through spite checks.

19.Rxf7+ Kxf7 20.Qd7+ Kf6 21.Be7+ Kg6 22.Qe6+ Kh5 23.g4#

19...Qc4

See my position for the Knight Award at the top of this post.

19...Bxf2+ delays the end with spite checks.

20.Rxf7+ Kg8 21.Rf8# 1–0

I beat my dad when I played him at age fifteen, but my play lacked the sort of combinations that Morphy displayed. No record was made of the game (see "My First Chess Book").

More of the Same

In my Knight Award exercises, I include a position from Horvath -- Vigus, Haarlem 1998.

White to move

This exercise was part of my lesson of the week just before the winter holiday last December, where it was paired with a similar position from one of my online blitz games (see "Pattern Training").

This morning, while reading an old classic that I acquired yesterday, I found a similar position.

White to move

This position is given as Gutmatyer -- Sviderski 1928 in Mikhail Tal, and Victor Khenkin, Tal's Winning Chess Combinations, trans. Hanon W. Russell (1979). I failed to locate this game in any of my databases.

White played 1.Rc1, and then missing the checkmate threat, Black blundered with 1...Qxe5. Tal and Khenkin observe that 1...Qd3 was Black's correct response.

Karel Traxler's Brilliancy

Lesson of the Week

My advanced students spent half an hour on the game that gave the Traxler Counter-Attack its name.

Reinisch,J -- Traxler,Karel [C57]
Hrána vs. Hostoun, Hostoun, 20.03.1890

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 Bc5

4...d5 is the most common move here, leading either to the Fried Liver Attack or a variation, considered safer for Black, that has several names for different White approaches. These were mentioned briefly.

Someone entered notes by Karel Traxler in this game on chessgames.com. Traxler wrote concerning 4...Bc5, which he appears to have been the first to play, "An original combination that is better than it looks. A small mistake by white can give black a decisive attack. It is not easy to find the best defense against it." His entire notes to the game, published in Zláta Praha (14 October 1892), are available online at Digitalizovaný Archiv Časopisů.

White to move

This position is exercise 9 in my Knight Award Problems (see the complete set at "Knight Award Problems"). I use this position to encourage students to chose a few opening tableaus that they study with the intention of being better prepared than their opponents. It is a position that is often reached in youth chess tournaments.

5.Nxf7!?

5.Bxf7 Ke7 and then either 6.Bd5 or 6.Bb3 leaves White a pawn ahead and thus an advantage.

5...Bxf2+ 6.Ke2

Two other lines must be explored as well, if the student is to be well prepared to play 5.Nxf7.

a) 6.Kf1 seems best.
b) 6.Kxf2 invites 6...Nxe4 7.Kg1 is best, and there are very good drawing chances after 7...Qh4 8.g3 Nxg3 9.hxg3 Qxg3+ 10.Kf1 Rf8.

In line b, 7.Ke2 leads to 7...Nd4+ and Black seems to be winning.
7.Ke3 is playable, but risky. A game in our school club a few years ago continued 7...Qh4 8.Nxh8?? (the decisive error) 8...Qf4+ 9.Kd3 Nb4+ 10.Ke2 Qf2#.

6...Nd4+

Students suggested 7.Kxf2! Nxe4+ 8.Kg1 and it is not clear that Black's attack will prove decisive. Meanwhile, both sides have problems.

7.Kd3 b5!

White to move

Already, White's position is very difficult.

8.Bb3

Traxler planned to meet 8.Nxd8 with 8...bxc4+ 9.Kxc4 Ba6+ 10.Kb4 and Black's attack is worth more than the sacrificed queen.

Of course, after 8.Bxb5, Black has 8...Kxf7.

8...Nxe4 9.Nxd8

9.Kxe4 is no good. 9...d5+ 10.Kd3 Bf5+ 11.Kc3 Ne2+ 12.Qxe2 Bd4+ 13.Kb4 a5+ and checkmate next move.

Black to move

Black now has a forced checkmate in nine.

9...Nc5+ 10.Kc3 Ne2+ 11.Qxe2

11.Kb4 leads to checkmate one move faster.

Bd4+ 12.Kb4 a5+ 13.Kxb5 Ba6+ 14.Kxa5 Bd3+ 

14...Bxe2+ does not lead to a faster win. Traxler chose the poetic option.

15.Kb4 Na6+ 16.Ka4 

16.Ka3 Bc5+ 17.Ka4 Nb4#.

16...Nb4+ 17.Kxb4 c5# 0–1

Checkmate

White has all of his pieces, having given up only two pawns in the battle. But, chess is about the king, not material superiority.

My beginning students completed the worksheets, Essential Tactics 5 and 6. Here are two of the exercises.

White to move

White to move

All of the exercises from these worksheets, as well as the solutions are now available in a Kindle book: Essential Tactics: Building a Foundation for Chess Skill (2017).

Pattern Training

During the last sessions before the holiday break, I sought to impress upon my young students a benefit that comes from tactics training. Work enough problems and patterns from training start appearing in one's own games.

The beginning students started with the Pawn Award: Checkmates and Tactics worksheet. This worksheet has six positions in which White can deliver checkmate on the move. I was happy that many of them were able to solve most of the problems rather quickly. Even so, one problem continues to prove difficult for beginners. As there is only one move that checks the enemy king, the difficulty beginners have in finding this move perplexes me.

White to move

After completing the six exercises, I showed two more positions to the beginning students. One is problem 10 on the Knight Award: Checkmates and Tactics worksheet. I gave each student a copy of the worksheet and directed their attention to number 10.

White to move

The position comes from Horvath -- Vigus, Haarlem 1998. I did not expect the beginners to solve it. I let them guess for a few minutes, then walked them through the solution. I sought to get them to imagine the sequence of moves in their head as I described them. A few could "see" it.

Then, I directed the students' attention to the demo board, where there was a position from a game that I played earlier this week. I wanted them to see how the solution found by Horvath and my game featured essentially the same pattern.

White to move

My advanced students saw only the second and third diagrams. I expected them to be able to solve the two positions.

Cutting Off

Beginning chess players prefer direct attacks. In order to become adept at finishing a game with an advantage of overwhelming force, players need to learn to restrict the opponent's choices. Instead of endless checking, which leads nowhere, a beginning player must learn to first cut off the escape.

My beginning students this week were presented with a worksheet that has six diagrams. I asked them to set up each position on a chessboard and find the checkmate that required the fewest moves. After they had spent ten minutes on the worksheet, we went over all of the correct solutions on the demonstration board.

For readers needing to develop these skills, several of my previous posts my be helpful: "Checkmate with Heavy Pieces" links to a video that I made; "Lesson of the Week" (November 2011) and "Teaching Elementary Checkmates" offer instruction with static diagrams.

Knight Award Problems

The twelve problems for the Knight Award require some tactical understanding on the part of the student. One problem has two solutions that are checkmate in five. Another problem has two correct solutions--one safe, one risky. When testing students, I accept either answer, but then make the student play out the position.

These problems are part of a series of 150 that I call Checkmates and Tactics. There are six checkmates in one for the Pawn Award. These twelve. For the Bishop Award, there are twenty-four problems, half leading to checkmate. The number increases to forty-eight for the Rook Award. Sixty Queen Award problems cap the series.

My awards become progressively more difficult. Only strong and devoted students will progress through the Rook and Queen Awards.

Knight Award: checkmates and tactics.

Find the move or combination that wins material or leads to checkmate in each position. White moves first in each. Eight end in checkmate; four result in gain of material.*

*Ten problems are from actual games. Two are composed problems published in 1512 by Pedro Damiano.