Events

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Test Event 1

: GM Danny Gormally and WFM Sarah Longson present examples of how to create and exploit dark square weaknesses around your opponent's King. Using quality examples and exercises Danny and Sarah will arm students with a number of attacking techniques which they can use to score decisive victories in their games.

Students will receive a written summary of the key points, exercises to solve and a recording of the session.

Black Holes

: GM Keith Arkell and WFM Sarah Longson discuss some of Keith's best endgames and highlight practical tools and tips that students can use in their own games.

Students will receive training positions to practise, exercises to solve and a recording of the session

Arkell's Rook Endgames

Three times British Champion and Super Grandmaster David Howell shows some of his best attacking victories versus the fearsome Sicilian Defense. Students will become familiar with typical middlegame plans and tactical strikes that occur in the Sicilian and other openings with similar pawn structures.

Students will receive training positions to practise, exercises to solve and a recording of the session.

Smash the Sicilian  - with Super Grandmaster David Howell

: Suitable for all players up to 200 ECF grade

: Super Grandmaster will take on all-comers in a simultaneous display hosted on lichess.org.

All competitors will be logged into Zoom where they will be able to chat to David and the host WFM Sarah Longson. Players will be able to listen to David's thoughts and explanations during play.

Super Grandmaster Simul - David Howell

: GM Glenn Flear and WFM Sarah Longson will take students on a journey of king and pawn endgame discovery showcasing key thinking methodologies and tips that will enable students to get to the heart of many a tricky looking endgame.

These are smaller, more intimate sessions than a masterclass with greater chance for direct interaction between students and coaches. Greater use will be made of activities and training games to ensure the material is fully absorbed.

Some prior knowledge of king and pawn endgames is required - this will be detailed in the notes sent to students before the session.

Pawn Endgames - Workshop

: IM Brandon Clarke and WFM Sarah Longson deliver a positional chess masterclass demonstrating how to inject energy into your game by maximising your piece potential.

This session serves as a great introduction to outposts, open files and maneuvering your pieces to gain a positional advantage.

Students will receive lesson notes, exercises to solve and a recording of the session.

Energise Your Chess - Masterclass

: IM Brandon Clarke and WFM Sarah Longson deliver a positional chess masterclass demonstrating how to effectively use your pawns. According to the 18th Century genius Philidor "

This session serves as a great introduction to utilizing pawn levers to open files, carving out outposts and perceiving weakness in a positron.

Powerful Pawn Play - Masterclass

: GM Danny King and WFM Sarah Longson explore the myriad ways that stalemate can be used as a defensive weapon in the endgame. Students will develop an arsenal of ideas they can use to rescue otherwise lost positions and know which traps to avoid in those deceptive positions that look easily winning - but contain hidden traps!

Surviving by the Skin of Your Teeth - Workshop

 Suitable for novice players and players not fully comfortable with "chess notation"

 WFM Sarah Longson leads an interactive power hour where students will get to practise one of the fundamental skills a chess player needs to be able to describe what is going on on the chess board and how to follow games in books.

Once mastered this skills opens up all sorts of opportunities for the student and will enable them to fully engage in higher level classes.

Participants should be familiar with the pieces and how they move.

Navigating the 64 Squares

 Suitable for novice players and players not fully comfortable with spotting and executing checkmate in one move.

 WFM Sarah Longson leads an interactive power hour where students will get to practise perhaps the most fundamental chess skill of all - checkmate!

Sarah will describe the process and methodology that served her so well and has worked for 1000's of students Sarah has coached. Students will be able to practise this in the class and get support and feedback on their efforts.

Participants should be familiar with the pieces and how they move. Students should also be familiar with the concept of check and how to escape check.

Checkmate Challenge

: IM Brandon Clarke and WFM Sarah Longson deliver an attacking chess masterclass describing various attacking methods of how to dismantle a kingside fianchetto position.

The attacking patterns and methods described in this class occur regularly in practical play and will prove to be a valuable attacking tool in the hands of the attentive student.

Blowing Down the House - Masterclass

: IM Brandon Clarke and WFM Sarah Longson deliver an attacking chess masterclass demonstrating how to spot attacking opportunities with the enemy king caught in the middle of the board.

This explosive attacking technique will provide the student with many quick and brutal victories!

Caught in the Middle - Masterclass

: IM Brandon Clarke and WFM Sarah Longson explore some of the most important minor piece (bishop and knight) endgames. Students will develop a rich feel for recurring ideas and the subtleties that underpin these rich endgame positions. Many junior players struggle with the endgame phase and so developing a proficiency in this area is sure to pay off.

Minor Piece Endgames - IM Workshop

Wondering whether online chess lessons might be a good fit for your child? Take advantage of our free trial session with former British Ladies Champion Sarah Longson and find out now! We're confident they will love it.

: Zoom - full instructions will be sent in advance

: Quickstart overview of the game and fun group activity.

Free Trial - Chess Lesson with Sarah Longson

: IM Adam Hunt and WFM Sarah Longson explore a selection of dynamic pawn structures from popular openings such as the Sicilian Najdorf and Kings Indian. Students will develop a feel for handling such positions and some of the typical plans that are available for both sides.

Dynamic Structures - IM Workshop

: The highly experienced coaching duo of GM John Emms and WFM Sarah Longson look at some classic Grandmaster strategic games and draw out the key lessons that students can take away from these to apply in their own games.

Grandmaster Strategy - Workshop

: GM Danny King and WFM Sarah Longson explore the complexities of resolving pins. Often the act of unpinning leads to additional weaknesses that may not be apparent to the inexperienced player.

A Pinful Dilemma - GM Workshop with Danny King

10:00 - 10:30  Introduction and warmup puzzles

From 10 until the end we will be live streaming the event. The chess will take part on our lichess team page 

https://lichess.org/team/ukcc-spring-term-2021

. If you haven’t already registered on our team page please do so now by clicking the link above and clicking “Join Team”

Easter Saturday Special

: GM Glenn Flear and WFM Sarah Longson explore the defender’s dilemma of whether to stay passive or go active in rook endgames. Mastering this tricky balance will ensure the student picks up many more crucial half point in competition.

Active or Passive? A GM Workshop

: IM Brandon Clarke and WFM Sarah Longson explore the important skill of converting winning positions. Accurately converting such positions requires excellent technique and there are a number of tips and tools that will enable the student to feel much more confident in this stage of the game.

Converting Winning Endgames - IM Workshop

Join WFM Sarah Longson for a power hour of chess where we will run through some of the key skills we will need to show in the Megafinals. Topics covered include

This session is designed for “Novice” players - those with less than 2 years tournament experience and with ECF grades less than 80 (or unrated players). 

UKCC Megafinal Training - Novice

Join WFM Sarah Longson for a power hour of chess where we will run through some of the key skills needed to be successful in the Megafinals. 

This session is designed for “Intermediate” players with grades in the range of 80 - 130.

UKCC Megafinal Training - Intermediate

Join WFM and UK Chess Challenge Director Sarah Longson for a last minute shot of chess training tips and advice. With the final megafinal weekend coming up on the 26th and 27th June half a point could make all the difference.

This session is designed especially for inexperienced players or those with ECF grades below 1400 (100 in ‘old money’). However more experienced players may still benefit from some of the practical advice. 

Megafinal Training - Last Chance Saloon

: IM Adam Hunt and WFM Sarah Longson explore a selection of exciting pawn endgames including pawn races and breakthroughs.

​These are smaller, more intimate sessions than a masterclass with greater chance for direct interaction between students and coaches. Greater use will be made of activities and training games to ensure the material is fully absorbed.

​Students will receive training positions to practise, exercises to solve and a recording of the session.

IM Workshop - Tactical Pawn Endgames with Adam Hunt

 Grandmaster Workshop - Practical Rook Endgames

: The highly experienced coaching duo of GM John Emms and WFM Sarah Longson look at the most common type of endgame - Rook Endgames. John is an expert in these positions and will impart vital practical knowledge to the students on how to handle these positions in their games.

Grandmaster Workshop - Practical Rook Endgames w GM John Emms

WFM Sarah Longson discusses one of her favourite games from her glittering career! Students have the opportunity to play along and guess the move.

Sarah's Sizzlers

Our favourite class type - the Classic Checkmate Challenge. No matter what standard the student - learning and practising the checkmate patterns is essential. After a quick lesson students get to practise their checkmate skills with puzzles tailored to their level.

It's accepted wisdom that the best way to improve at anything is with practice, practice, practise! Puzzle Mania takes that concept to the maximum by ensuring students receive an action packed session solving puzzles at the edge of their "comfort zone" with our instructors offering encouragement and guidance.

Puzzle Mania

Students are shown a prime example of "Attacking Chess" and at critical moments of the game are asked to select the move they would play.

Attacking the King is one of the fundamental pillars of chess mastery and the one that most players find the most enjoyable - all chess players remember their successful attacks!

Attacking Chess

Endgame Workouts allow students to "play-out" endgame positions against the computer or other students. But first our instructor will show the correct techniques required before the student puts these skills to the test.

"Basic Mates" covers those situations at the end of the game where we have to finish our opponent off. These range in difficulty from King & Queen v King through to the difficult Queen v Rook.

Endgame Workout - Basic Mates

In this fun and enlightening session we look at some examples of how not to play the opening and how to take advantage of dubious gambits and over-optimistic play. Even the very best occasionally get it wrong in the opening and so we must always be on our guard in this phase of the game.

Opening Disasters

classes cover that crucial element of chess strategy that we call "

". This is something juniors in particular can struggle with and so we ensure that even the most aggressive players have a sound positional foundation on which to build tournament success.

Ripe Pickings features our popular Quizizz format and focuses on 

Positional Mastery - Ripe Pickings

workouts ensure students get plenty of opportunity to sharpen their tactical skills. Teichmann said that "chess is 99% tactics" and whilst we wouldn't necessarily go that far there is little doubt that it is 

This week we are covering "forks" or "double attacks" as they are sometimes referred as.  

Tactical Trickery - Forks

Two Teams go head to head in an exciting team battle with our experienced instructor providing commentary, insights and a healthy dollop of banter.

A favourite amongst those players who just like to play and a great equaliser as players who don't necessarily always win the big prizes still score crucial points for their teams.

Battle Royale

IM (and British rapid champion) Brandon Clarke discusses his best games and students are able to play along and decide what they would played and ask questions throughout.

Brandon's Brilliancies

Tactical Trickery - Pins

"Open Files" features our popular Quizizz format and focuses on a very important positional concept.  

Positional Mastery - Open Files

We go through the solutions to the weekend's puzzle sheets paying attention to the process of how we solve problems in chess and how to apply this to our games.

Student's are strongly encouraged to tackle the puzzle sheet at home 

Study Club

"Pawn Endgames" covers the most fundamental endgame of all - being able to understand these endgames helps us unlock the key to all other endgames.

Endgame Workout - Pawn Endgames

"Rook Endgames" are the most common type of endgame occurring in approximately 1 in 10 games.

Endgame Workout - Rook Endgames

These sessions are for players new to the game who are learning about how the pieces move so that they can play a full game. This session will be based on bishops - once students learn how it moves they will look at clever ideas with the bishop.

Beginner Booster

"Outposts" features our popular Quizizz format and focuses on a very important positional concept.  

This week we are covering "discovered attacks". 

Tactical Trickery - Discovered Attacks

Our UKCC U18 Terafinalist will be taking on players at the same time in a simultaneous display. 16 players can take part and there will be prizes for anyone who beats him (not if they win on time!). 

-you will have 5+2 mins on the clock and he will have an 40/50 extra minutes.

Edward Jackson Simul

Our UKCC U18 Variant Champion and Online Terafinalist 2021 will be taking on players at the same time in a simultaneous display. You can play normal chess or any variant against him. He is very good and expecting to get 100%. Can anyone beat the Queen Eating Dragon?

There will be prizes for anyone who beats him (not if they win on time!). 

-you will have 5+2 on the clock and he will have 40/50 extra minutes depending on how many opponents he is taking on.

QueenEatingDragon Simul

Our UKCC U10 Terafinalist will be taking on players at the same time in a simultaneous. 17 players can take part and there will be prizes for anyone who beats him (not if they win on time!). 

-you will have 5+2 on the clock and he will have 40 extra minutes.

ForkPower Simul

"Fighting for the Open Files" features our popular Quizizz format and focuses on a very important positional concept.  

"Diagonals" features our popular Quizizz format and focuses on a very important positional concept.  

Positional Mastery - Diagonals

This week we are covering "double check". 

Tactical Trickery - Double Check

classes cover important concepts from famous games that players can apply in their own games.

UK Chess Challenge (WFM Sarah Longson)

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