Ralph Ghnatios

Week

Session Topic/Theme

Class Structure 

Students will do & learn: 

Materials needed 

1

Basic Endgame: Queen and king VS king

2) Promoting a pawn to a queen and using the same technique to win

Warm up: Checkmate in one positions while waiting for other students (4 questions)

Intro: Describing a queen and king VS king position and how to approach it.

Content: 1) Revealing the 3 steps to win this basic endgame.

2) Practicing on the board and getting all the students involved.

3) Reaching the checkmate position where the king is cornered.

4) Finishing the game and avoiding stalemate.

5) How can we end up in a similar endgame if we have one pawn only.

Closing: Resume, reminder of the 3 steps to win the basic endgame and a few tips.

Chess board (optional)

2

Basic Endgame:

Rook and king VS king

Warm up: Checkmate in one positions while waiting for other students (4 questions)

Intro: Reminder of basic endgame: Queen and king VS king.

Introducing the Rook and king VS king basic endgame

Content: 1) Revealing the 3 steps to win this basic endgame.

2) Practicing on the board and getting all the students involved.

3) Reaching the checkmate position where the king is cornered.

4) Finishing the game and avoiding stalemate.

Closing:  Resume, reminder of the 3 steps to win the basic endgame and a few tips.

Chess board (optional)

3 

Simple Endgame with good bishop

Warm up: Checkmate in one positions while waiting for other students (4 questions)

Intro:  Definition of a pawn chain and good bishop

Content: 1) Showing what are the necessary steps to win this endgame.

2) Give the students a chance to think creatively and find the moves on the board to capture the opponent’s pawns.

3) Understanding that the king can become an active piece in the endgame.

4) Support the pawns and move them up the board.

5) Reaching the promotion square with one of our pawns.

6)Checkmate and winning

Closing: Reminder of the points explained during the session and checking the assimilated knowledge and skills during the session.

Chess board (optional)

4

Simple Endgame with good knight

Warm up: Challenging Checkmate in one positions while waiting for other students (2 questions)

Intro: Reminder on pawn chain and how to attack it

Content: 1) attacking the base of the pawn chain.

2) Visualizing the path of the knight on board 

3) Reaching the target with the knight

4) Capturing opponent’s pawns

5) Moving up the board with the pawns till the promotion square

6) Promoting and winning

Closing: Repeating the key points on the simple endgame that was solved.

Chess board (optional)

5

Profitable exchange and decision making in chess.

Warm up: Challenging Checkmate in one positions while waiting for other students (2 questions)

Intro: 1) Definition of a profitable exchange and the value of each chess piece.

Content:1) Using that knowledge to solve several examples

2) Calculating the outcome of an exchange.

3) Decision making: What move should be played

4) Special position with a checkmate using castling move.

Closing: More Examples on profitable exchange and a conclusion on how to make a decision while playing on which piece to capture or save.

Chess board (optional)

6

Double attack

Warm up: Challenging Checkmate in one positions while waiting for other students (two questions)

Intro: Definition of a double attack and how to use it to capture material and threaten a checkmate.

Content: 1) Some basic examples on double attack

2) Some challenging examples on double attack

3) Searching for unprotected pieces on the board.

4) Using the value of the pieces to decide what to capture after performing a double attack.

5) Checkmate using en passant move

6) Introducing the concept of checkmate in two moves.

Closing: Reminder on value of pieces and how to search for potential targets for double attack.

Chess board (optional)

7

Double attack part 2

Intro: Review: Double attack

Content: 1) Advanced double attack positions and how to solve them

2) Simple checkmate in two moves examples.

3) More challenging checkmate in two moves examples.

4) Back rank checkmate and how to use it.

Closing: Session review and few recommendations

Chess board (optional)

8

Discovered attack

Warm up: Checkmate in two moves while waiting for the remaining students( two questions)

Intro: Definition of a discovered attack

Content: 1)Finding a discovered attack on the board.

2) Playing a discovered attack

3) Making the most of it and gaining biggest amount of material

4) Solving several examples

Closing: Review and some ideas to remember

Chess board (optional)

9

Endgame basics

Warm up: Checkmate in two moves ( two questions)

Intro: Some important points about chess endgame

Content:1) Choosing the side of our attack.

2) Understanding the queen side, king side and center.

3) Using pawn majority to decide the side of attack.

4) The activity of the king in the endgame.

5) promotion and winning

Closing: Review on important points in an endgame

Chess board (optional)

10

Double check

Warm up: Checkmate in two moves while waiting for the remaining students( two questions)

Intro: Definition of a Double check

Content: 1)Finding a double check on the board.

2) Playing a double check

3) Making the most of it and gaining biggest amount of material

4) Solving several examples

Closing: Review and some ideas to remember

11

Pinned pieces

Warm up : Checkmate in two moves while waiting for the remaining students( two questions)

Intro: Definition of a pin and how to use it

Content: 1) Spotting a pinned piece

2) playing a pin 

3) Taking advantage of a pinned piece to win material

4) taking advantage of a pin to perform a checkmate

Closing: review on pinned pieces and how to use them

12

Mixed motifs and tactics

Warm up : Checkmate in two moves while waiting for the remaining students  ( two questions)

Intro: Review on some tactics and how to use them.

Content: 1) Several examples with discovered attack, double check and pinned pieces.

Closing: Review on tactical motifs and some recommendations.