More Puzzles

White to play, mate in two moves:

White to play, mate in one move:

WELCOME McMillan Chess Team

Welcome to an excited school year 2008-2009. There are a lot of tournaments this year so you better get ready. Your first assignment online is to answer the following questions along with the solution of a puzzle. And remember, they are due on Wednesday, October 15th.

1. List all the pieces of a chess game along with their value.
2. List three strategies to follow when your opponent is attacking one of your pieces.
3. Solve the following puzzle. White to move and mate in one

Puzzles of the Week 3/10/08 to 3/14/08 !!!

Hi everyone, this is one of the most important weeks of the School Year because of the FCAT. So the puzzles for this week are simple in case you have to study for your EXAMS. Think about them, find the solutions, write the solutions in a piece of paper and bring them to Class before Friday, March 14th.

For both puzzles, white play first and checkmate black in two moves.

Good Luck !!!

McMillan 2nd Tournament Results Unexpected !!!

McMillan Chess Team celebrated their 2nd Tournament of the School Year with some mayor changes and unexpected results.

Q: Which mayor changes occurred in the Tournament?
A: The first change was the inclusion of two computers opponents in the Tournament, Seth (707) and Miranda (1154), the second change was reducing the amount of rounds going from 13 to 7 rounds only, and the last change was the rating of the Tournament, it means everyone was rated.

Q: Why the Results were unexpected?

A: For two reasons, 1st Nobody expected that Miranda 1154 (one of the computer opponents) was going to win this Tournament, and even worse the way she won it (7-0); in fact we were expecting her to get 6th or 7th place; and 2nd Nobody also expected that Aaron Guanch (our absolute winner of the First Tournament was going to have a bad Tournament)

Q: What was the Final Standing and what is the new ELO of everyone?
A: The Final standing and ELO of everyone is the following: 1st Miranda 1005, 2nd Mike Lee 1000, 3rd Nathan Larrea 952, 4th – 6th Roy Anania 925, Seth (computer opponent) 915, Donovan Garcia 925, 7th – 9th Jorge Hernandez 912, Anthony Tabbitas 912, Anthony Ros 912, 10th – 13th Aaron Guanch 885, Oscar Anchia 899, Jonas Navarro 885, Nicholas Sanchez 885, 14th Antonio Marti 877, 15th Adam Ashby 825 and 16th Rene Torres 817.

Q: What’s next for the Chess Team?
A: Study more and Get ready for the next Tournament.

South Regional Chess Tournament

For the first time a Chess Team from McMillan participated in the most important Chess Tournament in Miami; "The South Regional Chess Tournament".

The Classic Chess Tournament is always celebrated in January and this year a total of 547 kids participated.

The McMillan Chess Team played in the K-8 section where there were a total of 30 schools and 155 kids.

Our Team participated with 8 players and their standing was the following; Nathan Larrea 3.0, Mike Lee 3.0, Jonathan Ochoa 2.5, Anthony Tabbitas 2.0, Jorge Hernandez 2.0, Roy Anania 2.0, Nicholas Sanchez 1.0 and Anthony Ros 1.0.

As a Team we ended up in 12th place out of the 30 schools that participated, however we consider this the best result of our Team this school year, taking in consideration that this was the first Tournament for most of our players.

As a summary I can predict that this is just the beginning of great results that are coming up for our Chess Team, so you better keep in touch.

And now enjoy some pictures of our players in the middle of the action.

Nathan Larrea next to Mike Lee playing in the 5th round.

Jorge Hernandez playing in the 5th round. In the back Roy Anania also playing.

Jonathan Ochoa playing in the 5th round also.

Anthony Ros getting ready for the last round.

Roy Anania playing the 4th round. This was Roy's first victory.

With the "Panther Logo" on the back of his T-Shirt, Mike Lee played the 4th round while Nathan Larrea was again playing next to him.

Here Jorge Hernandez was getting ready to win his second game.

And finally I couldn't leave the Tournament without taking a picture with two of the most important Teachers - Chess Players - Friends, who I personally admire so much for their work and for what they do to help the kids learn this beautiful game. From left to right GM Renier Gonzalez, Marco A. Diez (McMillan Chess Teacher) and Andy Ramos (District Chess Coordinator)

A great 2008 !!!

Welcome back everyone. Let me first wish everybody a Happy New Year and let it be a successful one for all of us.
Secondly I want to congratulate Mike Lee and Anthony Tabbitas for their result in the last MICA Tournament celebrated at Rockway Middle School. Mike Lee ended with 3.o points while Anthony ended with 1.5, both after 5 rounds. Good job !!!
And what comes next?, the South Regional Chess Tournament on January 26; with hundreds and hundreds of students every year, the South Regional is by far the most important Tournament of the year. Everyone wants to participate and the "McMillan Chess Team" is one of them.
Mike Lee, Anthony Tabbitas, Nathan Larrea, Anthony Ros and Jorge Hernandez are ready for the action on January 26 while a few more players are still thinking about participating. Aaron Guanch, Jonas Navarro and Nicholas Sanchez are possible candidates, so hopefully these 8 members of the team will be facing students from all over the District showing and implementing all they have learnt so far of this fabulous game, sport and art; that we call "chess".
What are my predictions for the South Regional?. If only 5 students participate, I will predict to get from 12 to 15 points as a Team; and if all 8 players participate I will predict around 20 points. I will keep you posted on that.