Beginner Lessons Summer 2023

Published on by harthousechess

It’s another semester, which means lessons are starting up again! For 12-weeks this Summer, the Club is hosting free lessons for all members of the Club. Students can become members for free.

Summer semester lessons begin this Friday, June 9th, 2023 and run until September 1st, 2023! 13-weeks of free chess classes for everyone interested in learning and being in a chess environment! Students can get their free membership and show up day-of! No need to commit to all lessons – you can show up to one, some, or all of them! Community members can become a Hart House Chess Club member for the summer to take part in lessons.  The lessons are structured in a way that missing lessons due to midterms, assignments, and exams will not affect learning outcomes.

Beginner Lessons: Fridays, 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM will be taught by Victor Zheng (CFC: 2079) and Bowen Zhang (CFC 1348). Victor is a 3rd year CS Specialist student, a Varsity Chess Team player, and Secretary/President of the Club this year. Bowen is a 4th year Medical Biophysics PHD student and Events Director of the Club who also has lots of experience coaching beginners on playing chess! Both are looking forward to sharing their knowledge with everyone this summer!

Format: (Note: this format may change) The first 45 minutes will be a prepared lesson conducted on the weekly selected topic. Then, the second 45 minutes will be a mixture of activities such as playing out a positions, blindfold chess, hand and brain, blitz tournaments, or other interactive chess activities. 

Beginner Lesson Plan for Summer 2023: (subject to change) 

  1. The rules of chess/mate in one, piece value, piece value in relation to pawn structure
  2. Basic Checkmates/more complicated piece checkmates
  3. Double attack, discovered check, double check, forks and windmills
  4. Skewers, pins
  5. Overloading (golden rule of attacking) deflection, attraction, clearance
  6. Zugzwang (in the middle game and in the endgame – pawn promotion)
  7. Checkmate patterns (backrank etc.)
  8. Pawn endgames (majority v minority etc.)
  9. Rook endgames
  10. Openings (opening trees, differences in pawn structures etc.)
  11. Middle game strategy 
  12. Course Recap and Review
  13. Guest Lecture by GM Vinay Bhat (East Common Room)

Location: All lessons will be held in the Bickersteth Room of Hart House. 

For all details on lessons, please visit our main Lessons page. See you there!