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By Lee Siew Fai

You too can Teach! VIII

4As, 1P & OE (II) 

Last week I took the opportunity to jump into three Keystones at the same time when the “prefect example” was left on the platter. For a quick recollection, the 4As are fundamental to how the analysis of the game is processed and its elements are applicable throughout the game played. This is also the underpinning reason the Keystones beg to differ from conventional chess teaching. The Keystones do not split the game of chess into opening phase, middle game and end game.*

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RIOT ACT 3:

The Keystones deplore the fixation on teaching opening theories before the child is ready. Its conceptual tools emphasize Reasoning before Memory.  Therefore, Opening Theories only get mentioned inside the 6^th Keystones under Repertoires Preparedness. It takes a great deal of discipline and restraint not to mention the opening system being played before one’s eyes while teaching the children. When the time is ripped, the child had plenty of time to pick up the opening theories and make their presence count!

Thorny Question**: How do you convert Fixation with Opening System to Repertoires Preparedness? Failures arise from the former can induce long-term psychological damage while the later provides the foundation to build and rebuilt for the next battle.

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In teaching the Keystones, the 4As is the most difficult to teach. How do you explain that these series of moves are Accurate and Affirmed? (1…c5 2….d6 3…cxd4 4…Nf6 5…a6 6…e6 7…Be7 8…Qc7 9…Nbd7 10….h6) How do you explain Black’s decision to weaken the defensive in-line f, g, h pawns by the h6 advance? If attacking the Bishop on g5 is pointless, isn’t it a case of tempo lost (-4^th B)? After all, this Bishop is in the way of a meaningful pawn storm and has to be exchanged off (or sacrificed!) to clear the path! Even if h6 is correct, has Black’s 1P been excellent? And how do you know if your opponent has fallen into the commonly (Overlooked 1P)? Or he has “something” up in the sleeves? Just waiting for that little tiny winy slip! We must not forget that whomever blinked first will suffer from the inferior mental and psychological weaknesses during match play.

By the 1P Keystone, The Launch Pad Method is wholesome. It encourages the meticulous deliberation to ensure one is primed and readied to face the opponents. (Here, I shall borrow from the Sun Tzu’s Art of War, “Know your enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated”) Latching onto the 4^th A, one can become a very formidable opponent to even strong players. Reaching deeper into the 0E, one can assert to be very competitive!

If 4As is the most difficult to teach, 0E must be the most difficult to achieve! What exactly is 0E? Fortunate for us, Chess has not been solved! With computing power increasing at leaps and bounds, will chess ever be unraveled by the one having the first move? And always becoming the winner from that very first move! Chess at its highest level continues to be a game where maintaining equality is crucial for its Continuation. Once equality is lost, it become inconsolable!

Hence, the crux of “The Seven Keystones to Competitiveness Chess” is really being able to at least maintain equality over the sixty-four squares. Within this equalized poise, sow its competitiveness!

With the above statement, allow me to divert into the character training aspect of the Keystones. To play and learn by the 4As, one is very much into Exploring the possible and probable. After Learning (5Bs), it is appropriate to release the child to explore. Through exploring the environment and its challenges, one can put paid to one’s learned lessons.  We also cannot overlook the fact that the only certainty in life is its uncertainties! Readiness (1P) is essential to face all eventualities. Thriving in chaos is the essence of making ourselves to be competitive in the stormy sea of continuous change and creative innovations. At the very least, we must stand equal (0E) to have a chance!

As promised in my article (part 1) in last week's issue, I shall mark the game and I trust you are getting more familiar with its simplified marking system.

0 - 1

[The marking or teaching codes are shown in brackets beside every move. You can refer to the key in last week's issue. -  Collin]

*HINT: Corporate Sponsorship is crucial to the promotion and support of chess activities. With Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) becoming an integral part of Corporate Image Positioning (CIP) and Market Competitiveness (MC), the corporate sponsors are ever willing to those who can deliver a marked improvement in community service at the shortest possible time. The Keystones stands out as one that can impart the demanding mental skill into less privileged children and be the catalyst to their scholastic commitments and attainment. No corporation would buy into a chess-training program that drags on from beginner’s level onto an intermediate level before reaching that elite advance level. It is simply too long and consuming too much commitment in time and monies.

The Keystones tries to get all these done within a short time span of twelve sessions!

That brings us back to the term MSSPP! The eighth Keystone that is special, fair and administratively, challenging (refer issue 14).  And I am proud to announce that the Keystones had landed in Penang on 3^rd November 2007.  The 5Bs have taken roots in Sekolah Kebangsaan Permatang Damar Laut. A total of fifty-nine students had latched onto the Keystones. On 17^th November, the 4As were introduced. Next year, more of the Keystones will be delivered and we will see the powerful conceptual tools displaying its prowess in getting more students to play chess actively. 

** “Tall Order” (refer issue 11) was written in a lighthearted manner. It is more for the skillful and seasoned chess players’ pleasures and is not indicative of the Keystones’ main teaching tools.