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IRON KNIGHT
An Iron Knight puts opening principles into practice, developing quickly while controlling the center, but needs more middlegame practice. An Iron Knight can defend against a Scholar's Mate, can notate chess games, and is beginning to identify different classes of openings.
Requirements / Coaching Guide
- Passed Pawns
- demonstrate passed pawns, "square of the pawn," and protected passed pawns.
- Blocking Pawns
- teach player to recognize and stop dangerous passed pawns; describe knights and bishops as blockers.
- Pawn Structure
- explain pawn chains, pawn islands, doubled pawns, isolated pawns, backward pawns, and levers.
- Opposition
- explain king opposition with examples to play out.
- Discoveries
- describe discovered check and discovered attacks.
- Combinations II
- provide various (at least 10) combinations involving overworked pieces and deflection.
- Mate in Two
- mate in two quizzes (at least 20) from Polgar's big CHESS book.
- Openings
- define and describe open games, closed games, semi-open games, and semi-closed games.
- Italian Game
- describe basic themes and main lines of the Italian Game.
- Philidor
- go over six Philidor games
- Promotion Game
- Win a game from a higher-rated player getting Iron Knight odds.
Requirements continue to evolve and may therefore change at any time. Substitutions may be granted in some cases to award particularly strong play.
