Coaching chess quickly became a passion of his – he didn’t have a coach of his own when he was a young player. Sajeevan has taught about 2,000 students, mostly children like Preston, Noah, and Eli, since he started working as a chess coach just a few years ago. This was a tough puzzle, Sajeevan says, but under his guidance, the young students have worked out the solution, and they did so in about three minutes. They take the knight, then the white queen. Just like that, Noah spots it, the better move: Bishop takes F3. But I want you to find a better move.”Ī move that takes that pesky guarding knight out of play, he suggests, freeing the essential bishop, maybe expediting a trade of pieces that’s more advantageous to their side. “That’s a good move, because it protects the queen. The youngest student, Eli – “Four-and-three-quarters years old!” he proudly declares when asked his age – furrows his brow and jumps out of his chair to loudly proclaim, “Oh, bishop E7! Bishop E7!”

How many pieces does each player have on the board? Both sides are pretty even, so do we take that bishop? But wait, there’s a knight guarding it, putting our queen in further jeopardy! What do we do? “He’s trying to take our queen,” answers Preston, the eldest of the trio at 10 years old. “What’s the threat? Is he trying to do something? Or did he just play that for fun?”

“He moved his bishop to G5,” says 7-year-old Noah. “What’s the attack?” their coach, Jithu Sajeevan ’24 (CLAS), asks them. On the screen is a puzzle – a simulated scenario of a chess game in progress. In a white-walled meeting room at the Greenwich Public Library, three young boys stare at a screen on the wall, the table before them littered with untouched chess pieces on black-and-white game boards.

Free chess lv 100