Last week (12th time I met with chess club) was our match with Sanger. For week thirteen, April 13, I congratulated the six boys and one girl who came to chess club on on our win the previous week. (Five of them had been part of that winning effort). Then I pointed out one area where we could have improved: Basic Checkmates (endgame mates with major pieces). One of our players stalemated with two queens against a lone king.

Another of our players checkmated with a king and queen against a king, but it took a while. So for week thirteen trainers worked with trainees on basic checkmates. I tested each student individually about how many moves it took them to get to a checkmate from a starting position. The starting positions are listed in my book People, Places, Checkmates: Teaching Social Studies with Chess. But, to give you an idea, how many moves would it take you or your student to checkmate when white starts with a K on h1, Q on a1, and black has a K on d5 (white to move)?