How to Win Fast Chess Games

By Josh
This time I'm going to talk about games with 1-5 minute timers. I hope you'll find this helpful!

Keep an eye on the clock at all times
This is a simple rule that can be the difference between winning and losing. Try to keep your timer higher then your opponents. If you don't then you can have yourself trying to make up for that time with bad moves.

navoj98 vs mathkid1

13. a3, Nc6 14. Nd5,  Nxd5 15. Bxd5, Qxb2 16. Bxc6, bxc6

  17. Rb1?, Qd4? (Both of us completely missed 17... Qxb3) 18. Qd2, c4 19 c3?, Qxd3 

 20. Qxd3, cxd3 (I was very content having won another pawn until to my horror I realized, I only had 4.3 seconds left! I was very panicked which led to bad things.) 21.Rbd1, Rad8 22. c4, f6?? (There it is. I had given my opponent 23.Ne6! putting a fork between my two rooks AND losing a rook would mean I'd lost the pawn on d3, so white would be better off!)

 23. Rf2? (White wanted to win on time!) 23... Bf7 24. Nxf7, 1-0 (Out of time.)

So, time can play a huge factor. A good thing to do is to:

Use opening traps
A personal favorite of mine is this:
1. e4, e5 2. Nf3, Nc6 3. Bc4, Nf6 4. Ng5, h6? 5. Nxf7

Creating a fork between the queen and the rook. This brings me to my final point:

Never Resign
This is a simple rule because of time. Their time can run out and you can still win.

I hope you find this helpful!

How to Play Chess

By Josh

Hello! If you are reading this, you have most likely have never played chess, and if you have then you have probably forgotten how to play chess. The game is simple. The game is played on a checkerboard. when set up properly, the board looks like this:

Let me tell you the names of the pieces

• Pawn
• Bishop
• Knight
• Rook
• Queen
• King

You go through the game taking turns, landing on your opponent's pieces to "capture" them (taking them off the board) and trying to "checkmate" the opponent's king (I will tell you about that later). You cannot land on your own pieces.
I will now walk you through how to move them

Pawn

The pawn can only move forward one space at a time. If the pawn has not moved yet it can move 1 or 2 spaces. The only way the pawn can capture pieces is diagonal. The pawn cannot ever move backwards, even while capturing a piece. If the pawn reaches the last square on the other side (what I mean is that it can't move forward anymore) it will "promote" which means you take the pawn off the board and in it's place put down a different piece (it can't be a king).

Bishop

The bishop can only go diagonal as far as you want and in any direction you want (like, backwards, but it still has to be diagonal). It cannot go over pieces. It captures the same way it moves, diagonal and then stopping at the place that the captured piece was at.

Knight

The knight is the weird piece. It only moves in an L-shape. 2 squares one way, and then 1 square left or right of that direction. This confuses some people, so I'll show you an example.

The knight is going to move two spaces to the left (our first direction), and one space down (or, left of the first left). The knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. It only captures by landing on the piece. The knight can't stop in the middle of the L to capture a piece.

Rook

The same movements as a bishop, but only vertically and horizontally.

Queen

The queen is like a bishop and rook COMBINED! It can go diagonal or straight (it can't do both in the same move)! 

King

The final piece, and the most important. It moves just like a queen, but only one square at a time. If the king is in check (it can be captured in the next move) then you must do one of 3 things,

1. Capture the piece putting the king in danger
2. Put a piece in between the attacker and your king
3. Move the king away

If you can't do any of them then you have been checkmated (you have lost)! So, protect your king at all costs! You cannot put your own king in danger.

Piece Worth

Before you win a pawn and lose your queen, take a look at this chart to see what piece exchanges are worth your while.

Pawn is worth 1

Bishop is worth 3

Knight is worth 3

Rook is worth 5

Queen is worth 9

King is worth infinity

Sometimes, people will do "sacrifices" which lose pieces but give them something else in return.

I hope you found this helpful and happy chess playing!

Paper Airplanes

By Jeremiah the 6th grader

Paper airplanes are really fun once you get the hang of making them. Here are some simple instructions for 2 simple planes:

1. Beginner's Plane
   

Step 1. Take a blank piece of paper

and fold it in half like so

Step 2. Unfold

(Make sure you can still see the first fold line)

Step 3.

Step 4. 

Step 5. Refold center fold

Step 6. Fold left wing

(make sure folded wings are level with bottom of fuselage)

Step 7. Fold right wing

Step 8. Flatten out wings

All are optional: add tape across center fold, and, or cut wind flaps on back of wings for tricks.

      2. Speedy Plane

Repeat steps 1-4

Step 1. Fold the left corner again like so

Step 2. Fold the right corner again like so

Repeat steps 5-8

P.S. I will put more planes later

Book Review on "To Kill a Mockingbird"

By Josh

At the beginning of the book, it was a bit dry for me. As I got farther through, I got more into it. I started reading bigger and bigger chunks of the book and before I knew it, the book was over! The book is about two kids that live in a small town during the Great Depression. Jean, the main character, is the younger of the two. A boy named Jem is her older brother. The are both children to Atticus Finch, who is a lawyer. During the summer, a boy named Dill comes and spends the summer with them before going away again. Their summers are mainly spent harassing Boo Radley, who spends all of his time indoors. It's a great book and worth reading all the way through even if it is dry reading for you. I can see why this book is known as a classic.

My History of Volunteering at the Food Pantry and Food Bank

By Josh

I started working at the food pantry when I was 8. Everybody there was at least 10 years older then I was. We were in Virginia at the time and I started volunteering at the food pantry at the Water's Edge Church. At the age of 9, I was put on the news because I was working at the food pantry at my age.

The volunteers at the food pantry

 Not much long after, we moved to Washington State. I started working at the food bank there. Unfortunately, I stopped after 2-3 weeks of volunteering at the food bank in Washington. The reason why was because I couldn't go on my own at that age, so my brothers would have to come too and they were too young. But now, at the age of 13, I have started volunteering again. This time, Mom, Jeremiah, Nathaniel and I are all volunteering by driving around and picking up donations for the food bank on Thursdays. Most of the stops are at Starbucks. The only place that we visit that is not Starbucks is an Auntie Anne's that usually gives us 25 pounds worth of food. All 25 pounds of it goes into a red backpack.

Us after two of the stops

You'll notice that I am the one carrying the red backpack. We are still volunteering every Thursday.