ChessKid at Nationals!

The full ChessKid team traveled to the 2014 Elementary Nationals in Dallas, TX earlier this month to give free game review, have puzzle contests, and show off ChessKid.com!

PoppaBear and FunMasterMike were joined by Highlama, PetiteCoccinelle, and GM Giorgi Margvelashvili. They worked three straight 12 hours days and gave away hundreds of pounds of t-shirts, wristbands, pens and stickers. We hope you won something!

The event was the most well attended and successful in the history of the site. For that, we say "THANK YOU!" The word is definitely out that ChessKid.com is the best site for kids to play and for coaches to integrate into their clubs.

Below are some videos of full games being analyzed by the masters! You may want to bookmark this page - it could be the most instructive article we've ever had! Watch the videos in fullscreen for the best experience.

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PoppaBear shows a game decided by en passant, checkmate!

FunMasterMike explains what to do when you face an unknown opening, like the Sicilian, if you didn't already watch GM Benzoo explain. He also finds a position near the end that we'll be adding to our legendary puzzles - watch the "move of the century" at 12:47!

Do you like openings where the fianchettoed bishop dominates? So does Highlama - check it out!

Time is of the essence - don't march one piece down the board, only to retreat it on the next move. Not every attack on the weakest square wins!

Can PoppaBear analyze a game with the board backward? When he's this well-dressed, he sure can! OK, he also gives a good lesson on pawn structures.

Here's a change of pace. When the masters are exhausted from analyzing all day, what do they do? They play each other of course! PoppaBear takes on the grandmaster:

Here PoppaBear helps out one of ChessKid's King of Fast Chess Winners!

"You ever heard of castling?!" PoppaBear asks as a joke. And who knew chess had ponies!

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We hope you enjoyed all these lessons. If it sounded loud there, that's because it was! More than 2200 kids attended, making it the largest Elementary Nationals ever.

We want to thank the University of Texas - Dallas for loaning us their grandmaster for the day. Did you know that they give out chess scholarships to college?

We will see you in May, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee for the next one!