Blog

An important new book for chess teachers, coaches, and parents has just been published by New in Chess. Titled The Chess Instructor 2009, it is edited by Jeroen Bosch and Steve Giddins. Unlike my own Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators and Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving, The Chess Instructor 2009 assumes that the adult reading the book already knows how to play chess. In contrast, my books give basic chess instruction (such as chess rules and algebraic notation) to help the non-chess player who wishes to utilize chess in an educational setting.

NASA and the USCF organized the correspondence chess match between astronaut Greg Chamitoff, in orbit aboard the International Space Station, and the kindergarten through third grade U.S. Chess Championship Team and its chess club teammates from Stevenson Elementary School in Bellevue, Wash. The game moves at a pace of one move per day on weekdays only.

The true origin of chess remains unknown, however most historians agree that it emerged in India no later than the sixth century. In India, Persia and the Arab lands where the game was initially played, all the chess figures were male, and there was no queen at all on the chess board. Chess pieces consisted of the king, his chief general called vizier and a line of soldiers. There were also chariots, horses and elephants.

World Chess Champions 2006 – present

On Halloween The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) defeated the University of Belgrade (UB) 12.5 to 3.5 in the third annual Transatlantic Cup match. The match started late, because University of Belgrade had already switched to standard time.

The World Chess Championship took place from October 14 – 29, 2008, in the Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn, Germany. The match was won by the reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India, who thus retains his title. Anand beat the Challenger Vladimir Kramnik of Russia by a score of 6.5:2.5.

"I've created a chess program that mimics human play" said the computer science major. "So it plays at GM level then?" asks the advising professor. "No, but it does blame its loss on outside conditions!"

My third book will be published in March of 2009. Go to http://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=F2654P

Then look at the cover for Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities. If you recognize the cover model with the green shirt, which avid MonRoi blog readers should be able to do, please put his name in the Comments section for this blog posting.

At the beginning of August, I piggy-backed my own book signing onto that of the best-seller Breaking Dawn (Stephenie Meyer), because that book has a chess queen and pawn on its cover. Chess Life has now published my article about that book launch evening (have to register to read full article).

My photo is in Susan Polgar's blog, and photos that I took are in the UTD CHESS blog (September 30th posting). In spring 2008, UTD CHESS blogger GM Alejandro Tadeo Ramirez Alvarez took both of my online courses. Enrollment is still open for the second 8-week session which begins October 20th. The courses are next offered in spring 2009. The courses are completely online, and may be taken from anywhere with Internet access.

Right now, September 27-28, 2008, I am playing in the Texas Women's Open (TWO). I used a MonRoi for the first time yesterday (in rounds 2 and 3). MonRoi was a really easy and fun way to keep a record of my games. You can watch my games by going to monroi.com, then to Chess Games, then to Live Chess Games. If the round has finished, go to Replay Chess Games.

I just returned from Encyclo-Media. My publisher, Libraries Unlimited, paid for my trip there. I spent most of my time on both days (Thursday and Friday) at my publisher's booth. The booth started with 20 copies of Children and Chess, 20 copies of Science, Math, Checkmate, and 20 chess sets/boards ordered from American Chess Equipment. Buyers got a free chess set and chess board if they purchased one or two books.