Dr. Alexey Root traveled to St. Louis for the launch of the Journal of Chess Research. While there, she got to visit the chess tourist sites (Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis and the World Chess Hall of Fame). Also, Grandmaster Susan Polgar showed her around Webster University, home of the national collegiate chess champions.
Greenhill Chess Club students played the Game Theory challenge from Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14. The advanced group had to notate their “castling” games, while the other two groups did not.
For October 14, Dr. Alexey Root taught the Tandem Chess exercise from People, Places, Checkmates: Teaching Social Studies with Chess. Students in the A group partnered with students in the C group. B group students partnered together. Thus teams were balanced to play one tandem game as White and one tandem game as Black against another team. For example, a team of a A and C player played two tandem games versus a team of two B players.
The beginners learned the values of the chessmen, for example a queen is worth nine pawns. Then the beginners played Exercise 7 “Queen versus Rook and Bishop.” from Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities.
Dr. Alexey Root will present about “Chess in Libraries and Schools” on Friday, October 10 (2-4 p.m., Dorris Van Doren Branch Library) and Saturday, October 11 (10 a.m. to noon, Ysleta Branch Library). These El Paso, Texas presentations are free and open to the public. The October 11 presentation is followed by a chess tournament.
For Beginners:
Dr. Root asked how to move a bishop from one location to another in the fewest number of moves. For example, "How can you move a bishop from f1 to f5?" (Similar drill will be done for capturing on f5). The student should respond either, "Bf1-d3-f5" or "Bf1-h3-f5." After one of those possible best responses, Dr. Root moved the bishop as indicated.
Dr. Root taught mazes to the beginners. After Dr. Root presented a sample maze on the demonstration board, students set up a mazes for each other then captured each chessman in the maze with a rook. From Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving.
For four years (1991, 1996, 2004, and 2005) I taught at Hummingbird Chess Camp, held during one week of the Hummingbird Music Camp (Jemez Springs, NM). The founder of the chess camp, Elliott Higgins, passed away today. Hummingbird is a magical place. I am grateful to Elliott for hiring me to teach at the camp. He also gave wonderful tours, told great stories, and had a passion for music and for chess. I would like to express my condolences to the Higgins family.
For the first meeting of Greenhill Chess for the fall of 2014, chess club sponsor Cathleen Garcia went over the rules and procedures. Alexey Root taught the Classify activity (from Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14) to the beginner group.
Dr. Alexey Root taught at the Greenhill School Chess Camp July 14-18 and July 21-25, 12:30-3:30 p.m. each day. The first week she had 12 students and the second week 10 students. Two other coaches had other groups: One had a less advanced group and the other a more advanced group. In Dr. Root's group, most students (ages 5-8; entering grades 1-4 this fall) started the week knowing the names of the chessmen and how some of them moved but not knowing en passant, promotion, or castling.
Thanks to those who joined Denton High School chess club players and tournament director Alexey Root at a non-rated tournament for middle and high school students on Saturday, May 24.
Ten Denton High School chess club students welcomed 20 students (and their parents and chess sponsor) from Newton Rayzor Elementary. The high school students taught small groups (2-4 students) the two-rook checkmate, the Pawn Game (or Battleship Chess), and UIL Chess Puzzle solving. The elementary students had time to practice. Dr. Alexey Root dismissed the elementary school students with a game of chess Simon Says.
