At Denton High School Chess Club on Friday, November 2, 2012, Dr. Alexey Root taught an activity about Space. Mr. Fred Mueller, the club sponsor, left to pick up the club T-shirts. After he returned, Dr. Root had the students pose with Mr. Mueller for a photo. Just before taking the photo, Dr. Root announced she had a surprise for Mr. Mueller.
I missed the October 26, 2012 Denton High School chess club meeting because I was presenting at the Texas Council for the Social Studies. Twenty people attended my talk on Teaching Social Studies with Chess, based on my book. In my absence, International Master Doug Root played a simultaneous exhibition against 10 Denton High School chess club members. Here are press releases about two upcoming events for me.
Each group spent about 15 minutes with me. When not with me, each group played chess games supervised by the Chess Program Director. I taught the Game Theory Challenge from pages 41-43 of my just-published book Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14. For the Beginner and Experienced groups, I taught the rules of castling and we discussed why chess players castle.
Each group spent about 15 minutes with me. When not with me, each group played chess games supervised by the Chess Program Director.
Pawn Game activity from Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving, including explanations of en passant and promotion but with time for only one trial. Also, continued Pawn Game after promotion to try to checkmate.
For the Denton High School Chess Club today, William Root showed his loss versus expert Dion Su. Su won the October 13, 2012 Scott Watson Memorial Tournament. William Root tied for 2nd through 5th and got 2nd on tiebreak. Denton High School was top high team. Seven Denton High School students participated on October 13.
Each group spent about 15 minutes with me. When not with me, each group played chess games supervised by the Chess Program Director.
Basic Endgame Checkmates, part two
Dr. Alexey Root gave a lecture based on the handouts Calculating Ratings and Guidelines for Post Mortems. The Handouts are available at the Denton HS chess club Web site. Then the Denton High School students played notated chess games, stopped them with 10 minutes left to go in class, and did post mortems on the games.
My presentation “Teaching Social Studies with Chess” is scheduled for Friday, October 26, 2012, 1:30p.m. to 2:45p.m. at the annual conference for the Texas Council For the Social Studies. I will feature lesson plans from my book People, Places, Checkmates: Teaching Social Studies with Chess.
Basic Endgame Checkmates
Asked students what they remembered about last week's Wolf and Sheep. Pointed out that a queen is worth 9 pawns. Value is based on mobility. The queen (wolf) should indeed be able to win against the sheep with correct play.
On October 5, 2012, Dr. Alexey Root taught the Game Theory Challenge, a castling exercise from her forthcoming book Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14. Some students also played notated games, with chess clocks, in preparation for our forthcoming tournament on October 13.
Before I began teaching each group, I reminded students to raise their hands to contribute answers. Each group spent about 15 minutes with me. When not with me, each group played chess games supervised by the Chess Program Director.
On September 28, 2012, Dr. Alexey Root taught the Scholar’s Mate Activity from her book Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities to 16 students. There was also time to finish games left over from last week and play new games. After Denton High School chess club, 15 students, Mr. Mueller, and Dr. Root attended a social gathering hosted by our chess club’s historian’s family.
