Today was Darwin Yang day at Denton High School chess club, since Dr. Alexey Root found out today that International Master Yang would be participating in the Texas State Scholastic High School Championship section this weekend.
Dr. Alexey Root showed the first five moves of a game featuring the London System (chess opening) to Denton High School chess club students. The moves were 1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nd2 Qb6. The game was V. Sergeev vs. L. Cernousek, Jirasek Memorial, Rakovnik 2008 featured on pages 49-53 of Cyrus Lakdawala's Play the London System (Everyman Chess, 2010).
Free seminars, sponsored by the Texas Chess Association, with door prizes (books) from the UT Dallas Chess Program! Two Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14seminars will be presented by Dr. Alexey Root. Times are Saturday, February 18, 7:00-8:00 p.m. and Sunday, February 19, 1:15-2:15 p.m. in the Seminar Room at Texas State Scholastic, Dallas Sheraton, 400 North Olive Street, Dallas, TX 75201. You can attend both seminars, as they will not be the same.
Bruce Pandolfini will accept the Chess Educator of the Year award on February 23, 2012 at UT Dallas. Go to the UT Dallas Chess Program Web site for more information about this free event. Dr. Alexey Root will interview Mr. Pandolfini for Chess Life magazine.
Dr. Alexey Root showed a position from 1...d6 move by move (Cyrus Lakdawala, Everyman Chess, 2011, p. 13) to the Denton High School chess club students.
Today Dr. Alexey Root showed a notated game played last week between two Denton High School students. Dr. Root stopped the game at various points so that chess club members, following along on their own boards, could figure out the best move or best plan.
At the club meeting on Friday, January 20, Denton High School chess club members played notated games with each other. For the last 15 minutes of class, Dr. Root showed one of those games to the class, using the demonstration board. She pointed out good moves and mistakes. The students followed along on their own chess boards. Dr. Root had them pause at four different positions to find the best move.
On Saturday, January 15, 2011, six members of the Denton High School chess club traveled with chess sponsor Fred Mueller and volunteer chess coach Alexey Root to Lovejoy High School in Allen, TX for the Region III scholastic chess tournament. It was the first team competition ever for the DHS chess club.
The sixteenth meeting of Denton High School chess club for this school year was January 14, 2011. To get ready for the Susan Polgar simultaneous exhibition at the Region III championship on Saturday the 15th, I played a simul against five of the players who would be attending that event. So they were ready to play in a simul…but none of them were picked in the raffle to actually play GM Polgar. Those attending the club also practiced openings and basic endgame checkmates.
The thirteenth Denton High School chess club meeting of the 2011-2012 school year fell on Friday the thirteenth. At the meeting, I introduced progressive chess. Lior Lapid mentioned that chess variant to me at the Second Koltanowski International Conference on Chess and Education. In progressive chess, White moves once, Black moves twice, White moves three times, Black moves four times, and so forth. I showed the game White: e4 Black: c5 Nc6
Dr. Root showed a position from Fischer-Sherwin (U.S. Championship, 1957), which was reprinted in the December 2011 Chess Life on page 43. She explained (and demonstrated) definitions of double check and discovered check. Then students had a choice of whether to solve the Fischer-Sherwin position or four easier discovered checkmate and double checkmate puzzles from her forthcoming book Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14.
My results article about the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship is posted on Chess Life Online.
