Chess Experts

Tuesday, April 27, was our last chess club meeting of this 2010 spring semester. Two girls and five boys attended. To warm up for our May 1, 2010 tournament, we played touch-move ladder games. For more about how I run ladder games see the appendix to Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities. Or read Elizabeth Vicary interviewed by Jennifer Shahade (June 26,2007, Chess Life Online, "E. Vicary on Chess, Girls and Genius"), which is my source for how to run ladder chess games.

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Five boys and two girls showed up for after school chess club at Strickland Middle School today. I taught how the mobility of the chessmen relates to their point values. In other words, how is it decided that a pawn is 1 point, a knight is 3 points, and so forth? Students calculated the mobility of every chessman from the corner and from the center and drew conclusions.

Last week (12th time I met with chess club) was our match with Sanger. For week thirteen, April 13, I congratulated the six boys and one girl who came to chess club on on our win the previous week. (Five of them had been part of that winning effort). Then I pointed out one area where we could have improved: Basic Checkmates (endgame mates with major pieces). One of our players stalemated with two queens against a lone king.

But, before I tell how many checkmates we inflicted on Sanger Middle School, here’s a brief recap of my Strickland chess club lesson plans for weeks ten through twelve. On March 9, week 10, we had only three students so we played bughouse. (I played too, to make it four players). On March 16, there was no chess due to Spring Break. On March 23, I was not there since I was presenting at UTD.

In my last blog about my son, Ray Robson, I gave a summary of Ray's recent activities and ended with the upcoming 2009 US Championship. Since that entry -- almost one year ago -- much has happened. Shortly after the 2009 Championship, Ray went on to earn his three grandmaster norms, becoming the youngest grandmaster to represent the United States.

My former Chess Online student Kathy De La Torre emailed me recently. Since receiving her Master’s Degree from The University of Texas at Dallas in 2007, she has “been employed full time with the RISD for the past two school years as a 4th grade Reading/L.A. teacher. This year, with the full support of the principal, we have begun a chess club on campus.

On March 23 from 4-5 p.m. I will be presenting at UTD. My talk "Chess is Now for Children: Changes Over the Past 40 Years" is part of a year-long series of 40 events (or more) created to mark UT Dallas' fourth decade as a UT System institution. My talk will address the changing demographics of chess during the past four decades, from its beginning as a game for adults to a game now dominated by children.

Check out 

I will be reporting on The University of Texas at Dallas tournaments, held November 21-29. Look for my first report on Chess Life Online at the mid-point of the event, and a wrap-up report in Chess Life. Jon Haskel has set up a Web site with pairings. Look for the link that says "UTD Invitational GM & IM Norm Tournaments." MonRoi will provide live coverage of the games.

The Denton Record-Chronicle covered the upcoming (November 24, 2009) Living Chess Game at the Denton Public Library. The online version does not include the photo at left, which is in the print version of the article with this caption,“Two participants of the Living Chess Game at North Branch Library pose recently in front of a poster advertising their finale at 4 p.m. Tuesday.” The nine-year-old on the right (in black and pink) drew the poster. 

In addition to the November 8 presentation in Coppell, which I mentioned in a previous blog post, I am also presenting about my book Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities at the Texas State Reading Association conference. My presentation, on Friday, November 13, 1:45 to 3 p.m., is listed on page 5 of this .pdf schedule. If you cannot attend either of these, please consider the Living Chess Game performance November 24, 4 p.m., at the North Branch of the Denton Public Library.