Chess Experts

 Ray Robson is the youngest chess master in the history of the state of Florida. He was awarded the FIDE Master (FM) title in June of 2005 after tying for first place at the Pan American Youth Chess Championship in Brazil. He earned the US Chess Federation (USCF) National Master (NM) title in January of 2006 by raising his chess rating above 2200 (the minimum required for the title of National Master). In 2004, at the age of nine, Ray defeated his first National Master in tournament play.

On Thursday, May 29th, I was one of the parent chaperones on a sixth grade field trip to a local park. I brought along two chess sets and boards, and set them up on a picnic table. The table was one of many in the pavilion, which had a roof for shade and a view of the playground. Except for lunch, when I packed up the chess equipment to make room for pizza, the chess games were in use the entire time (10:30-2:15).

My rabbit Abba keeps me company while I write this blog, articles, and books (Children and Chess, and Science, Math, Checkmate). He was adopted from a shelter, and is litter-box trained. See the House Rabbit Society Web site for how to keep a rabbit as an indoor pet. In this photo, Abba poses next to a MonRoi flyer. I usually do not write poetry, but will share my poem about Abba.

Before I recommend Grandmaster Yury Shulman's book, I congratulate him on his 2008 U.S. Chess Championship. I met Yury when he was a student at The University of Texas at Dallas. He was the chess team captain: intelligent, well-spoken, and interested in helping others.

Dana Mackenzie asked, after holding a non-rated tournament, “Should I be happy with running the one tournament a year and seeing the kids have a good time? Should I aim higher? Should I steer them into rated tournament chess, and if so, how?” I run one non-rated tournament a year too, the Denton ISD (Independent School District) Middle School Tournament.

Taking problems from Bruce Pandolfini, Chessercizes, 1991, New York: Fireside and Bruce Pandolfini, Beginning Chess, 1993, New York: Fireside, I developed tactics worksheets for small groups (2-4 students) in my Strickland Middle School classes and my summer chess camps. I group problems by type of tactic. For example, one page of 10 problems might be all forks.

Duke imploded against Drake and lost quickly in 22 moves. He recklessly blundered a pawn and the right to castle on move six, which can only be attributed to a classic case of simple oversight. It got worse on move ten when he allowed a knight fork on e6. The game was totally lost at that point. Duke came very close to making the team in his first try. I am sure he will have many chances in the years to come. 

Macaspac continued his winning streak to nine games. Donovan managed yet again to lose a winning advantage this time against West. I am sure he is disappointed with the outcome of this game. In a sense, he handed West a gift. His outside chances to take the 6^th spot on the team have been kept alive courtesy of Donovan’s many errors especially with his 66^th move. West’s 66…a4 is a blunder but it is hard to suggest anything better. I am not sure if either player is really aware of the truth in the position. 

Macaspac is now 10-0. Tomorrow, he gets a chance to tie Tia’s record. That alone will motivate him to try harder and that will be bad news for King as the latter needs at least a draw to make the team or earn a playoff with Duke.

Today I met with Dr. Tim Redman at the Jupiter House, a coffee shop in Denton, Texas. Although we both work for The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), we live about four miles from each other in Denton. Tim had just finished his report, for the July issue of Chess Life, on the Chess Collectors International convention.

I teach online courses for The University of Texas at Dallas, via the UT TeleCampus. In spring of 2008, my 38 students ranged from beginners up through Grandmaster. As discussed in my article for the Dallas Morning News, my students learned to combine chess with educational goals. Now competing in China are my former students GM Alejandro Ramirez, IM Marko Zivanic, and FM Igor Shneider. As reported in the UTD CHESS blog, also playing against Nankai University are UTD's IM Davorin Kuljasevic and IM Jacek Stopa.

This year’s invitees to the annual championship are listed below. Other top Army players like SSG Rudy Tia (seven-time champion), LTC David Hater and LTC Michael Cerezo were not in attendance.