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
My results article about the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship is posted on Chess Life Online.
Follow the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Tournament right here on MonRoi.com. Games are being broadcast live. And also look for my reports on it on Chess Life Online.
Friday, December 9, 2011 was our end-of-the-semester party for Denton High School chess club, as next Friday is early dismissal due to final exams. The party featured food, bughouse, and speed chess games.
I recommend FM Charles Hertan’s Power Chess for Kids: Learn How to Think Ahead and Become One of the Best Players in Your School (New in Chess, 2011). The organization of the book is stellar, the layout is cheerful (with cartoon-style characters), and the material is important for chess improvement.
I reminded students that UT Dallas Chess Coach Rade Milovanovic has chess team members show their games to the rest of the team. The team then comments on and analyzes those games. So I want to do that occasionally in our Denton High School chess club. I showed my win over Julie Wilson (published in Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators) on the Smart Board.
Information for the Second Koltanowski International Conference on Chess and Education (November 18-19 at the Hilton Anatole, Dallas, TX) is available HERE. Click on "Download the Official Brochure PDF" to download the program book. Within the program book are biographical statements and presentation abstracts, the form for Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented clock hours (Friday, November 18), and a Welcome message from Conference Chair Dr. Tim Redman.
Friday, November 11, 2011, was our Denton High School chess club field trip to UT Dallas for its Scholastic Affiliates program. Mr. Mueller (Denton High School chess club sponsor) and I drove 12 Denton HS students to UT Dallas. We met members of the chess team, toured the Activity Center and Student Union, and played chess with members of the UT Dallas “Student Chess Society” (chess club).
Chess club members learned how to draw with black from this position: White: Ke3, Pe4 Black: Ke5. For those who missed the previous week, I taught how to win when White has a Ke3, Pe2, Black has a Kf5 and it is White to move. After promoting, then White checkmates with a king and queen against king.
I recommend the book "Developing Chess Talent: Creating a chess culture by coaching, training, organization and communication" by Karel van Delft and IM Merijn van Delft, with a foreword by GM Artur Yusupov. As I read this book, I keep sticky notes handy to mark passages. Here are four of those, paraphrased by me:
1 A chess training program is only effective if the trainee realizes its use and helps design it.
