At least five students from my Chess Online courses plus the Dean of Interdisciplinary Studies from UT Dallas (my boss!) and around 35 other people showed up for the 7:20 p.m. screening of Brooklyn Castle on Saturday, December 8, 2012. The audience clapped for the film as the credits rolled.
Denton High School chess club students set up a position from the UT Dallas Grandmaster Invitational (Round 8, Calugar vs. Chirila) and tried to find Black's 28th move. Round 8. White: IM Arthur Calugar. Black: GM Cristian Chirila. All games are on MonRoi under “2012 Fall UTD GM Invitational.” White: Kh3; Qe2; Rooks f2 and a1; Bf3; Pawns on c2, b3, and a2. Black: Kg8, Qe3, Rooks on g5 and f8; Pawns on e6, c6, b7, a7, h7, and g7. Black to move. Then President Luis had students plan for a party next week and Dr. Root talked about this weekend's showings of Brooklyn Castle. Click on "Read More" for the solution to the given position.
Dr. Alexey Root will be presenting a “Q & A” after the 7:15 p.m. showing of Brooklyn Castle this Saturday, December 8, at the Cinemark West Plano. To prepare for the Q & A, she researched what has happened to the I.S. 318 students profiled in Brooklyn Castle in the almost three years since the filming wrapped.
Students reviewed their games from the November 16, 2012 Dallas Chess Club Friday night G/30 tournament. Then Dr. Alexey Root announced an upcoming tournament that Denton High School students could travel to as individuals and three tournaments that Denton High School chess club will travel to as a team.
Twelve Denton High School chess players, sponsor Fred Mueller, and volunteer chess coach Alexey Root visited the opening ceremony Fall 2012 UTD GM Invitational. The games are available, live, at MonRoi. The tournament runs from November 16-20 and Alexey Root will cover it for Chess Lifemagazine.
Today was the awards day for the 10-week Greenhill School chess class. (I taught 9 of the 10 sessions). Director Cathleen Garcia handed out awards. I presented her with a copy of my sixth book Thinking With Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14. I also had all six of my books on display for parents and children. Greenhill School chess will resume February 5, 2013.
At Denton High School chess club today, Club President Luis G. showed a game that he won at the Scott Watson Memorial Tournament. Luis paused the game at several points so that pairs of his fellow chess club members could analyze those positions.
Dr. Alexey Root taught bughouse, from People, Places, Checkmates: Teaching Social Studies with Chess. Luckily, the number of children (24) was divisible by 4, allowing for six bughouse tables. After playing two games against the same team (switching who played who for the second game), each team took on a new team.
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.
