At the beginning of August, I piggy-backed my own book signing onto that of the best-seller Breaking Dawn (Stephenie Meyer), because that book has a chess queen and pawn on its cover. Chess Life has now published my article about that book launch evening (have to register to read full article).
My photo is in Susan Polgar's blog, and photos that I took are in the UTD CHESS blog (September 30th posting). In spring 2008, UTD CHESS blogger GM Alejandro Tadeo Ramirez Alvarez took both of my online courses. Enrollment is still open for the second 8-week session which begins October 20th. The courses are next offered in spring 2009. The courses are completely online, and may be taken from anywhere with Internet access.
Right now, September 27-28, 2008, I am playing in the Texas Women's Open (TWO). I used a MonRoi for the first time yesterday (in rounds 2 and 3). MonRoi was a really easy and fun way to keep a record of my games. You can watch my games by going to monroi.com, then to Chess Games, then to Live Chess Games. If the round has finished, go to Replay Chess Games.
I just returned from Encyclo-Media. My publisher, Libraries Unlimited, paid for my trip there. I spent most of my time on both days (Thursday and Friday) at my publisher's booth. The booth started with 20 copies of Children and Chess, 20 copies of Science, Math, Checkmate, and 20 chess sets/boards ordered from American Chess Equipment. Buyers got a free chess set and chess board if they purchased one or two books.
Although there are officially 21 students in Strickland Middle School chess advisory, three of those had a grade below 70 on their 3-week progress report. So I am starting chess advisory with 18 students. Of those, eight are returning students from last year.
I will be volunteering as a chess teacher at Strickland Middle School (SMS). Chess will be held during advisory period, 1:10-1:55 p.m. every day, starting next week. SMS advisory is for students who: 1. Scored 2200 or higher on all sections of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) on the last TAKS administered. On the TAKS, 2100 is the (passing) standard, and a commended performance is 2400 or higher.
My 2008 New England Masters Experience
USMilitaryChess
I participated in the 2008 New England Masters held August 11-15, 2008 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. While it was a 9-round Swiss tournament (USCF and FIDE rated), the field was limited to 50 entrants. However, only 44 players (4 GMS, 8 IMs, 11 FMs and 1 WFM) representing 12 Federations showed up on game day. In the end, only two players earned IM norms, Victor Kaminski of Canada and Parker Zhao of the US.
Friday, September 5th, I attended a meeting of The University of Texas at Dallas chess club. I saw two of my current Chess Online students, Mihail Bantic and IM Marko Zivanic. I also saw former students IM John Bartholomew, IM Drasko Boskovic, WFM Lilia Doibani, FM Keaton Kiewra, FM Igor Schneider, and WFM Bayaraa Zorigt. Although many students in my online courses are chess beginners, I have also had many UTD chess team members take the courses.
I attended the Texas Chess Association business meeting this morning. The TCA meeting was at 10 a.m., before the 12:30 fourth round of the Southwest Open. After the election results were reported, the four new board members took their places: President Clemente Rendon, Vice President Lakshmana Viswanath “Vish,” Treasurer Barbara Swafford, and Secretary Robert Sturgeon.
Friday night was the first football game of the season for Denton HS, and therefore also the first outing for the marching band. My daughter Clarissa is Marching Officer for the trombones. She pointed out that there are at least two similarities between marching and algebraic notation. First, marchers find their spots on the field by a combination of file-first, then rank.
My son William and I played in the Denton Sunday Frolics #16 yesterday. William was the top-rated player in the intermediate (under 1300) section, and he won 3-0. Now he is rated 1318. I was the top-rated player in the Open section. After winning my first two games, I played the following game against 1884-rated Jonathan Cearley inthe last round. In the final position notated, I offered a draw because I was going to have less than five minutes to complete the game.
Michael Bowden of Lewisville I.S.D. emailed that his district has approved chess as one of the “specials” rotation areas. In elementary school, students rotate to a different special area everyday of the school week. Currently, choices for the five special areas include art, music, creative dramatics, library, Spanish, Science Enrichment, and mandatory PE. For the 2009-2010 academic year and beyond, principals will have the option to have chess as one of the special areas.
