On April 18, 2015, Dr. Alexey Root directed a Chess merit badge tournament from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (12:30-1:00 p.m. lunch break) at the National Scouting Museum. Requirement 6 was covered. (Previously, on April 11, Requirements 1, 2, 4, and 5 were covered and Requirement 3, the part about teaching chess to another Scout, was done by the Scouts on their own between April 11 and 18.)
For April 14, Dr. Root taught the beginners how to play "bughouse," which is the partner chess game that we usually have time for after the awards ceremony on April 21.
On April 11, 2015, Dr. Alexey Root taught a Chess merit badge workshop from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (12-12:30 p.m. lunch break) at the National Scouting Museum. Sixteen Scouts attended. Requirements 1, 2, 4, and 5 were covered. Between now and April 18, Scouts will teach someone else chess (Requirement 3). And on April 18, Scouts will play a tournament, notating three games, fulfilling Requirement 6.
For April 7, the Greenhill School chess beginners notated the four moves of the Scholar's Mate and learned how to defend against it. The Scholar’s Mate lesson plan is in Dr. Alexey Root’s book Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities.
Dr. Alexey Root had Greenhill School chess students try the Game Theory challenge from Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14. The beginners were not required to notate, so they were able to complete both the kingside and queenside castling versions of the challenge.
Dr. Alexey Root had students try a Knight’s Tour on one blank diagram before they played Battleship Chess. Several students decided to try a Knight’s Tour again, on a new blank diagram. The Knight’s Tour is in Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities and Battleship Chess is in Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators.
Dr. Alexey Root will teach a Chess Merit Badge Workshop and direct a tournament at the National Scouting Museum. Both the Workshop and the Tournament are open to boys and girls ages 11-18. Boy Scouts can earn their chess merit badges by attending. The Workshop is April 11 and the Tournament is April 18. You must pre-register for both by Wednesday, April 8, 2015.
Dr. Alexey Root showed the Greenhill School chess club students the rules for Battleship Chess, which is a drill from her first book Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators. As students played battleship chess with each other, Dr. Root pulled aside one student at a time for individual testing. She individually tested beginners on the king and two rooks checkmate.
Dr. Alexey Root individually tested beginners on the king and two rooks checkmate. While she was testing, students practiced that checkmate. Since about half of them successfully tested, she showed the king and queen versus king mate to them at the end of their 20 minutes. Dr. Root individually tested the intermediate students on the king and queen versus king checkmate and the advanced students on the king and rook versus king checkmate.
Dr. Alexey Root’s article about summer chess camps in the Dallas-Fort Worth area metroplex has been published on the talkSTEM Web site. Click on the link for more information.
Dr. Alexey Root set up the king and two rook checkmate on the demonstration board for the beginners at Greenhill School. She played the White side and called on individual students to tell legal moves for the black king (using algebraic notation). After she checkmated, she played the Black side (the lone king) and called on individual students to state moves for White in notation.
