Dr. Alexey Root

Five Denton High School students, a parent, and volunteer chess coach Dr. Alexey Root visited the University of North Texas Chess Club on Thursday, Feb. 27 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. All of the high school students are seniors and this visit gave them a chance to meet UNT students. One senior is definitely going to UNT next year and the others are still considering their options. Everyone played chess for fun. That is, we did not keep track of wins and losses.

For the Beginners, Dr. Root gave the students examples of what is stalemate and what is checkmate (using a King and Queen vs. King) as models first, on the demonstration board. Then Dr. Root said, “You have a king and queen. Your partner has a king. Set up 5 different positions that are checkmates and two positions that are stalemates.” Then they showed Dr. Root (one position at a time) the 7 positions they created.

Dr. Alexey Root taught the beginners how to checkmate with a king and two rooks against a king. The students volunteered the legal moves for the black king while Dr. Root maneuvered the white rooks on the demonstration board. Then students practiced the checkmate pattern with partners. The intermediate students learned the king and queen checkmate from one of their colleagues, who taught it the same way Dr. Root had in the fall.

Dr. Alexey Root informed Denton High School chess club students that this coming Thursday, February 27, there will be a visit to the University of North Texas chess club. Then two of the students who played in the Texas Scholastic Championship showed their games to their fellow club members.

Dr. Alexey Root taught Battleship Chess from Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators to all three St. Vincent’s School chess groups, as each group visited her at different times. The advanced students additionally guessed what moves were played in a classmate’s tournament game.

Dr. Alexey Root taught the beginners how the Q, R, and B moved. Then the beginners tried this exercise from Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities.

Have pairs of students get out a board, a white queen, a black rook, and a black bishop. Each piece should be placed on its starting square. Start the white queen on d1, the black rook on h8 or a8, and the black bishop on f8 or c8. White moves first. . . . After trying this from both sides, ask students whether it was easier to play white or to play black.

Three of the five players who participated in the Texas Scholastic February 8-9 showed chess games from that tournament to one or two other students. The Denton High School students analyzed the games together and with the help of Dr. Alexey Root.

Dr. Alexey Root and chess sponsor Fred Mueller took five Denton High School players to the Texas Scholastic Championship in Houston Feb. 8-9. Results are posted here.

Dr. Alexey Root taught how pawns move and capture to the beginners at Greenhill School. She did not cover en passant. Then the beginners played the Pawn Game from Dr. Root’s book Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving. For the intermediate and advanced groups, Dr. Root had the students play Battleship Chess, a drill from her first book Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators.

Dr. Alexey Root is presenting two free seminars, sponsored by the Texas Chess Association, at the State Scholastic in Houston Feb. 8 and 9. The seminars are at 12:45 each day and in room 329. Ten participants in each seminar will each win a free copy of Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14.

Dr. Alexey Root showed the video of Bill Gates losing to Magnus Carlsen. Then the Denton High School chess club students analyzed the game in pairs to figure out where White’s mistakes were. Then Dr. Root led a whole class discussion which included points from the Chess Improver blogposting about this game.

Dr. Alexey Root had each group (beginner, intermediate, advanced) work on worksheets and basic endgame checkmates while she tested one or two students at a time on basic endgame checkmates (such as king and queen vs. king). The worksheets for the beginners and intermediates were from Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14. The advanced students solved checkmates in one from kidchess.com.