Denton High School (DHS) chess club members participated in the High School Open and non-rated sections of the Fort Worth Academy Scholastic Tournament on October 22, 2011. In the High School Open, the DHS team took first. Individual students’ results were: William Root, first place individual, 4.5 points out of 5; Austin McGregor, 3 points, Luis Guevara, 2 points, Alex Elizalde, 1 point.
I presented a problem featured in my forthcoming book Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14 (Mongoose Press, 2012). Here’s the problem, which I borrowed from Guliev, S. (2003). The manual of chess endings. Moscow, Russia: Russian Chess House: White: Kg6, Ne6, Nd6. Black: Kh8. What is the result with White to move? Now insert a black pawn on a6, with all other chessmen the same and White to move.
For the fifth meeting of the 2011-2012, on Friday, October 14, Denton High School chess club, I taught about Scholar’s Mate using an activity from Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities. Sixteen students attended the high school meeting from 4:10-5:10 p.m. I also used that Scholar’s Mate activity with the four-person (including one adult) Denton Public Library chess class from 2-3:30 p.m.
For the fourth meeting of the 2011-2012 Denton High School chess club, I taught about castling using ideas from Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities and from my forthcoming book Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14. Fifteen students attended. Earlier that afternoon, I taught en passant to my Denton Public Library class, which had 11 students today (including four adults).
The October 7, 2011 press release by UT Dallas discusses the chess team's most recent results, including a tournament win by Grandmaster Julio Sadorra (who took the Chess in Education courses which I teach). There is also a sidebar about those courses, my books, and the upcoming Koltanowski conference. Press release link: CLICK HERE
For the third meeting of the 2011-2012 Denton High School chess club, I taught about en passant using ideas from Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving and from my forthcoming book Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14. I planned to also teach en passant to my Denton Public Library class, but only three students (six year old twins and their mom) showed up.
Eleven students attended Denton High School chess club on Friday, September 23. Dr. Root taught material from her forthcoming book Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14. Specifically, she covered patterns in back-rank and smothered checkmates and provided practice problems.
On Friday, September 23, five children and three adults attended the second meeting of "Thinking with Chess" for ages 5-14. One of the adults did not bring a child, but said he was attending because he wants to avoid losing to five year olds at the Monday night Denton Chess Club. He said my instruction on how to restrict the king in endgame checkmates was helpful.
Friday, September 16, was the first meeting of the Denton High School chess club for the 2011-2012 academic year. There were mostly returning chess club members among the 16 students who attended. There were also three former Denton High School students, now at Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS), who decided to drop in for a few games.
Friday, September 16, was the first afternoon of my free chess classes at the Denton Public Library. The youngest students were six-year-old twins, and the oldest were two moms who stayed and participated. In all, nine students practiced two challenges (Classify and Pattern Recognition) from my upcoming book Thinking with Chess: Teaching Children Ages 5-14 (Mongoose Press, 2012).
At the Denton High School Open House Night on September 12, 2011, known as “Bronco Night,” teachers opened their classrooms to parents. Since chess club sponsor Fred Mueller was busy meeting parents of his pre-Calculus and Calculus students, I volunteered to be the responsible adult for his math and chess club table in the main hallway. Chess club (and math club) positioned our table near Tennis and Choir.
I am teaching another series of chess classes at the Denton Public Library, North Branch. Classes are for children ages 5-14, start September 16 (2-3:30 p.m.), and run for six Fridays. This series of classes is called Thinking with Chess. The challenges and puzzles in the Thinking with Chess classes emphasize skills important for academics, such as classifying, pattern recognition, decoding, creating, and predicting.
