On my Amazon page for Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators, I noticed a review excerpt from Chessville. A Chessville review excerpt was also on the Amazon page for Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving. From that information, I located reviews of my books at Chessville. Thanks to the reviewer, Rick Kennedy.
Last night the dry erase board stated, “Denton Chess Club: Home of IM Doug Root, 4th place U.S. Open.” Results of the U.S. Open are here. During the week of August 4-8, Doug went to work at the University of North Texas, then drove 45 minutes to the tournament site, and then played chess from 7 p.m. until around midnight. As another player pointed out, though, Doug had the advantage of staying at home rather than in a hotel room.
Today (Friday, August 8) was the final day of my chess teaching week at MOSAIC, summer courses by the Coppell Gifted Association. From 9-10:30, my son William assisted me with my 16 students, grades 4-7. After pairs of students finished practicing, and getting tested on, a basic checkmate such as king and queen against king, William would teach them five moves of a chess opening. Students wrote down the five moves, thus learning notation too.
Today was the USCF Chess in Education workshop. Most of the presenters used handouts, but the two Power Point presentations (by Michael Bowden and Russell Harwood) should be available soon on the USCF Chess in Education Web site. At that site, you can also view slides from past Chess in Education workshops. More about the workshop in my upcoming Chess Life report.
My husband IM Doug Root is playing in the U.S. Open. Tonight, thanks to MonRoi, my children and I are watching Doug's round 2 game live. It's fun to be able to see the game without having to drive 45 minutes to watch in person. I wasn't sure what Doug would play for his 16th move, but both Clarissa (age 15) and William (age 11) guessed 16. Bxf6. They were right.
The Barnes & Noble book release party for Breaking Dawn ended up being a busy night for the seven Denton Chess Club volunteers, who played about 40 games against the public. Look for a full report, with photos, in a future issue of Chess Life magazine.
On August 2nd, at 12:01 a.m., is the release of the best-seller Breaking Dawn. Because Breaking Dawn has a chess queen and a chess pawn on its cover, my local Barnes and Noble is having a chess event Friday night leading up to the release. From 10-10:30 p.m.
Monday night, July 28th, at Denton Chess Club I remembered to tell Justin, the HS teacher mentioned in my previous blog, about the USCF Chess in Education workshop. I learned from Justin that his high school students signed up for a school year of chess.
Last night at Denton Chess Club, Justin, a physics teacher and football/basketball/tennis coach at Whitesboro high school, visited. He wanted ideas for his club, in which 20 students have expressed an interest. Although Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators and Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving are written for educators of grades 3-8, adaptations of ideas from those books for high school students are easily made.
Monday night, July 14th, at Denton Chess Club only four children ages 12 and under attended. The teenagers and adults were stronger at chess than all but one of the children. Though the children occasionally played with the older folk, in the end they wanted to play against each other for competitive and social reasons.
My son William and I are in Austin, Texas for the week so that William can attend Camp Half-Blood. We got in Sunday night, and went to the Austin Chess Club. Just after we arrived, one player from the G/15 event withdrew. So William got to play rounds 4 and 5 of the tournament. He drew and he won, both against 1200+ rated opponents. In the meantime, in the skittles room, I broke even in G/5 against expert Mark Muecke.
I didn’t play chess tonight at Denton Chess Club, but did a lot of match-making. That is, I recommended opponents for new casual games based on what I had seen of their levels of play. I also liked to match similar-aged opponents, but would pair an adult and a child if their chess skills were similar. My technique does not involve pairing cards. I simply say, “Hey, X, come over here and play Y.”
