For the first meeting of the Denton High School chess club for 2012-2013, on August 31, the club’s five officers met with sponsor Fred Mueller and volunteer coach Alexey Root. We discussed finances, wrote thank you letters to donors, reviewed our fall 2012 tournament schedule, and planned publicity. The first general meeting for this academic year is Friday, September 7, 2012.
I am teaching July 9-13 (mornings) at the UT Dallas Chess Camp. (My name is Alexey Root and I am a WIM, which means Woman International Master). The camps also have a GM (Valentin Iotov), an IM (Rade Milovanovic), and another WIM (Cheradee Camacho) as teachers, in addition to Rheanna English, David Phillips, and Julie Blasingame. The camp director is Jim Stallings, head of the UT Dallas Chess Program.
For the last meeting of the year, Denton High School chess club students ate and played bughouse. Bughouse is a chess variant. Since 15 attended, there were three bughouse games (12 players), one regular chess game (2 players), and one substitute when a spot opened in one of the games.
Denton High School chess club sponsor Fred Mueller ran the elections today. Prospective officers for 2012-2013 made speeches, votes were taken, and the new officers are Luis (President), Alex (Vice President), William (Secretary), Dimitrios (Treasurer), and Will (Historian). Then students played touch move chess with clocks, to get ready for the May 19 tournament at North Branch Library in Denton.
Denton High School chess club sponsor Fred Mueller ran nominations for next week’s election. Chess Club Secretary William presented the ending of the last game of the 1927 World Championship match between Alekhine and Capablanca.The starting position (Black to move) was White: Pawns f2, g3, h4, a5, Kg2, Rd4 Black: Pawns h6, g6, f7, Kg7, Rf6. William gave principles for playing the position and called on his fellow students for moves.
At Denton High School chess club on April 27, 2012, I mentioned that I.S. 318 had won the National High School Chess Championship first place trophy, on tiebreak over Hunter College High School. And that the top scorer from I.S. 318 was Justus Williams, who appeared in the film Brooklyn Castle. My students had seen Brooklyn Castle on April 14. I said that we would watch Justus Williams (White) versus Kevin Wang (Black) in episode one of the Xtreme Chess Championships. Only four students were at chess club today, as there were several competing activities on this particular Friday.
Dr. Root reviewed with the Denton High School chess club students the procedure for tomorrow, April 14, at the NorthPark Center Family Day (Dallas International Film Festival event). First Denton High School students will play each other at NorthPark. Dr. Root will make general comments about chess at this time, explaining tactics such as pins and forks, and concepts such as check and checkmate.
Dr. Alexey Root will be signing her books in booth 1503 (ABC-CLIO) at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference on Wednesday, April 18 from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. and Thursday, April 19 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Denton High School chess club members will be participating in a chess exhibition 12:00-1:30 p.m. April 14 at NorthPark Center, hosted by Brooklyn Castle and the Dallas Film Society. The exhibition is free. There is also a showing of Brooklyn Castle at 4 p.m. that day, $10/ticket, at the Angelika Film Center.
Dr. Alexey Root presented a page about “loss aversion” from Andrew Soltis’s forthcoming book What it takes to become a chess master to Denton High School chess club members. In chess, as in life, “people have stronger feelings about losing than about winning.” Both class players and masters fight when losing.
At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 13, at Central Services (1307 North Locust, Denton), the Denton Independent School District Board of Trustees will recognize Denton High School chess club sponsor Fred Mueller, coach Alexey Root, and the four students who represented Denton High School at the Texas Scholastic Chess Championships.
Using the demonstration board, Alex showed one of his losses from the Texas Scholastic Chess Championships to the Denton High School chess club. As is usual when presenting chess games, pairs of students followed the game on their boards.
