February 19, 2013

Create-A-Checkmate

For the Beginners, I 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 I said, “You have a king and queen. Your partner has a king. Set up 5 different positions that are checkmates and two that are stalemates.” Then they showed me the 7 positions they created.

Scholar’s Mate for Experienced and Advanced (two separate classes)

Wrote the notation 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Bc5 3. Qh5 Nc6 4. Qxf7# on a note pad. Also played the moves on the demonstration board. Students copied the notation. Then I reset the demonstration board and had two volunteers (one for White, one for Black) come to the demonstration board. Their job was to call on their fellow students for the White moves and Black moves. Their fellow students replied with the moves they’d notated and the two volunteers recreated the Scholar’s Mate sequence on the demonstration board. It helped them see that writing down notation allows one to recreate a game. HOMEWORK: Find a better third move for Black.