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.

But they all knew how to read chess notation, which helped them succeed with this lesson plan. From YouTube, I showed the video from 7:58 up to where White has the choice of Bxf3 or exf3, at 11:22 (move 19).  1.c4 d5 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 dxc4 5.Qa4+ Nbd7 6.Qxc4 a6 7.Qc2 c5 8.0-0 b5 9.d3 Bb7 10.Nbd2 Be7 11.b3 0-0 12.Bb2 Rc8 13.Rad1 Qb6 14.Qb1 Rfd8 15.h3 h6 16.g4 Nd5 17.Ne4 Nf4 18.Ng3 Bf6 19.Rfe1 Bxf3 Then I paused the video. The students replayed the game (using the notation above, which I had photocopied for them). They discussed how the game had gone so far and what might happen next. Three of the four students thought Justus would win, even though he was behind on time. Perhaps they were influenced by my talking about his National High School result. Then I showed the end of the video. The students clapped when checkmate was delivered. I handed the students the notation for the rest of the game. SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read on if you don’t wish to know who won, Justus or Kevin! 20.Bxf3 Nxh3+ 21.Kg2 Nf4+ 22.Kf1 Bxb2 23.Qxb2 Nf6 24.Qd2 Qc7 25.Rc1 Qd6 26.Qb2 Nh3 27.Kg2 Nf4+ 28.Kf1 a5 29.Red1 Qd4 30.Qc2 Nh3 31.e3 Qe5 32.d4 cxd4 33.Qxc8 Rxc8 34.Rxc8+ Kh7 35.Rxd4 Nd5 36.Bxd5 exd5 37.Rc5 Qf6 38.Rd2 d4 39.Rf5 Qc6 40.Rxd4 f6 41.Ne4 Qc1+ 42.Kg2 Ng1 43.Rd7 Kg6 44.Ng3 Qe1 45.Nh5 Kh7 46.Rxg7+ Kh8 47.Rc5 Qd2 48.Rc8+ Qd8 49.Rxd8# 1-0 Then students reviewed, and played out alternatives to, the text moves. At the end of the club, two of them said they would look up the other XTreme Chess Championship episodes on YouTube.