Homeschooled students joined students from Denton High School, Ryan High School, and Immaculate Conception Catholic School for a tournament on May 14, 2011 at the Denton Public Library, North Branch. In all, fourteen players from ninth grade to twelfth grade participated in this event. Between the four-round Swiss system non-rated tournament and the awards ceremony, participants played a bughouse tournament.
Friday, May 13, was the last Denton High School chess club meeting for spring semester 2011. There was food, bughouse, and chess.
There are now 10 advance entries for the May 14, 2011 tournament at North Branch Library. More are expected by mail. Postmarked by May 7 gets the early entry fee price of $10! Form for entering is at the Denton High School Chess Club Web site. Goals for the 2011-2012 school year were discussed. Then elections were held. The only contested office was for President. Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer were elected by acclamation.
Dr. Alexey Root (me!) had students try the following Bruce Pandolfini problems: White: Ke6 and Qe2 vs. Black: Ke8 mate in 2, White to move. Then White: Ke6 and Re2 vs. Black: Ke8 mate in 3, also White to move. Then I showed the YouTube video where Pandolfini explains how to solve these type of problems (Chess Now, Episode 41, about 19 minutes into the episode.)
How to appeal to high-rated and to beginner students in one high school chess club? At the April 22, 2011 Denton High School chess club meeting, it was rumored that one rated player didn’t attend because he didn’t want to play a ladder game against someone who could not give him a good contest. I also heard that a beginner, who visited once, thought the level of the club members was too high and didn’t want to return.
Thirty-seven undergraduate research award winners presented posters today at UT Dallas. Saheli Nath’s “Effects of Playing Chess on Self-esteem among College Students: A Case-Control Pilot Study” qualified for the top eight. Those eight posters will be judged on April 27 by a panel of judges from outside UT Dallas. I am Saheli Nath’s faculty advisor for her research.
I am presenting twice this week at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference in Austin, Texas. Thousands of librarians and others attend this conference. You can download my presentation handouts. Look for the presentation titles “It’s All Games and Fun in the Library” and “Make a Bold Move: Chess in Public, Academic, and School Libraries.” The latter presentation is coming up Friday, April 15, 8 a.m. So if you are in Austin, come on by! I will also be signing my books 1-4 p.m.
On April 8, the chess club members took a Sample UIL Chess Test. One student finished in 11 minutes with a perfect score; some were still finishing at 55 minutes. Most students missed around 3-5 questions out of 20, but remained challenged and engaged.
As of April 8, 2011, I have a new article on Chess Life Online. It is an interview of author Robert Desjarlais.
For Denton High School chess club today, I wore my newly acquired (from Pep Rally on March 29) UT Dallas chess team T-shirt. One of my high school chess club students had on a UMBC (University of Maryland , Baltimore County) shirt! Was that his idea of an April Fool's joke? Also competing with UT Dallas and UMBC this weekend, April 2-3, are UTB (University of Texas at Brownsville) and Texas Tech. You can follow all the Final Four chess action right here on MonRoi. The high school students played ladder games after the T shirt showdown.
Alexey Root (that's me!) is quoted in a USA TODAY newspaper article about chess, published March 29, 2011.
Here is a photo of me (seated) watching the 2010 Pan American Championship-winning UT Dallas college chess team play an exhibition match on March 16 at their own Chess Plaza. Five out of these six students have taken my Chess Online courses. Because of the first place Pan Am finish, UT Dallas "A" team will compete in the Final Four of Chess, April 1-3, 2011. Pep Rally to support the "A" team is March 29, 2011, noon at UT Dallas.
