Celeste is in third grade. Even though it may be challenging for third graders to maintain concentration through a complicated chess problem, it’s fun to teach them because they are so wonderfully spontaneous...CLICK TITLE ABOVE TO READ MORE!
Read MoreThe guy with the goatee is Jim Liptrap. Jim is Mr. Chess in Houston. He organizes and runs about ten scholastic tournaments a year, and does it better than anybody else.. He also maintains the on-line schedule of all chess events of interest to kids and their parents atchess.jliptrap.us/schedule.htm. He's been doing chess for kids...CLICK TITLE TO READ MORE...
Read MoreOn 25 March our chess team participated in a tournament at Briarmeadow Charter School. For any tournament one never knows how many kids will sign up, or from what grades. This tournament turned out be a small tournament (103 players), with 47 primary grade (K-3) players, 42 elementary (grades 4 – 6) players, only four middle school (grades 7-8) players, and nine high school players. So, The tournament organizers combined the high school and middle school players into one HS/MS section of 13 players...CLICK TITLE TO READ MORE...
Read More“Christina”* started chess in the third grade at the beginning of the 2015 -16 school year. She knew nothing about chess, so was in the Learn to Play group. I barely noticed her. She was extremely shy and quiet. She seemed intimidated by the older players, and adults, including me. When I would ask the group questions, she never volunteered an answer or raised her hand. After teaching the players the rules of the game, we progress to tactical chess problems that are assigned to a specific individual. Christina still wasn’t saying anything, but I noticed when it was her turn she was making the correct moves on the chessboard to solve the problems. After four months of underestimating her chess skill, I finally played her one-on-one. She was clearly the best of the Learn to Play group, and ready for tournaments. I put Christina on the chess team...CLICK TITLE TO READ MORE...
Read MoreA few weeks ago, Mrs. Johnson, Principal at St. Peter the Apostle School in Houston, TX, called me to let me know that some people from the some foundation had toured the school. They were considering a grant of $5 million to the Archdiocese to be used to help five inner city Catholic schools that are in financial difficulty. At the time, the three trophies we had won at the state tournament were still on display outside the school office. Mrs Johnson pointed them out to the foundation party, and continued the tour of the school. When they passed our chess room, they looked in through the door window (I keep it locked), they asked if they could go in. Mrs. Johnson has a key, so in they went. It’s a smallish room that is entirely lined with shelves containing extra textbooks, all the old trophies from St. Peter’s illustrious sports history, plus our chess trophies from the past five years. There are three long tables with nine chess mats, nine chess clocks and pieces perfectly aligned. I keep everything “two-blocked,” as we say in the Navy....CLICK TITLE TO READ MORE...
Read More" Martin* ", whose belief in himself (and great coaching, paid through your donations) helped win the sixth-place trophy in the Middle School Open section at the Southeast Texas (Region 5) Scholastic Tournament at Baylor College of Medicine Academy on Feb. 18. He's from St. Peter the Apostle School. Martin is a seventh grader at St. Peter the Apostle School. a CICSF supported school in Houston. He has been playing in US Chess Federation sanctioned tournaments since he was in third grade. He entered the tournament last week with a 758 USCF rating based on his 160 games over the four years. That’s typical progress for a scholastic competitor. He’s a “normal” good kid; plays youth basketball, baseball, and soccer, … and chess, too. There’s nothing “geeky” about Martin...
Read MoreA recurring feature of teaching chess to youngsters is the touch-move rule. If a player touches a piece, he must move that piece, if it’s a legal move. It’s common for a dispute to break out between to players.
“You touched that piece!”
“No I didn’t!”
“YES YOU DID!!”
“NO I DIDN”T!!
Et cetera...
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Read MoreIt’s Tuesday, boys open chess day at St. Peter the Apostle Middle School in Houston. I have ten boys show up. After a lesson and some problems in zugzwang/stalemate, they settle down, as much as middle schoolers ever settle down, to their games. Cameron walks in late. He’s always late. He a fifth grader from the elementary school at St. Mary’s, an adjacent parish. They don’t have a chess program, so his grandfather trucks him over to St. Peter’s for chess. His grandmother teaches social studies here...CLICK TITLE TO READ MORE...
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