The Weekly Chess Tournament

Each week, the children play one chess game that counts toward the weekly chess club tournament. To make it fun, I give the sections funny names. This year the theme is food.

At Madison, I divided the club into four sections and at Washington, five sections. To keep the room organized, each section has a specific place to play. I post the pairings from the computer in the front of the room on a whiteboard with a projector. I also post paper copies of the standings on a wall near where the games are played. When the games are finished, I have the children mark their own scores on the paper standings.

As games finish and the scores are marked, I re-pair the children with a new opponent by hand. All games played after the tournament games do not count toward the standings although I do take notes on some of the results.

At Madison this week, I had two upsets. Players who were on the 6th and under team last year were beaten by players who were not on teams. If this keeps up, it could make for some interesting decisions when it comes time to pick teams.

In the 3rd and under sections at Washington, there are only two players who were on teams last year. That means that six new players will get to be on a team. It's fun trying to guess who those six players might get to be. Right now, I have no clue!

Hamburger Section (3rd and Under beginners)

Hot Dog Section (3rd and Under Intermediate)

Mac 'n Cheese Section (6th grade and Under Intermediate)

Pizza Section (Advanced)

White Board

Fresh out of a club meeting

I JUST finished the first meeting with the Washington Chess Club and I'd like to reflect on some observations. First off, the club is almost too big for our facilities; 70 kids in a room that is almost too small for that many. I also didn't have enough equipment for everybody; luckily I brought extras sets from Madison just in case. Last year, I divided the club into two groups at each school. I created video lessons for a volunteer to show the advanced players and then had the kids play their tournament games after the lesson. I think I'll have to do that again this year. I'll simply write to my parents and ask for volunteers to help. They'll come through!

I remember why I like running a tournament during the chess club meeting. It helps cut down on players talking. When standings and chess team placement are on the line, the kids focus harder and concentrate better during those tournament games. I don't pick the chess teams until February but I start collecting and tracking data starting week #2. This week, we didn't start the tournament. I let the kids pick their own opponent to help shake off the rust from months of not playing. I had to stop play on many occasions to get the talking to stop. I can't wait to start the tourney next week. I'll blog about how I set it up next week.

The Matrix

This week is the opening week for chess club. The first lesson will be "The Matrix" (four-move checkmate). In the past, I spent the first few weeks of chess club teaching players how to move the pieces but more and more children come to chess club knowing how to move them. 

I am not a fan of the matrix. I don't teach it to help kids learn an easy way to win. I teach it so that kids can learn how to defend against it. I've had too many players in my club lose to this trap to ignore it.

There are some benefits to teaching the matrix. It teaches the idea of quick development, attack, weak squares, and checkmate. It also helps children feel successful, especially when they come to me during the week and say something like "I beat my parent with the matrix last night!"

The basic idea in the matrix is to move the e pawn up two squares, which opens lanes for the bishop and queen. Moving the bishop to c4 and the queen to h5 and delivering checkmate by moving the queen to f7.

The MadWash Chess website contains a PDF and video about the matrix.

Click here to view the .gif

Who has "never" played chess before?

The first chess club meeting at Madison was held this week. I asked, "who has never played chess before?" Eight hands (out of 60) went into the air. I have a 4' x 8' rug at the front of the room where I place children that I want to give special attention to. I put the eight children who claimed to have never played chess on the rug. I paired them and posted a pic of a setup chess board on the wall. The children began setting up their boards and I didn't have to help a single child with the setup. In fact, one child said, "the white queen always goes on the white square, right?" I didn't even mention it beforehand.

As the 8 children began their games, I could tell that this was not the first time playing chess for most of them. One child said, "I know how to play, I'm just not very good." Another said, "my dad has been helping me." Of the 8, I'd say that only 2 really didn't know how to play.

The biggest surprise was that I put a .gif on the whiteboard of the four-move checkmate. One of the 8 beginners figured it out by watching it and defeated their opponent with it.

I'm pleasantly surprised by this new group of players! I think it's going to be a fun year!

Organizing a chess club meeting

The MadWash chess club meetings last 40 minutes.

Doors open five minutes before the actual meeting begins. During the five minutes before the lesson begins, I play a games from the "famous games" database on ChessMaster 10. There is a feature in Chessmaster that allows the computer to play through a game without the user having to control anything. It's like watching a movie of a chess game. Chessmaster 10 has three animated chess boards that I use to play through the famous games. Kids LOVE the animated games. I think that for some, the famous game is their favorite part of chess club.

I try to start the lesson as soon as the chess club meeting officially begins, although the kids usually want to continue watching famous games. I spend the first ten to fifteen minutes of the meeting teaching a new chess concept to the group. After that, the kids play tournament games. The tournament involves playing one game per week and lasts throughout the entire chess season.

I use a program called SwissSys to track the chess club tournament games. I divide the club into three groups; beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Each group is entered into SwissSys as a section and the software pairs the players in each round. I post wall charts, pairings, and standings in the room each week to get the players accustomed to reading them. The only game that counts toward the tournament is the first one that the kids play each week. When games finish I simply pair those who want to continue playing with others who need a partner. These games do not count toward the tournament but much learning takes place during them.

The season-long tournament is really messy. I usually have to repair the sections each week because of the club members who do not come. Entering the data is challenging, too. Those who do not play receive a forfeit loss but I have to be careful not to delete them from the roster when I enter the result into the computer. I also promote chess players into higher sections throughout the year which further complicates the sections and tournament mess. All-in-all, the benefits of running a tournament throughout the chess club season outweighs the logistical headaches that sometimes pop up.

Here's a video link on how to use "famous games" from Chessmaster (click on the picture)

Pre-lesson #4-6: Queen, Knight, and Pawn

For links to lessons on the queen, kinght, and pawn, click HERE!

Pre-lesson #3: The Bishop

For links to my bishop lessons, click HERE!

I have the beginning chess players place the bishop on the board in such a way that "cut" in the top of the bishop points to the diagonal (see picture). This helps the kids to remember that the bishop moves along the diagonal.

Pre-Lesson #2: The Rook

After the king, I introduce the rook. In my opinion, the rook is the second easiest piece to learn how to move in chess. The rook can move forward, backward, left, or right as many squares as possible.  The tops of the rooks that we use in chess club have four slots carved into the top. I have the children place the rooks on the chessboard in such a way that the slots point to the directions that the rook can move.  I have the children think of the rook as moving like a plus "+".

I created a game called "rook wars". The children set up a chess board with the kings and the rooks only with a pawn in front of each rook. The pawns act like roadblocks to the rooks. This helps the children learn that the pieces in chess do not jump over others like they do in checkers. I teach the concepts of attack and capture with this game, too, along with the idea of defense with a strategy that I call "the ABC's of chess". I'll explain the ABC's of chess in another post.

Here is a link to a word document and a video about the rook.

Here's a link to a document and video for rook wars.

Pre-lesson #1: The King

I used to spend the first few chess club sessions each year teaching and reviewing the moves of each chess piece. I am not going to do it this year, though. It seems that more and more kids are coming to chess club knowing how the pieces move. I prefer to jump right into teaching deeper concepts so I'm going to try it this year. I would be remiss if I didn't do anything for the newest of chess player and families, though, so I'm creating "pre-lessons" that I will post on the chess webpage. I created word documents of these lessons years ago but I am going to make video versions to post on YouTube. I encourage the newest players and families to review these lessons at home to help their understanding of how the pieces move.

I begin with the king. It's my opinion that the king is the easiest piece in chess to learn how to move. The king can only move one square in any direction at a time.

Set up a chess board with no pieces on it except for the kings. The kings are placed on the "e" squares at the edge of the board; the white king on "e1” and the black king on "e8". Take turns moving the king one square at a time in any direction. The kings are never allowed to be side-by-side.

Although this particular game is not very exciting, it helps the children understand one of the basic rules of chess; players take turns. It also teaches that players are allowed only one move during a their turn. They also learn the basics of how the king moves and that kings are not allowed to be side-by-side.

Here's a link to the word document and the video.

Scheduling Club Meetings

I preferred to hold chess club in the morning before school begins. One year I tried holding chess club after school but the kids were so tired from full days of classes that it was hard for many of the children to focus on playing chess. I tried giving the kids a 15 minute recess before chess club started but that seemed to make it worse. I like mornings because the children focus better and I feel that I can get more done with them.

When I was running chess club at Madison only, I would hold chess club twice a week. One day for the beginners and less experienced players and on another day for the advanced players and for those who I thought might make the chess teams. Now that I teach chess club at two schools and am also sponsoring other extracurricular activities, I meet with all chess club members at the same time; Madison meets on Wednesdays and Washington on Fridays.

From September through January my focus is on the beginning players to help them grasp the basics of chess. I create video lessons for the advanced chess players and have them go with a parent volunteer to another room in the school. The advanced players watch the video and then play tournament style games afterward.

After the second Warsaw chess tournament in January, I switch my attention to the advanced players and the chess team. The beginners go with volunteers into other rooms while I focus on advanced chess concepts and prepare the chess team for all of the team tournaments that take place in February and March.

After the team state finals in March, I take a 6-month break from chess club. I'm usually pretty wound up about chess for a few weeks after state finals so I make lessons and prepare for the following chess season. During the summer, a chess camp is held at Madison to get kids ready for the upcoming chess season.

Organizing Chess Club Entries

I organize chess club entries using Google Sheets. I started using Google a couple of years ago when I created the online entry form using Google Forms. If you use Google Forms for online entry, families who register with it automatically have their information organized onto a Google spreadsheet. This is very helpful and saves time.

Here's a link to a tutorial I made about creating an online permission form https://youtu.be/ObHopDwezo4

If a child returns a form that is filled out, I enter the information manually on the Google Sheet. All of the forms and info are saved in Google Drive and are easy to access. After I input the information I put the forms in a folder in a file cabinet for reference. The only information that I put on the Google spreadsheet from the entry form is the child's name, grade level, school, and classroom teacher (last name only - helps with organization).  If I need to contact a parent from the stack of paper forms turned in, I go to the file cabinet where I store them and search for the child's name and find either the phone number or the email address of the parent that I need. I like it when parents use the online entry form because phone number and email address are easy to find. I could type all that information from the paper forms manually but considering how often I need to contact parents as compared to the amount of time that it takes to input it manually I preferred just to look through the file cabinet.

Chess flyers in the hands of the kids

I create chess flyers with Microsoft Word. I've been using the same file for years; I just change dates and make a few tweaks each season. This year I decided to make the permission form (the turn-in portion) separate from the rest of the chess flyer. When I'm finished updating a new flyer, I send a copy of the it electronically to the school corporation copy center. This year I made 250 copies, half for Madison and half for Washington. 

I use the color salmon for all chess handouts. It makes it easier for parents to locate the handouts when they come home. When I receive the flyers from the copy center I place them on a desk outside the music room for children to pick up. I put them there because I am the music teacher for the school and also because every child walks by the music room at least once a week and usually more. I put a sign above the flyers, too, so the children know what they are for. I also have the principal mention the chess flyers during morning announcements. 

The flyers are available to students for one month. After that, I keep them handy because children want to join chess after the club has already started. There are no deadlines for joining chess; kids can come at any time.