Chess Nut Blog: Chess Activities and Other News

Oh Man! Too much happening - I can't keep up! I lack one extra prep that all the other teachers enjoy at the high school, because I opted to teach the chess class during one of my prep times, gratis. There are 41 students that are taking this course this year. I couldn't leave them hanging due to my other classes being full. Plus, it is a nice way to relax and improve my own chess skills. I just have to grade and prepare my lessons like a mazerati at other times of the day and in between classes. I also teach Human Anatomy & Physiology, AP Environmental Science (x2), and Biology (x2). The chess class is a tremendous success and one of our teachers noted, "I can't believe (such-and-such) stayed focused that long!" Yes, students do exercise their cognitive skills and earn a full elective credit (and they can take it multiple times).

Integrating Chess and Critical Thinking

Wyatt Caccia is the classroom champion for the first semester. Wyatt is an eclectic student with many interests including art, cooking, debate, and environmental science. He is currently training for cage fighting and told me that he wishes he had continued the chess class in the second semester instead of body sculpting. He is very personable, gets along with everyone, and is one of the most easy-going students at WRHS. He knew how to play chess when he landed in Integrating Chess and Critical Thinking, but certainly blossomed into one of the best players rather quickly. He is giving up a cage fight this next weekend to attend the ICA Scholastic State Chess Championship. But, maybe his future will be in Chess Boxing?

Wyatt "Spicoli" Caccia, Renaissance Man

Results

Place	Name/Team	Rate	Score	MMed	Solk	Cum	CumOp
1	Caccia, Wyatt (1)	1049	10.0	53.5	56.0	56.0	340.0
2	Anderson, Ryan (12)	987	8.0	55.5	58.0	57.0	339.0
3	Brimstein, Wesley (5)	950	8.0	55.5	58.0	50.0	346.0
4	Castle, Colby (9)	1061	8.0	55.5	58.0	43.0	353.0
5	Jones, Megan (7)	1018	7.5	56.0	58.5	39.0	357.0
6	Avila, Tyler (10)	864	7.0	56.5	59.0	37.0	359.0
7	Hartetdegen, Nash (2)	901	5.5	40.0	60.5	43.5	352.5
8	Murphy, Andre (4)	971	4.0	44.0	62.0	28.0	368.0
9	Flores, Guillermo (6)	810	3.0	45.0	63.0	15.0	381.0
10	Vallejo, Victor (11)	734	2.5	45.5	63.5	9.5	386.5
11	Crowson, Keegan (3)	734	1.5	46.5	64.5	8.0	388.0
12	McNeil, Lily (8)	862	1.0	47.0	65.0	10.0	386.0

Cross Table

No.

Name

Rate

Pts

Rnd1

Rnd2

Rnd3

Rnd4

Rnd5

Rnd6

Rnd7

Rnd8

Rnd9

Rnd10

Rnd11

Caccia, Wyatt

1049

10.0

W10

W12

W11

Anderson, Ryan

987

8.0

W10

W11

W12

Brimstein, Wesley

950

8.0

W11

W10

W12

Castle, Colby

1061

8.0

W11

W10

W12

Jones, Megan

1018

7.5

W11

W10

W12

Avila, Tyler

864

7.0

W10

W12

W11

Hartetdegen, Nash

901

5.5

W12

D11

D10

Murphy, Andre

971

4.0

W12

L11

W10

Flores, Guillermo

810

3.0

W11

W10

W12

Vallejo, Victor

734

2.5

W12

W11

Crowson, Keegan

734

1.5

L12

L10

McNeil, Lily

862

1.0

W11

L10

Jon Reigle plays two students, Anthony Flores and Connor Morris during chess class. Jon loves to play and secretly plays on-line now. His sister told me. Here he is working his way up to a full blown, classroom simul.

Foreign exchange student, Martina Lastikova from Slovakia feels at home playing Keegan Crowson (oops, no hats please!) My room is a busy place all day long with students that like to "hang out." In the background, Lisa Hart, doesn't know how to play chess . . . yet . . . she likes to visit my room to watch chess players and complete homework.

Chess Club

We meet every Wednesday and Thursday, afterschool, C214, WRHS and anyone and everyone is welcome. Most of the time it is rather social with blitz, bughouse, and casual games played, but this past week I had the students go over games from last semester that they happened to record. I am trying to encourage everyone to record games and analyze them periodically. Tyler Avila groaned and made croaking sounds while playing out a game with Wesley Brimstein. "Poooorth!" he would exclaim. Wesley flatly said, "I don't like seeing my games again." Andre Murphy silently played them out with Keegan Crowson. They probably wish they didn't record any games after mistakes are glaringly apparent. That's education fer ya!

Des and Meg play and in the background Noah and his after school tutor learn the Scotch Gambit from a book by Bruce Pandolfini.

Everyone that visits chess club gets to enjoy popcorn. As long as they play a chess game - others beg to no avail. I even make teachers that pop in to grab a hand-full, play a game. Mr. Foster is one of our favorite customers. I have large coffee cans that we eat out of as bowls, so many pictures of my room have miscellaneous Folgers cans lying about. I also pop it on Fridays for my chess class to have a "fun" day. Popcorn and chess is becoming a staple for me and my students.

Tanya and Anna, lunchtime and afterschool buddies

Anna Murphy, WRHS Chess Club Vice President, asked me today if chess club numbers are going up or not? The fewest I counted this year were eight students with an average of twelve visiting each meeting. What is neat is that most of the Wednesday crowd doesn't come on Thursday, meaning there is a whole other group of students. So there are about 22 active members that I counted up for our yearbook, though most are leery of tournaments and it becoming known that they visit chess club (LOL). Elementary players are welcome as well, and my eight-year old son Darwin will usually drag a friend or two to the meetings. There are a couple other elementary players that are regulars, too. It is almost an additional class for me two days a week, and nearly a two hour class at that! I usually stay until 5:30 or 6:00 pm.

Kaiden and Darwin ride the bus from Bellevue Elementary to the high school to play. They enter my room, drop their coats, backpacks, and occasionally shoes immediately and head for the popcorn machine.

Also, I show an Environmental Science movie every Wednesday night at 7 pm for Biology and AP Environmental Science students. Occasionally a chess student has stayed for those too. We need cots or beds for WRHS! Movies include Dirt!, Blue Gold, An Inconvenient Truth, Natural History of the Chicken, Food,inc., the 11th hour, Zeitgeist, Manufactured Landscapes, Cane Toads, The Venus Project and others that include sustainability principles found in the environmental genre. I throw fun ones in like the Lorax and Wall-E, too. There is a different movie each week. Consequently, my diet for two days is popcorn and coffee for dinner. How's that for sustainable living?

Riley Clark brought a cake a few weeks back. Very cool treats. And there is a white square on the right of the board!

Today, Dylan, Anna, and Andre and me played chess and sold donuts in the freezing cold. Our annual Krispy Kreme donut sales are continuing through Wednesday, March 13 with delivery on March 17. This fund raiser will usually net enough money to pay for most -but not all of - the hotel rooms for State competition slated for this Saurday, March 16. Tournament Registration fees have jumped to $30 + USCF membership and additional hotel fees + food amounting to nearly $100. Contact me if you can financially support or sponsor a student (most students are in need of support).

Girls Scholastic State Competition and Novice Tournament

I will report on this tomorrow and the Spring Warm Up and the Barnes & Noble Tournament tomorrow.

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Saturday, March 9, 2013

Chess Activities and Other News

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