Check It Out Annual Minneapolis School District Chess Tournament

I know we just started this year’s chess club, but our 1st tournament is upon us. If your child likes Chess Club, they’ll like this tournament. It's also a very good warm-up tournament for the much more competitive ones later in the year. Last year Burroughs had about 20 kids attend. Here are the details.

What:

• Kids play seven games of chess, in either a K-3 level or a 4-6 level. Trophies are awarded depending on how kids do, and there are door prizes, too. Last year, Burroughs took home the 2nd place trophy in Grades 4-6 and the 1st place trophy in grades K-3.
• We will be competing as a team, but if your child is participating, you are responsible for arranging supervision for them. We cannot oversee this number of kids.
• It’s free and lunch is provided.
• There is down time between games, so bring a book or something for the kids to do. (Nintendos are a popular option.)
• Wear your Burroughs clothes to represent!
  

When: Saturday, December 11, 2010. 8:30AM for registration, 9:00 AM if you’re pre-registerd. Ends around 4:30.

Where: North High School, 1500 James Avenue North (enter on Knox Avenue side of building)

How: Preregister with Burroughs by clicking here BY 12/6!

If you have any questions, email busrroughschess@gmail.com.

Chess Club Practice Basics

Here is a little information about the practices for those who haven't been through them before:
· Fridays 3:40 to 4:30 in the Burroughs cafeteria.
· Teachers will send chess club kids to cafeteria and Mpls kids brings morning kindergartners.
· Kids will get their nametag, leave their stuff in the hallway, go to their chess table and PLAY!
· You may want to send a snack with your child to eat at the beginning of practice.
· Kids report results and they're tracked.
· If they get three strikes for discipline, including not playing, we'll talk to you about it.
· Lesson for each practice.
· Please pickup at 4:30 by coming into the school.
· Mpls Kids are walked to their room.

Chess Club Meeting Cheat Sheet

Hi everyone. For those of you who couldn't make the chess club meeting on the 29th, here are some of the things we covered:

Overview
· Open to all Burroughs students
· No cost, but no transportation
· Philosophy is: PLAY.
· Runs from 11/19 – 2/26 (11/12 for beginners)

Practices
· Fridays 3:40 to 4:30 in the Burroughs Cafeteria
· Teachers will send chess club kids to cafeteria
· Kids get their nametag, go to their table and PLAY!
· You may want to send a snack with your child to eat at the beginning of practice
· Kids report results and they're tracked
· Three Strikes disciplinary policy
· Lesson for each practice
· Please pickup at 4:30 by coming into the school
· Mpls Kids are walked to their area.

Tournaments
· 12/11 – More informal, Mpls only tournament
· 1/29 & 2/26 – More formal, SCA grade-level tournaments
· Parents must supervise
· Run from ~9AM to ~4PM

Volunteers
· Coverage of approximately one parent per 8 kids for practice
· We'll want to get volunteers to learn administrative systems for next year

More Info/Sign-up
· BurroughsChess.Blogspot.com
· BurroughsChess@gmail.com
· Coach: John Bonnes 612 581 0737 or john@bonnes.com

2010-11 Schedule

Preseason
10/29/2010 - Parents Meeting
11/5/2010 - NO SCHOOL
11/12/2010 - Beginners Only

First Third
11/19/2010 - Practice 1
11/26/2010 - NO SCHOOL
12/3/2010 - Practice 2
12/10/2010 - Practice 3
12/11/2010 - Check It Out Chess Tournament

Break
12/17/2010 - NO PRACTICE
12/24/2010 - NO SCHOOL
12/31/2010 - NO SCHOOL

Second Third
1/7/2011 - Practice 4
1/14/2011 - Practice 5
1/21/2011 - Practice 6
1/28/2011 - Practice 7
1/29/2011 - Frozen Open Tournament

Final Third
2/4/2011 - Practice 8
2/11/2011 - Practice 9
2/18/2011 - NO SCHOOL
2/25/2011 - Practice 10
2/26/2011 - Check It Out Chess Tournament

Wrapup
3/4/2011 - Final Practice 11

2010-11 Season is Starting!

We’re back! The PTA sponsored Burroughs Chess Club, which boasted over 100 kids last year, is looking to build on last year’s enormous success. The goal is to get as many kids to try chess as possible and maybe even help them compete in city and state chess tournaments. Here are the details:

• Open to all Burroughs students and all skill levels.


• Eleven practices on Fridays from 3:40 to 4:30 PM, starting 11/19 and going through March 3rd, which will be held in Burroughs cafeteria. Also, this year there will also be a beginners only practice a week earlier on 11/12.
  


• The Chess Club will send a contingent of interested students to three tournaments on 12/11 (open to all levels), 1/29 and 2/26.
  


• Mostly, the kids play a lot of chess with new friends.


• No cost again this year! THANKS PTA!

We will have a meeting for interested parents and students, tentatively scheduled on Friday, 10/29 in the Burroughs auditorium at 3:45. Or you can sign up you child (or just look to get more information at BurroughsChess.Blogspot.com. Don’t delay! Space really is limited.

3/1/10 Chess Practice - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

“In life, as in chess, forethought wins.”

- Charles Buxton

Our second to last Burroughs Chess Club practice is this Friday (March 5th) at 2:50 in the Burroughs lunchroom. Below you’ll find details about it, but feel free to send any followup questions to BurroughsChess@Gmail.com.

NEED VOLUNTEERS!
We are short volunteers this week, especially for the practice time. Please, if you have time between 3 and 4:20 on Friday, click on the link below and sign up. If I don’t have enough volunteers by Thursday, I’ll need to cancel the practice.

http://www.mysignup.com/burroughschess0305

Thanks!

3rd TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU PLAN ON COMING SO I CAN HAVE AN IDEA HOW BIG OUR TEAM WILL BE. Our third (and last) tournament is this Saturday in Burnsville. For more information, including how to register, click here.

OUR LAST PRACTICE
Our last chess club practice will be Friday, March 12th. We’ll continue to play chess, go through some strategies, and should have a parting gift for all the kids. I hope they can make it.

THANKS again for your participation and we’ll hopefully see you on Friday.
Sincerely,
John

Final Burroughs Chess Tournament Info and Registration

The last tournament of the year for the Burroughs Chess Club will be Saturday March 6th, starting at 8:00 (non-registered) or 9:00 (pre-registered) and ending about 3:30. It will be at Metcalf Jr. High in Burnsville.

I expect this tournament to be more competitive than the Check It Out tournament, but not quite at the level of the Capitol Hill tournament. It has two grade classes, K-3 and 4-6. It is conducted at the same time and place as a Jr. High Championship tournament, though we obviously won't be competing against that group.

I don't see any mention of this being a tournament where they give out awards for chess teams, or at least not at the K-3 and 4-6 level.

REGISTRATION
To pre-register, you start at http://schoolchess.org/registration/player_status.php. If you're a new player, you will choose "I'm a new player - never played in an SCA tournament" which takes you to http://schoolchess.org/registration/new_player_01.php . Calling it 'online' registration is stretching it a bit for new players, since you need to mail a form into the address listed, but the process is pretty painless. Basically you need to:

1. Print out a form from the page
2. Include a check for $18. This includes registering for SCA and for the tournament.
3. Mail it to them at the address listed.

The mail must be postmarked by the Tuesday before the tournament (the 2nd of March) to make sure they get it in time. If you can't mail it by then, you just bring the form and payment directly to the tournament and they'll process you there.

Once you register, you'll get a card with a number on it and you can use that to truly register (and pay) online for future tournaments, which I think is just $16.

If you previously registered with the SCA (for the Capitol Hill tournament), it'll ask you for your SCA number and you'll be able to register and pay online (through Paypal).

GIVE IT A TRY!
This will be our final tournament, and a chance for the kids to see what all the practices has done for them. We will have one more practice the week folowing to let them play one more time and give out some gifts for their participation.

6th Practice Report

NO PRACTICE ON THE 26TH
There is no school next Friday, so there won’t be any chess club. Enjoy your week off! (I’m sure going to!)

VOLUNEERS FOR MARCH 5TH
We didn’t have as many volunteers as I would have liked today, and I recognize I haven’t been giving a ton of direction to the folks who have been so good about showing up. So for the next practice, I’m asking for volunteers to make a special effort to sign up:

http://www.mysignup.com/burroughschess0305

This is a different format for signing up than we’ve had before, and you can sign up to volunteer for a role before practice (before 3:00), during practice (3:00-4:20), after practice (4:20-4:30) or all three of them. I’m trying this because as chess club continues on, things are getting a little more chaotic, and with this number of kids, I think we need all the help we can get.

Thanks again for signing up.

PRACTICE
Among the things we went over on the practice was:
1. Our Trophies! – The kids from our first tournament who brought home two team trophies presented them to Mr. Cadotte in a short ceremony.
2. Standings – We started posting standings for our three divisions (K-1, 2-3, 4-5) so kids could see who they were challenging.
3. Four-move checkmate – We mostly learned this for defensive purposes. Ask you kids what the signs are that their opponent is going to try and pin them in a quick checkmate (answer: bishop moves our three squares and queen moves out two)

Other than that, there was a lot of playing.

CHECK WITH YOUR CHILD
Please take some time in the next week to ask your child if they enjoy playing chess at chess club. One way to get a sense is to ask them how many game they played. If they aren’t finishing at least two and probably three games, they may not really want to play. Kids who avoid playing end up being disruptive. With that many kids, we can’t have volunteers shadowing just one child. Starting next practice, we’ll be contacting parents if this behavior continues.

THANKS
We only have two more practices and two more tournaments left (including tomorrow’s). Thanks so much for helping make our trial chess club season a success.

Sincerely,
John

6th Practice & Weekly Notes

Our sixth Burroughs Chess Club practice is this Friday (Feb 19th) at 2:50 in the Burroughs lunchroom. Below you’ll find details about it, but feel free to send any followup questions to BurroughsChess@Gmail.com.

NEED VOLUNTEERS ON SHORT NOTICE FOR THIS WEEK
Please, if you can help at practice, please sign up at:

http://www.mysignup.com/burroughschess0219

Thanks!

2ND TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Please let me know if you plan on coming so I can have an idea how big our team will be.

Our second tournament will be the only tournament which is a grade level tournament, meaning your child will only play kids in their own grade level. In most other tournaments, kids often play across a few grade levels. That said, it will be more competitive than the last tournament, especially on the high-end. You’ve been warned. It is held at Capitol Hill school in St. Paul, near (appropriately) Capitol Hill.

For more information, including how to register, see here.

CELEBRATING OUR FIRST TOURNAMENT RESULTS
The Burroughs team took home a second place prize in grades 4 through 6 and a first place prize in grades K through 3 in our first tournament last weekend. So we’ll bring the plaques we received and present them to Mr. Cadotte. I’ll also post the results so everyone can see how they finished.

For more details on our tournament last weekend, click here.

Burroughs Chess Club Brings Home Some Hardware

Now THAT’S how you represent a chess club!

Burroughs Chess Club brought 20+ kids to Minneapolis Public School’s Check It Out Chess Tournament on Saturday. Then they brought home three big trophies.

In the fourth grade through sixth grade level, Burroughs team finished in second place overall. This isn’t a participation prize. The team points are determined by totaling the points gathered by the top four students from each school, demonstrating a high level of play across several members of the team. In fact, seven kids finished with winning records. And that’s without having any sixth graders.

In the kindergarten through third grade level, Burroughs’ team was paced by third-grader Davis Everson-Rose, who won the top individual award with a record of six wins and one draw. But the entire team shined, placing ELEVEN kids in the top twenty spots. Not too surprisingly, that team finished in first place, edging out Pillsbury by a half point.

Congratulations to all the kids who participated and represented Burroughs. I hope you had fun! We’ll bring in the two team’s trophies on Friday and I’ll post final results at practice for anyone who is interested.

2nd Chess Tournament - 2/20, Capitol Hill

INFORMATION
Our second tournament will be the only tournament which is a grade level tournament, meaning your child will only play kids in their own grade level. In most other tournaments, kids often play across a few grade levels. It is held at Capitol Hill school in St. Paul, near (appropriately) Capitol Hill.

Here's the basic info from the SCA (School Chess Association) web site (http://schoolchess.org/):
"THE NEXT TOURNAMENT WILL BE AT CAPITOL HILL IN ST PAUL ON FEBRUARY 20TH
SCA STATEWIDE GRADE LEVEL will be held at Capitol Hill in St Paul on February 20th. This tournament is a grade Level where Players compete within their own grade level in grades K-8. In addition there is one 9th grade - 12th grade section. Team awards for Grade Levels based upon top three players in each grade section from each school.

This tournament will be on-line registration, if you register on-line and pay by using paypal you do not need to be at the tournament site until 9:00am. New players may download a registration form and send a check to the address listed and need not arrive until 9:00am. If you do not pay or register on-line you must be at the tournament site between 8:00 and 8:30am. All players who enter the line after 8:30 may miss the 1st round."

This is a pretty popular tournament. There are usually five games for each child, and there can be over a hundred kids in each grade from all over Minnesota. At the high-end, the kids can be really, really good, but there are plenty of relative beginners too.

REGISTRATION
To pre-register, you start at (http://schoolchess.org/registration/player_status.php), and will probably choose "I'm a new player - never played in an SCA tournament" which takes you to (http://schoolchess.org/registration/new_player_01.php) . Calling it 'online' registration is stretching it a bit for new players, since you need to mail a form into the address listed, but the process is pretty painless. Basically you need to:

1. Print out a form from the page
2. Include a check for $18. This includes registering for SCA and for the tournament.
3. Mail it to them at the address listed.

The mail must be postmarked by the Tuesday before the tournament (the 16th of February) to make sure they get it in time. If you can't mail it by then, you just bring the form and payment directly to the tournament and they'll process you there.

Once you register, you'll get a card with a number on it and you can use that to truly register (and pay) online for future tournaments, which I think is just $16.

I hope you can all make it to the tournanment. If you're like me, you'll be amazed at how large it is and the excitement and interest of all the kids. I hope to see you there.

Schedule for 1st Tournament

I've just received the schedule for the tournament this weekend (the 13th at North High School cafeteeria). My experience is that it doesn't go quite this smoothly, but I'd suggest trying to be there around 9:00 if you're pre-registered in case they go over rules. I'll try and be there around 8:30.

CHECK IT OUT!!!
CHESS COMPETITION
Student Activities Department
Minneapolis Public Schools

North High School Cafeteria
February 13, 2010

8:30 - 9:00 a.m. Registration
9:00 - 9:30 a.m. Warm-up/ Practice time
9:30 - 10:00 a.m. Round 1
10:15 - 10:45 a.m. Round 2
11:00 - 11:30 a.m. Round 3
11:45 - 12:15 p.m. Round 4
12:15 - 12:45 p.m. Lunch
1:00 - 1:30 p.m. Round 5
1:45 - 2:15 p.m. Round 6
2:30 - 3:00 p.m. Round 7
3:30 p.m. Awards


Questions?
Contact the Student Activities Office:

Derek Emery - 668-0167 or Pam Olson - 668-0157
Email: derek.emery@mpls.k12.mn.us or polson@mpls.k12.mn.us

5th Practice

“Of chess it has been said that life is not long enough for it, but that is the fault of life, not chess.”
– Irving Chernev


If life isn’t long enough for chess, certainly the chess season isn’t. We find ourselves halfway through the season, with our fifth Burroughs Chess Club practice this Friday (Feb 12th) at 2:55 in the Burroughs lunchroom. Below you’ll find details about it, but feel free to send any followup questions to BurroughsChess@Gmail.com.

NEED VOLUNTEERS ON SHORT NOTICE FOR THIS WEEK
I’m late in getting this setup, but if you can help at practice, please sign up at:

http://www.mysignup.com/burroughschess0212

Thanks!

OUR PREVIOUS PRACTICE
THANKS to all our volunteers and especially to Mike Dietrich who led the chess lessons last week. I was out of town but it sounds like everything went really well. (And after entering well over 100 chess game results, I can confirm there was a lot of chess played!)

OUR FIRST TOURNAMENT – Saturday Feb 13th
You can still sign up for our first tournament. You’ll just need to register in person that morning, starting at 8:30 AM. You can find out more info about the tournament HERE. Last I saw, we had at least fifteen kids signed up across all grades. And don’t forget to wear your Burroughs clothing.

If you think your child is interested in eventually attending a chess tournament, I can’t encourage you enough to try this first one. The “Check It Out” tournament is BY FAR the friendliest tournament for beginning chess players. Is isn’t a School Chess Association tournament – it’s just sponsored by the Mpls Public Schools, and so there are a lot more beginners than there are at any other tournament. It’s also free and lunch is provided free too. Finally, it’s the only tournament where kids don’t need their own chess sets.

But it is a long day. The kids play seven rounds of chess divided into K-3 and 4-6 grades (I think). Each round lasts about a half hour, and then they have long breaks in between to socialize, play with each other, play Nintendo DS, etc. Registration starts at 8:30 and my experience is that the awards ceremony ends around 5:00.

OUR NEXT TOURNAMENT – Saturday Feb 20th
Our second tournament of the year will be next Saturday, the 20th. I’ll get you the information around this within the next day or so, but put it on your calendar now. It is the only grade level tournament, meaning it is the only tournament where your child is assured of playing only kids in their grade, and awards are also given by grade.

CLARIFICATION ON PICKING UP KIDS
Please come into Burroughs to pick up your kids. We’ve noticed several kids running outside as our club ends, and we want to make sure everyone finds their parent safely.

THANKS again for your participation and we’ll hopefully see you on Friday.
Sincerely,
John

4TH Practice - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

“A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.”
– Emo Philips


The fourth Burroughs Chess Club practice SHOULD take place at 3:00 this Friday (Feb 5th) in the Burroughs lunchroom, provided we get some more volunteers signed up. Below you’ll find details about it, but feel free to send any followup questions to BurroughsChess@Gmail.com.

NEED VOLUNTEERS TO AVOID CANCELLING PRACTICE
Our signup sheet only shows three volunteers (out of 12) for Friday’s practice. I suspect we have several volunteers who plan on coming but just haven’t signed up, but I’m not comfortable taking that chance with 90+ kids, so if you can be there, please sign up at:

http://www.mysignup.com/burroughschess0205

If it looks like we don’t have enough coverage, I’ll need to cancel the practice.

OUR FIRST TOURNAMENT – Saturday Feb 13th
You need to signup TONIGHT to be pre-registered for our first tournament, as I’ll be sending the organizers the list sometime tomorrow. You can signup at:

http://mysignup.com/burroughscheckitout

If you don’t sign up be tonight, you’ll need to register in person that morning, starting at 8:30 AM. I’ll paste the form your children got at practice on Friday at the end which provide more info. Also, you can always ask questions by emailing BurroughsChess@gmail.com

If you think your child is interested in eventually attending a chess tournament, I can’t encourage you enough to try this first one. The “Check It Out” tournament is BY FAR the friendliest tournament for beginning chess players. Is isn’t a School Chess Association tournament – it’s just sponsored by the Mpls Public Schools, and so there are a lot more beginners than there are at any other tournament. It’s also free and lunch is provided free too. Finally, it’s the only tournament where kids don’t need their own chess sets.

But it is a long day. The kids play seven rounds of chess divided into K-3 and 4-6 grades (I think). Each round lasts about a half hour, and then they have long breaks in between to socialize, play with each other, play Nintendo DS, etc. Registration starts at 8:30 and my experience is that the awards ceremony ends around 5:00.

MIKE DIETRICH WILL LEAD THIS FRIDAY’S PRACTICE
I’ll be out this week and so Mike Dietrich will be leading this practice. If you’re a volunteer, look to Mike for direction.

Getting to the Cafeteria
Chess club members will be released to the lunchroom by their teachers. Mr. Cadotte will announce this on Friday and we have provided a list of students to the teachers, but if there is any confusion, a child can tell their teacher that is where they should be. Mpls Kids can also report directly to Chess Club.

Kids Check-in (2:55-3:10)
Outside of the lunch room, each grade will have an area where they can put the coats and backpacks. Also a volunteer will be in that area with a list of nametags for each grade. So as teachers dismiss kids to the cafeteria, they should stop at their grade’s station to take care of those things. (Volunteers will be outside the lunchroom to help them.) Once kids are inside the lunchroom, they can start playing right away!

Snack
We’ll allow snack during the first few minute. Unfortunately, we can’t provide a snack. If you want your child to have one, please send one with them to school. They can eat it in the cafeteria as they get settled. Also, please make sure that your children know that the snacks that are in the cafeteria are for Minneapolis Kids students only.

Playing Chess (3:10-4:15)
We’ll have chess sets out and kids can pair up and start playing. We’ll have one table set aside for beginners who want a little extra help. All kids will play and report their results to the check-in table. Then they’ll find someone else to play and repeat that throughout the hour. I think this is the week we’ll start tracking results and ranking kids, so the level of motivation will likely rise.

Chess Lesson (varies)
During the play time we’ll interrupt them once or twice to conduct a short lesson or review something from last week. This week the lesson will be covered by Mike Dietrich.

Cleanup (4:15-4:20)
Kids will put both black and white pieces for their games into a zip bag and bring the bag and the board to the check-in table.

Pickup Kids (4:20 – 4:30)
Please plan on picking up your child by 4:20. We cannot supervise children that are not picked up by 4:30.

THANKS again for your participation and we’ll hopefully see you on Friday.
Sincerely,
John

3rd Chess Practice Report

“I can’t believe how much all the kids just like playing chess!” she said incredulously.

A new volunteer (whose children had also just joined the club) said this to me, and I was relieved to hear it. With 107 kids, our organization can look a lot like chaos, and it can feel a lot like chaos, and I wonder how new folks will respond. I admitted that I couldn’t believe how much the kids liked playing chess either, and it was precisely why this club is working so far. And we’re about to take the next big step, so I appreciate if you can read through this week’s report.

OUR FIRST TOURNAMENT – Saturday Feb 13th
If you think your child is interested in eventually attending a chess tournament, I can’t encourage you enough to try this first one. The “Check It Out” tournament is BY FAR the friendliest tournament for beginning chess players. Is isn’t a School Chess Association tournament – it’s just sponsored by the Mpls Public Schools, and so there are a lot more beginners than there are at any other tournament. It’s also free and lunch is provided free too. Finally, it’s the only tournament where kids don’t need their own chess sets.

But it is a long day. The kids play seven rounds of chess divided into K-3 and 4-6 grades (I think). Each round lasts about a half hour, and then they have long breaks in between to socialize, play with each other, play Nintendo DS, etc. Registration starts at 8:30 and my experience is that the awards ceremony ends around 5:00.

The day can be less long if you pre-register, and to help them out we’re trying to get as many Burroughs kids signed up electronically as we can. You can sign through Wednesday February 3rd at:

http://mysignup.com/burroughscheckitout

If you don’t sign up be Wednesday, you’ll need to register in person that morning, starting at 8:30 AM. I’ll paste the form your children got at practice on Friday at the end which provide more info. Also, you can always ask questions by emailing BurroughsChess@gmail.com

NEXT PRACTICE
If you’re interested in helping out on Friday the 5th, please sign up at:

http://www.mysignup.com/burroughschess0205

I’m especially grateful for help this week because I won’t be there. Mike Dietrich will be organizing things and teaching the kids the lessons.

PRACTICE
Among the things we went over on the practice was:
1. Good Sportsmanship – shaking hands before and after the game and respecting the other player whether you win or lose.
2. Touch rule – when you touch a piece that you can legally move, you must move it. This will be enforced in the tournament so we went over it.
3. Stalemate – you can pull out a draw in a game in which things look hopeless by getting your king into a spot where he’s not in check, but where every place he can move is in check (provide there are no other pieces you can move.)
4. How to get a king in checkmate with a queen and a rook or two rooks by building a wall and forcing the king to the side. (Ask your kids about this.)

Other than that, there was a lot of playing. We started tracking results for the first time too, and so we’ll have rankings for the kids next week. Hopefully that will lead to more appropriate pairings for games.

CHESS CLUB IS FOR PLAYING CHESS
We are starting to see a handful of kids who are attending on Fridays but who aren’t really interested in actually playing chess. We tell these kids that the first rule of chess club is that you play chess. Frankly, we can’t effectively supervise this many kids if they’re not playing chess. Please make sure to encourage your kids to play.

THANKS
I also can’t believe how much all the kids just like playing chess, and I can’t believe all the support parent, grandparents and volunteers have given. I’m very excited for some of these kids to participate in their first tournament, and it’ll be interesting to see how Burroughs does because there are school awards. We have some terrifically talented and motivated kids. THANKS so much for everything.

Sincerely,
John

--------------------
Student Activities Department of the Minneapolis Public Schools presents

Annual Winter District Chess Tournament

February 13, 2010
North High School
1500 James Avenue North
(enter on Knox Avenue side of building)

Sign in is at 8:30 a.m.; students should pre-register through their schools which helps plan for the tournament.

Open to Minneapolis Public School students in grades K – 12. All skill levels are invited to attend. Competition has 7 rounds and ends at 3:45 p.m. Lunch is provided. Volunteers are welcome.

For additional information Call Derek Emery at (612) 668-0167 or
Pam Olson at (612) 668-0157
Email: derek.emery@mpls.k12.mn.us
polson@mpls.k12.mn.us


Burroughs Chess Club Notes
- To pre- register with our chess club, do so online at: Mysignup.com/BurroughsCheckItOut
- Burroughs pre-registration closes NEXT WEDNESDAY, February 3rd. If you don’t pre-register by then you will need to show up at 8:30 AM the morning of the tournament to do so.
- There is no charge from what I’ve seen.
- We will be competing as a team, but if your child is participating, you are responsible for arranging supervision for them. We cannot oversee this number of kids.
- We’re asking kids to wear Burroughs clothing to represent the school and make it easier to identify each other. Thanks.
- Check out our blog: BurroughsChess.Blogspot.com for more information.

No Chess Club on the 22nd!

There is no school on the 22nd of January, so there will be no chess club. Our next practice will be on the 29th of January. Thanks!

John

A GREAT 1st Chess Practice

First of all, THANKS to everyone for helping make the first practice of the Burroughs Chess Club such an amazing success. The reception and enthusiasm of the 80+ kids was overwhelming, but the organizational challenges could’ve been just as overwhelming. Instead, everyone pitched in – volunteers, school staff and (especially) the kids - and I heard exclusively positive feedback from the kids as they walked out the door. I’m really looking forward to next week.

FIRST PRACTICE
Among the things we went over on the first practice was:
1. How to Play Chess – There was a beginning table of almost 20 kids where we went through the pieces and how they moved. If you child was at one of these tables, ask them if they can remember the pieces and how they move. Extra credit if they can remember the three ways pawns can move.
2. The “Point” Values of the Pieces – Alex Adams, who coached the Lake Harriet Chess Club for years, talked a little bit about the point values for each piece to all the kids. See if your kids can remember any of them (pawn=1, knight/bishop=3, rook=5, queen=9, king=infinity)
3. Castling – To the non-beginners we talked about castling (moving the king two spaces towards a rook while the rook jumps back over the king). See if they can remember what it is and when they CAN’T do it. (If the king or rook has been moved or if they are in check).

Other than that, there was a lot of playing, and I hope that will be the norm. In fact, I’ve already had some conversations with Mr. Catching about some changes we’ll make at the beginning of practice to get the kids organized and playing even sooner. I’m really looking forward to the second practice (Friday, 3:00, lunchroom).

STILL OPENINGS
If you know someone who still wants to sign up, please let them know that they can. We had some concerns about the size of the space. But it looks like we have more space than we thought and are using less than we thought. So if you know anyone that wants to play, please have them sign up through burroughschess.blogspot.com. I’d say we have room for another dozen kids or so.

NEXT PRACTICE
If you’re interested in helping out this week, you can still sign up at:

http://www1.mysignup.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?datafile=burroughschess

For this practice, if there aren’t any volunteer spots available, I’d still encourage parents who are interested to show up. When I made the list for the second practice, I limited it to ten parents but with 80+ kids and well over a dozen brand new players, we can certainly use more parents to help kids as they learn some of the rules. Plus, with the changes we’ll make at the beginning of practice, we’ll need parents to direct kids where to put their stuff (and get their nametags) prior to entering the lunchroom.

THANKS VOLUNTEERS
Finally, I’d like to give a special thanks to all the parents who volunteered yesterday. A week ago I asked for volunteers, terrified of the hoopla that might be involved with the first couple practices.

And then another 20 kids signed up. Blink. Blink.

But thanks to all the fantastic help we received, we overcame some early challenges and I think the kids had a pretty good time at their first practice. It was a great start. Did I mention I’m looking forward to the next practice?

Sincerely,
John

1st Practice

Q: What do you call 70 kids, a dozen volunteers, forty game boards and 1280 black and white game pieces?
A: I was thinking “Burroughs Chess Club,” but your answer may be right too….

The first Burroughs Chess Club practice will take place at 3:00 this Friday (Jan 8th) in the Burroughs lunchroom. We have 70 kids signed up and plenty of volunteers to help. Thanks everyone for such an exciting kickoff! Below you’ll find details about it, but feel free to send any followup questions to BurroughsChess@Gmail.com.

Setup for Volunteers
If you’re volunteering to help and you can be there a little early, please help set up at 2:40 PM this week. Once we get the process down, I anticipate setup starting later.

Getting to the Cafeteria
Chess club members will be released to the lunchroom by their teachers. Mr. Cadotte will announce this on Friday and we have provided a list of students to the teachers, but if there is any confusion, a child can tell their teacher that is where they should be. Mpls Kids can also report directly to Chess Club.

Snack
Sorry, we can’t provide a snack. If you want your child to have one, please send one with them to school. They can eat it in the cafeteria as they get settled.

Kids Check-in (3:00-3:10)
We’ll have a table where the kids can check in. We’ll have nametags created for them, or they can create one themselves. We’ll also ask them whether they are a beginner or not and place a sticker on their nametag accordingly.

Announcements (3:10-3:15)
We’ll have a very short talk with some announcements, basic rules of behavior and dividing them into the beginners and player groups.

Beginners Group (3:15 – 4:15)
For this first practice, all beginners will sit at a couple of tables and each two kids will have a chessboard and pieces. Most of the hour will consist of lessons and games designed to teach the kids how the pieces move:
1) setting up the back row pieces
2) movement of the rook, bishop, queen and king
3) play a game that moves just those pieces
4) movement of the knight
5) game that moves those pieces
6) movement of the pawns
7) game about moving pawns
8) first game of chess?

Ideally we’ll have the kids rotate around a little so they aren’t always playing against the same person during that hour.

Players Group (3:15 – 4:15)
After announcements, all players will pair up, get a board and pieces, play, clean up and report their results to the check-in table. Then they’ll repeat that throughout the hour. We won’t track rankings for this first practice, but I’d like to get them in the habit, and we can use the results to help pair appropriate players to play each other in the future.

At about 3:40 or so I’d like to conduct a short lesson on some aspect of the game that non-beginners can use during their games. For the first practice, it will be “climbing the ladder” to a checkmate.

Cleanup (4:15-4:20)
Kids will put both black and white pieces for their games into a zip bag and bring the bag and the board to the check-in table.

Pickup Kids (4:20 – 4:30)
Please plan on picking up your child by 4:20. We cannot supervise children that are not picked up after 4:30.

That’s all I got. We’ll try a few things for this first practice, cross our fingers and make adjustment for the next couple of practices. I’m very excited (and a little intimidated) by the interest and talent that I’ve already seen.

THANKS again for your participation and we’ll see you on Friday.

Sincerely,
John

Volunteer Signup for the First 2 Practices

Hi everyone,

We’ll kick off the Burroughs Chess Club with our first practice this Friday (January 8th) from 3:00 to 4:30 in the Burroughs cafeteria amidst plenty of hoopla. We have almost 70 kids signed up, approaching our capacity of 80. Wow!

Help!
You’re probably wondering about the details of the first practice and I’ll send out another communication shortly with details. But first there is something even more important to take care of: making sure I’m not standing ALONE in a cafeteria surrounded by 70 enthusiastic chess students and a whole lotta hoopla. Nobody wants to be neck deep in hoopla.

So I’m inviting you to join me in the hoopla. We’re asking for one volunteer for every eight kids, plus at least one extra, so we’ve created ten volunteer slots for each of the first two practices. You can sign up for a slot for either practice or both by using this link:

http://www1.mysignup.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?datafile=burroughschess

(I haven’t used this service before, so let me know how it goes. Email me at burroughschess@gmail.com if you have any problems.)

Responsibilities
You’re probably wondering exactly what you’re getting yourself into. (I know I am.) The primary responsibilities will be watching a table of kids with one other parent and helping them if they have any questions. You’ll also encourage them when they have finished a game to play someone else. You do NOT need to be a chess player to be a huge help, and when you sign up you’ll be asked your chess level so we can pair volunteers appropriately.

Beyond those basics, we’ll probably need someone to check kids in and record results, and just some general herding. Like I said, I’ll send out a few more details about the schedule for the first practice very soon.

So THANKS in advance for signing up. I’m very excited about the enthusiasm that is already being generated. We could be on the verge of something really great here - if we can just get past the hoopla.

Sincerely,
John