“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.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
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
John
Saturday, January 9, 2010
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
FIRST PRACTICEAmong 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
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
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
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
Monday, January 4, 2010
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
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
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