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