Chess Club
The All Saints School Chess Club will meet every other Thursday for each grade category just like we did last year. Grades 1 through 3 will meet on the first and third Thursday of each month. Grades 4 through 8 will meet on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. We plan to start October 8, 2009, which is the second Thursday of October (so that’s grades 4 through 8) and meet from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Please pick them up directly from the Art Room (second floor), where we will hold all meetings. If the number of enrolled students exceeds the room’s capacity, we will split the club into two seasons: Fall and Spring Sessions. This will give everyone a fair chance to play.
There will be a $10.00 club fee (payable to: All Saints School), which will be used to purchase supplies for the club. Please return the signed permission slip below along with the club fees to the school office with attention to “Chess Club: Kim Ulrichâ€. Mrs. Ulrich has volunteered to help with our bookkeeping. Thank you!
NOTE: Due to the limited space for storing supplies please have your child bring his or her own snack and drink. I apologize for this inconvenience.
Points for Parents: You can earn 3 points per volunteer hour if you help the club.
I am a volunteer parent and work during the day. My employer was gracious enough to allow a flexible schedule in order to coach the club. The club needs volunteer parents to assist with meeting and greeting the students and distributing chess sets or if I am late because of traffic. We need one to two parents per session to help maintain order, via the ground rules (see below). Please pick dates and write them in the application. Additionally, we will send home sign-up sheets for volunteers on the first meeting. The school’s calendar of events is at http://www.allsaintsvaschool.org/news-events/calendar/. Click on the “Download Monthly Calendars†for more information about school closings.
Although the initial fee has been kept to the traditional $10.00 per year, it may not be the only expense for the year. I highly recommend one workbook purchase for the inexperienced player and/or an advanced workbook for the experienced club player. These workbooks are $17 (beginner) and $29 (advanced). These are fun chess exercises and they have the solutions for each problem (so no cheating!). Ask your teachers if reading chess qualifies for 20 minutes of reading each day.
Also, I highly recommend that you purchase (yours to keep and use at home) a tournament standard chess set like we use at our club. The students may need these for practice with their workbooks because the board has algebraic notation on the edges of the board. If they take good care of the chess sets they will last a lifetime. The sets are inexpensive and come complete with set, board, and carrying case for less than $20.00.
If you wish to get the workbooks and sets, please select that on the application.
Beginners will be introduced to the pawns at first. They will learn the basic (but not all) pawn moves. A new piece will be discussed and added to the game each week, and then the problematic pawn maneuvers will be taught and then we introduce the King. This layered method is used by the US Chess Center and it is the best method I have seen to date. The beginners’ workbook reinforces this method and is the reasoning behind my recommendations to purchase them.
In other sessions I will cover about a dozen elementary tactics and how they are used in checkmating the opponent or winning substantial material where the resulting situation leads to a clear win. The coaching session will be question and answer format with MS Power Point slides and/or a large demonstration board so we can cover more tactics in the checkmate drills in the short amount of time we have. There are over 50 checkmating patterns with the dozen or so elementary tactics.
We will have internal matches this year. We will be using a Swiss System of pairing the competition where nobody is eliminated. Players with nearly identical records will play each other.
Behavioral Ground Rules:
1. Be responsible for cleaning your space after eating snacks
2. Place all backpacks, book bags, coats, etc., in the area provided to prevent tripping hazards in emergency situations
3. Do not throw equipment or chess pieces
4. Return full and complete chess sets when you are finished playing
5. Let an adult know where you are going if you leave the meeting room (Extended Day Care, restroom, parent pickup and so on)
6. Play quietly
7. No horse play allowed
8. Pay attention while the group coaching session is in progress
9. Go to Extended Day Care if you are bored and are tired of playing chess or ask your parent to bring you home
10. If behavior is inappropriate, then warnings will be given
11. Persistent inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated and the child will not be permitted to return.
DOWNLOAD THE PERMISSION FORM: Â 2009/2010 Chess Club Permission Form
Thank you,
Tony DiRenzo
Home: 703-257-9966
Cell: 703-980-2513
Work: 703-907-3953
adirenzo@aol.com
