The Chess Nut Blog

On the Bus

2012-02-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

My Crazy Chess Team! I luv em!

Got some Electric Kool-aide Acid Tests?

Ken Kesey once said you are either "On the Bus, or Off the Bus." I think I am off the bus! Our annual trek to the West Jordan Scholastic Chess Tournament began on Friday after a whirlwind of school. We had an early out with nearly 6 classes completed before noon! Needless to say, I was a bit on edge to now endure a 5 1/2 hour ride with a bus of eleven students - I am getting on the bus. Thankfully, the kids were great, but our trips are always adventures - we are on the bus!

Just past Timmerman Hill I was pulled over by a State Patroller that was concerned that I was transporting more kids than my license would allow (?) - I am definitely off the bus. I and numerous other coaches have always driven the short bus without any snafus but according to a regulation that he showed me in a code book, I could only transport eight kids with my type of license. He took my phone number and allowed me to proceed, however. About ten minutes later he called me and said to disregard what he said - I am back on the bus. Some surreal music by Deadmau5 began playing in the background.

Next up was a classic school bus-train incident in Rupert. I just turned left at a corner that immediately had railroad tracks running at an oblique angle to the road and I slammed on my breaks as the crossing lights began, just as I turned. Oh sweet mother of god - I am off the bus forever! The crossing bar was going to come down right on the bus. There was a car behind me so I gunned it and went screaming across the railroad tracks - I am really off the bus! The jeering from my students began in earnest. Our fried gizzard stop in Snowville was also a bust because they changed vendors - Can I please get back on the bus? I hope this isn't a foreshadow of tomorrow's games!

After visiting our hotel to unload and eat, we proceeded to the Clark Planetarium in downtown Salt Lake City to view some 9 pm laser shows - we are all on the bus. These are always a hit with the kids and it keeps them up late enough so they don't cause any trouble. I dropped them off in the front of the building and left to park the bus. I returned too late to go in myself - am I off the bus? After I began wandering around the museum areas, I noticed one of my players standing in the lobby - he seems to be off the bus, too. "That was a quick one," I said. "I lost the group," was the reply - he is definitely off the bus. How could this happen? There is only 30 feet between where you buy the tickets and where the bus doors were! Gradually, another one, then another, and another showed up where I was chastising the first student - we have a whole herd that is off the bus.

Lastly, Max showed up sporting a Rubiks cube. Then they all purchased one. I said save your money for the next show. Three didn't, so I dipped into my wallet to make sure they got to see a laser show - they don't even know what the bus is. I was excited because Led Zeppelin was the next show. Very cool! It turns out that 2 of the kids liked their Rubiks cubes more than the show and one said "Boring." This is a very entitled generation and appreciation is a premium - they are under the bus. But that's why teachers are now responsible for character education - we educate characters!

After a trip to show-off the Church of Latter Day Saints Temple, I was happy to get some sleep, albeit, without my pajamas because I left my bag at home! Tomorrow, I am getting on the bus! I will post some of the games and describe the tournament in the next post. Cheers!

Tournaments

2012-02-03T12:41:00.001-07:00

Tournament Schedule is updated.

Christmas Blitzkrieg and the Family Tournament

2012-01-25T05:23:00.001-07:00

No Snow : (

_______________________

The holiday season did not provide any significant snow, but did produce some outstanding chess! The Christmas Blitzkrieg is an annual WRHS event and is
held just prior to Blaine County School's Winter Break. Desmond Porth was named as the WRHS Blitz Chess Champion and he also had a perfect tournament winning all nine games. Dylan Porth won 2nd place and Nathan Stouffer won 3rd place, both from WRMS. They beat down the other high schoolers for placements in the open tournament that usually attracts only a handful of WRHS students. "Blitz" is fast chess that is usually between 2 and 15 minutes. This tournament was G/5.

_______________________

70 year age span at our tournament!

During the winter break, the Family Chess Tournament was a huge success - there were over 13 teams participating! Teams consisted of partners from the same family competing against the other teams by combining points in 30-minute games. Teams were mom-child teams, grandpa-grandson teams, cousins and even sibling teams competing. Nobody was turned away, however, and there were some mixed family teams. Chess games are experienced-based, and not age-dependent, especially at this tournament.

The grand-kids cheer grandpa on!

Teams would combine their scores to obtain their overall score. All teams chose interesting or competitive names:

Albino Monkeys (Riley and Dylan)
Powerhouse (Otto and Billy)
Powerful Peppers (Quentin and Shah)
Leaping Lizards (Collin and Melissa)
Black Mambas (Kalen and Jennifer)
Dotta Farrow (Lynnet and Darwin)
The Destroyers (Reilly and Spencer)
Cool Turtles (Leam and Deb)
Golden Dragons (Harrison and Desmond)
The Stowns (Garrett and Ike)
The Bears (Doug and Owen)
The Gophers (Nathan and Blake)

Winners: The Destroyers!

Riley Neel and his brother Spencer, the "Destroyers"
win the Family Chess Tournament

Collin Young, age 7, quipped to his opponent, "Dude, that's checkmate!" So, a seven year-old beating an adult can be common, to some of the participants surprise! Despite the age span of over 70 years, all the participants thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. Riley and Spencer Neel ("The Destroyers") won with a combined score of 7 points. Only a half a point behind were "The Stowns", Garrett Stouffer and Ike Brown for a second place finish. Third place was won by a house player, Desmond Porth and Harrison.

Our youngest player - Four Years Old - playing Kalen.

"Dude, that's checkmate!"

Father gets to play son

Quentin and his big sister, Shah - The Powerful Peppers

I like running chess tournaments over holiday weekends because it is at these times that older brothers and sisters return from college. It is also a time when relatives and family members get together.

I didn't know our math teachers played chess . . .

Look at the clocks . . .these were G/15 games, but Otto likes lightning fast chess!

Darwin contemplates his next move

Powerhouse Team

Otto

Billy

Billy, Powerhouse team member and owner of the Powerhouse Pub in Hailey was so happy to play chess, he organized with me a community chess opportunity. We are now playing on Monday nights after 8 pm at the Powerhouse Pub, located at 411 N. Main. Relax with a beer and a game of chess with some enthusiastic and interesting people!

Quentin watches his mom's game

I am thrilled that Lynnet, the chess supporting spouse of yours truly, played in her first tournament. Lynnet has encouraged and supported our whole family in chess endeavors and finally gets to experience it first hand. She was surprised at how competitive she felt herself get and I am excited for the day that our family of five all plays in a tournament together - if we can afford the entry fees!

This looks like a very contemplative game

Melissa plays Harrison

Harrison from Los Angeles (played with Desmond - our house player)

This is the first Family Tournament that our club has sponsored and it was certainly a hit. I think it surprised many of the parents when they started to feel the adrenaline of the games start to flow and everyone wants to play in another family oriented tournament. Melissa Young, the Leaping Lizards was happy to play with her child as a team and said, "I didn't know I was competitive."

Advice to keep chess fun and wild - lot's of candy canes and hot cocoa.

January Newsletter

2012-01-23T19:31:00.004-07:00

Chess Places

2012-01-07T18:50:00.001-07:00

I must go see this at the Paris Opera!

I am traveling to Paris, France this next week and came across this list of places to play chess. I will be staying near the east side of Nanterre Park and I hope to find a cafe or park to enjoy a game.
Any takers or other places I should know about? (I will literally wet myself if I bump into Sophie Millet or Almira Skripchenko!)

France:

Paris: Luxembourg Park, near the North West corner. Tables don't always exist so people put there boards and clocks between chairs. Big turnout.
Paris: Leeloo writes "Cafe called 'Le Cloitre', 19 rue St Jacques in the 5th Quarter by Notre-Dame Cathedral. Lot of tough players."
Paris: Suresh C.G writes "When I was a student in Paris (nearly 20 years ago!!), I used to haunt a chess café in Paris called "Chez Max", near Porte d'Orleans. The street name I forgot (it was something like Rue d'Edureil, I think..) Would you have any clue about this place? I have such fond memories of the café.... I live in India and I have been wanting to get in touch with this place for quite some time. "
Paris Polly Wright writes: Le Damier de L'Opera, 7 rue Lafayette, Paris is a wonderful chess shop with lots of books, and chess sets. The owner speaks English quite well, and will give you a list of all the chess clubs in Paris. The list includes and addresses and phone numbers. Unfortunately I didn't discover the store until late in my trip so I didn't get to go to any of the clubs on the list. When you're traveling with a non-chess playing husband, and you have limited time left in a city, chess club tours take a backseat to museums, and churches.

I stumbled upon this website that had a grand list of places to play chess. A wonderful database - I sent some places in Idaho for his list.

2011 WRHS Bughouse Championship

2012-01-06T00:31:00.003-07:00

Well it is about time I get back to posting and informing those interested folks in the happenings at the WRHS Chess Club. There is too much news for only one post so I will start with the most recent and work
backwards. Here is the itinerary for posts: 2011 WRHS Bughouse Championship, Powerhouse Chess, Concessions and Donations, Family Tournament, Christmas Blitzkrieg.

2011 WRHS Bughouse Champions - Desmond Porth and Harrison Mymatt.

The yearly Bughouse Tournament was held tonight and the 2011-12 WRHS Bughouse Champions are Desmond Porth and Harrison Mymatt. Harrison is a student from the Los Angeles area, but is here in Sun Valley for the holidays. Desmond and Harrison began teaming up at our last tournament, Family Chess, held over the winter break on December 29. They were the only team to obtain a positive result against the house team, John Nahlen and Colten Weatherly. Colten and John won the tournament with 4.5 out of 5 points but were ineligible for the WRHS Bughouse title due to age limitations. In all, seven teams were competing and it was more of a learning experience for most teams as this was the first time many of them have competed in such an event.

Bughouse is a type of chess variant where a team of two players plays against another team. One teammate plays white and the other plays black. When one teammate takes a piece, they hand it to their partner who may place it on the board they are playing on during their turn, or they can move a piece on the board. The games are timed and touch rule does not apply. Typically, the time controls are quick. In our tournament, time controls were G/5. Players win by checkmate, time running out, or by taking the king. That's right, the king may be taken if it is left in check! Another tricky way to win is if there is an illegal move - illegal moves, if caught, are an immediate win.

TDing an event like this can be challenging. In one matchup, one team took the king, while simultaneously on the other board, the opponents checkmated the king! Who won? Both clocks were struck simultaneously! I certainly did not know how to deal with the problem so we decided that the game would be replayed with a consensus.

Our next tournament will be in West Jordan on January 29. Contact me for more details.

A picture that Darwin took.

Another Website?

2011-12-06T20:22:00.001-07:00

Yes it's true, I built another one for my travel club.

Costa Rica

2011 Winter Tournament

2011-12-05T19:37:00.001-07:00

Santa Claus kicks off the Winter Tournament

Sleigh bells were jingling as eleven Blaine County School District students competed in the Winter Tournament. It appears that our little tournament was also in competition with the numerous activities and holiday warm ups as many of our usual chess suspects were not available. Despite the chilly turn out, the Winter Tournament attracted Santa Claus and some very interesting games.

Santa inspects Round 1 games

In the first round, Tyler Avila produced an upset victory against Desmond Porth. Tyler is new to chess and Desmond is an experienced player. I have had this happen in my own games where I was certainly the favorite, but failed to bring home the point. It is very difficult to describe how one feels when this happens. Desmond was certainly more serious in his subsequent games and scored the necessary point in each. The last game against Chase Hutchinson was an exciting game and everyone in the tournament room gathered around to watch.

Darwin has got the chess player groove going on!

Because there were only three competitors in the elementary section and the middle school sections, players and parents agreed to create one open section so that the younger players could get used to playing tougher games and become comfortable playing outside their age group. I was happy to notice one boy was very independent by the time the last round was finished. In the first round he needed mom to be near him and did not in the end.

Emmett is focused on the candy cane and saving his king.

I usually have a prize drawing at tournaments and place all the players names in a chess bag. For this tournament, a 22 inch mouse pad board and pieces were given away to Tyler Avila.

Quentin and Collin learning about "touch move" and other tournament rules.

Results
High School

Desmond Porth (4.0)
Chase Hutchinson (4.0)
Emmett Say (4.0)
Kalen Moffett (3.0)
Tyler Avila (2.0)

Middle School

Dylan Porth (3.0)
Victor Saldivia (2.0)
Connor Manning (2.0)

Elementary School

Darwin Porth (2.0)
Quentin Van Law (2.0)
Collin Young (1.0)

A tournament first: three first places for my kids in one tournament. - Good job!

The WRHS Chess Club will sponsor a RR G/5 Christmas Blitzkrieg on Thursday, Dec. 15 beginning at 4:30 pm in Room C214 at WRHS. It is open to all students. A Family Chess tournament over Christmas Break will pit teams of a parent-student against each other in an afternoon tournament (RR G/20). I hope more are able to take advantage of these chess opportunities. Please see the WRHS Chess Club website for flyers.

This weekend, the ICA is hosting the Western Idaho Open in Boise at the Student Union Building.

A Master Description

2011-11-30T20:14:00.001-07:00

Kurt Vonnegut's review of a chess book, "Grandmaster's of Chess," by Harold Schonberg. Mr. Vonnegut elegantly describes chess folk:

"This charming history of modern chess will not be surpassed in our time....Mr. Schonberg has given us a playful,musical,haunting account of huge,often irresponsible,unsociable animals who have devoted their lives to thinking that is pure as snow" - Kurt Vonnegut

New Classroom Website Announced

2011-11-28T20:25:00.001-07:00

Yo, Desmond had the household Skyrim tied up most of the weekend . . . so I revamped, rethought, and reinvented my classroom website. My students really liked the new look and the better perks. I fashioned an icon system for faster navigation (like the smart phone aps), stream-lined each page for faster loading, and created a much better course organization. Let me know what you think.

Chess Rage Newsletter Resurrection

2011-11-26T16:16:00.001-07:00

Using my level 10 Resurrection spell from Skyrim, I was able to conjure up a newsletter that I used to produce. It was killed when I began putting all my websites together back in 2008 and I am now going to commit myself, my class, and my club to publishing again. I will make the newsletters available at our club website in PDF format as it is a pain to do in blogger. Here is our first official edition of the year to be released Monday at school.

Memory Chess and Exercising a Cognitive Skills

2011-11-23T22:16:00.001-07:00

I read an article about Susan Polgar once and I remember reading that she can look at a chess board for 10 seconds and replicate where up to 32 pieces were on the board with nearly 100% accuracy. Or, some such
thing like that (my memory might be a bit dim about the facts of this). This might be a common element in a professional chess player or teachers practice, but it was new to me.

Start simple with few pieces and build up some confidence. All students could get this kind of setup.

I thought I'd try the technique with students in Integrating Chess and Critical Thinking class offered at WRHS for credit. I called it Memory Chess and started with low numbers of pieces and simplistic board setups. I gradually introduced more complexity and reminded students how to memorize what they are seeing on the board.

Chunk information and look for relationships. Introduce more complexity to the puzzles.

The procedure was to use it as a bell-ringer or beginning activity to engage the students by moving through five boards displayed on the Promethean board (a fancy shmancy SMART board that projects images from the computer on the wall). I displayed the image for 10 seconds, then removed it and let the students try to replicate the image on a real board. As a bone I threw in a Porth Buck (extra credit) for each student that got it right. They thoroughly enjoyed the lesson and eagerly waited for us to play this each day.

Identify patterns and visualize preceding events (what opening did white begin with?)

I think the students could have done this all hour! They would keep working until I displayed the board again and they could check their work. After five a day for a week, I noticed that some students really did improve their memory.

Recognize relationships between pieces and the board (my mistake was another lesson, white has an extra knight )

As a nice way to integrate (hence the name of the class - Integrating Chess and Critical Thinking) the lesson into their other subjects, I asked students if they had teachers that said, "Don't forget to study your notes for the test tomorrow!" Of course this is (unfortunately) common practice in high school settings. So, yes, everyone had teachers like this. But, do any of the teachers actually show students how to assimilate the information they "study?"

Recognizing consequences of exchanges. Students were able to remember boards like this by the end of one week.

I had the students tell me how they remembered where the pieces went. They successfully identified the mental skills necessary for memorizing or remembering the board setup, that could be applied to studying other information:

1. chunk information into similar groups (on the board).
2. identify relationships (between pieces and between pieces and the board).
3. identify patterns (e.g., bishops side by side, castled kings, etc.).
4. visualize preceding process (i.e., how the pieces moved to get to where they ended up).
5. visualize subsequent process (i.e., what the pieces will do next).
6. recognize consequence (e.g., checkmate in one).

When I listed these ideas on the dry board, students immediately recognized how they might better study for all their classes. And Tanya exclaimed, "We should do this every day."

5 Steps to Chess Viewer Deluxe

2011-11-20T20:26:00.001-07:00

I discovered that Chess Viewer Deluxe opened much faster without any "Kill" page message from chrome when I created a whole new sister blog to The Chess Nut Blog. This blog page now opens faster than it did before. If I get rid of all the widgets, I bet this blog would be even faster, but it would lose its appeal. I called the new sister site, Chess Nut Games and it will house the game files so that you can view multiple games from each year. Of course I posted a link to the Chess Nut Game blog from the home page of The Chess Nut Blog called Games. You can spot this tab or button in the upper right side of the page menu. Here are some other quirks that I did my best to work out in 5 steps.

Why is this cool? Because you can display multiple games without using someone else's server to store game data, and it looks rather nice with an easy-to-use interface. Flash PGN viewers (that I have found) only show one game at a time. My favorite Flash viewer being ChessFlash PGN Viewer.

Step 1. Deploy Chess Viewer Deluxe. Before you create a page with the above code embedded in the page editor, you must first do the following:

1. Enter Template editor.
2. Click button to Edit HTML.
3. Scroll until you find </head>
4. Copy this code and paste it immediately before the </head> code:

< -- Chess Viewer stub -->

type=’text/javascript’/>

Step 2. Embed the Chess Viewer Deluxe interface. I used the following code to get the Chess Viewer Deluxe interface embedded onto a website page:

Step 3. Get your PGN data. Here is the PGN data as entered into the code for the Chess Viewer Deluxe interface:

[Event "2011 SIO"]
[Site "Twin Falls"]
[Date "2011.11.12"]
[Round "4"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Porth, Adam"]
[Black "Veraschagin, Alexandr"]
[ECO "C41"]
[WhiteElo "1271"]
[BlackElo "1281"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.Qa4+ Nc6 6.cxd4 Bd7 7.d5 Ne5 8.Qd4 Nxf3+ 9.gxf3 h6 10.Nc3 a6 11.Be3 c6 12.Bc4 c5 13.Qd2 b5 14.Be2 b4 15.Nd1 a5 16.Bc4 Qb8 17.b3 Bb5 18.Nb2 Bxc4 19.Nxc4 Be7 20.Bf4 Qb5 21.Bxd6 Ra6 22.Qd3 Nd7 23.Rg1 g6 24.Be5 Nxe5 25.Nd6+ Rxd6 26.Qxb5+ Nd7 27.Rc1 0-0 28.Qxa5 1-0

You can enter another game right after that one and produce a PGN viewer that displays multiple games.

Step 4. Change the moves into HTML. The PGN data should be interpreted or massaged into HTML format. I wanted to get games out of the Fritz database and just copy and paste it into the code. Here is how I discovered how to get the job done:

1. Select your game from the Fritz database.
2. Right click the game and select output and then Selection to text file . . .
3. Choose the file format HTML and save it somewhere so you can retrieve it (I save to the desktop and then delete it after I am done).
4. Open that file up (it will open in a browser).
5. I can now copy and paste the moves, but not the game data which I have to hand enter.

Step 5. Repeatedly visit your site. In this way you will feel like the hard work is appreciated by many people as your hit count goes up.

By the way, what a pain in the ass trying to display HTML code examples on a blog post. I went ahead and copied the code and pasted it on a PowerPoint slide, and then saved the slide as a JPEG image.

I also just discovered a way to post code in posts without blogger interpreting it:
1. In the Post editor, click on the options button on the right side of the screen when you are ready to post.
2. Choose to Show HTML literally

My hope is that my three days of trying to figure this out will save you some time. Plus, I will be able to visit here if'n I forget how to do all this!

Blog Anchors and Internal Links

2011-11-19T22:30:00.001-07:00

This is some documentation so I can remember how to create an internal link (a jump from one spot on a page to another spot on the page. The example I provide is from the States page where I jump from the "N" to "Nebraska."

Here is the code where I want to jump to:
First, you should create the document and decide where you want your internal links to go. You label these using the anchor tag (a) with the name and id attributes. The name and id attributes should be identical.

e.g. <a name="anchor1" id="anchor1">Anchor text</a>

Here is the code where I want to jump from:
Then second, you create the link to the site using the anchor tag (a) and the href attribute. You indicate the named area with a pound-sign (#).

e.g. <a href="site.html#anchor1">Anchor link</a>

The important thing is that href= (enter the page URL you want to create a jump).

(no spaces) Also, to write an example of code in a blogger post without it being interpreted use these instructions:
Replace all the < characters with & l t;(no spaces)
And all the > characters with & g t;(no spaces)

Creepy Rooms and Monkey Chess at SIO

2011-11-15T21:21:00.001-07:00

Jeff v. Caleb in an intense game with draw offers on the table.

The Southern Idaho Open 2011 was as entertaining as it was competitive on Saturday, November 12. Desmond, me and two other Wood River Valley residents attended the one day, 4 Round G/60 event. Des, Riley and I were slated for the U1400 Reserve Section, but Nick Bruck wanted to play in the Open Section. I won 1st place (3.5 pts.) and my son, Des, won 2nd place (3.0 pts.). Cash prizes were for placements while chess books from the library of the late Glen Buckendorf, 10-time Idaho State Champion, were donated to 3rd and 4th places for each section.

The Obenchain Insurance Company provides the ICA and the ICU with the space to conduct chess tournaments and we are very appreciative of this. However, after years of playing in this room, I do not know whether to appreciate the sterile environment which is devoid of sound and windows for my concentration, or to believe it as "creepy" as some of our younger chess players describe it as with stale smells and eerie, unnatural lighting. Some rounds I discover that my focus and concentration are as intense as a cat, and in others, I might as well be a monkey playing chess.

Gettting a bit ripe in the tournament room?

Round 1 had me paired with a seven year old, Jacob. Jacob definitely has his mainlines memorized as I opened like a monkey and screwed up the Caro-Kann on . . .oh . . .about . . . move 2! E4? What the heck opening am I playing, again? Well the game only got a bit worse . . . as Jacob began threatening my pawns guarding my castled king. By move 14, Jacob was eyeing the h7 square and checkmate. In accepting the offered material gain, I gave up my position! After I successfully doubled my pawns and removed any defense they might offer me at all, I suddenly had the mobility to counter and chase away Jacob's attack that had my face flushed like a baboon's kaboose for about 5-10 minutes.

After move 16. I look like a monkey with most of my pieces in the starting gates (I'm black).

Alexandr v. Des.

Meanwhile, Desmond was engaged in a tense game with a Russian gentleman that possessed an extra piece of Desi's and a messed up pawn structure (like my game). Alexandr looked like he was going to win, but Des fought hard and earned a piece back, and with a significant rook exchange, successfully promoted his pawn with less than 30 seconds left on the clock. A quick, back-and-forth button pushing session elicited an illegal move. Des paused the clock, raised his hand and to my surprise, someone other than the TD said, "Well you made an illegal move too," to Des. Umm . . .really? Neither of the players recognized Desi's illegal move, but Alexandr's was sitting there on the board for all to see. Jeff Roland, the TD, decided to fairly replace two minutes on each person's clock. At that moment, a mouthful of Russian filled the air, and a highly animated Alexandr began pointing at the clock and claiming that he won on time (which he didn't). For the next few minutes, Jeff and Jay tried to convince Alexandr that nothing sketchy was occurring and Alexandr changed his time claim to cheating (indicating that Jeff changed the clock's). Alexandr would not sign the scoresheet and scoffed his hands at the clock and stormed out of the room with veins on the side of his head popping out like a horror movie.

Black to move (Des is black). Do you see how to win this game?

Meanwhile, Nick was engaged in his own battle with Jeff Roland. I got a quick glance of the game which had virtually no pawn structure for Jeff, and I confidently asserted that Nick was about to win. But tough games are even tougher in the endgame and Jeff pulled out a win. Riley is still fairly new to chess and I appreciate that she is willing to play at this level, less than a year into learning about the game.

In round 2, I was paired against my friend, Kevin Patterson. Deja vu positions for most of the game, but a glitch in the matrix produced a bishop sacrifice to open up the files (and diagonals) in front of the king for a juicy mate.

Adam v. Kevin. White to move. How do you think I proceeded?

Round 3 action pitted me against Desmond, and I did not have the heart or mind to open with anything but what we have been working on in chess club. His Colle was met by a French Defense with unusual lines that produced a very equal position. After I offered a draw on two separate occasions, Desmond finally relented when just rooks and pawns, and a long endgame were beginning. He offered a draw and then asked me to play the position out. Indeed, a draw.

Father - Son Chess

Desmond v. Adam. Black to move. Is this a drawn game?

In other round 3 action, Jeff Roland left his board for a bit only to return and discover that his opponent had retracted a played move. "E4? Where is the piece that is on e4? Hey, you can't take back a move. That piece wasn't on e3. See, you even crossed it off, but I recorded your move." The atmosphere just got creepier.

The weirdness subsided when round 4 began in slow motion, and I began dodging a rain of attacks from my last opponent. I was paired with Alexandr and Des played Jay Simonson. Des had a much easier time than me this round, as I went full term but won on time. Alexandr is a very difficult opponent. I remember my first tournament game with him. He played very safe and took all my pieces. Then mated me with an overloaded board that looked like a moving truck out of the Grapes of Wrath piled high with bishops, queens, and rooks.

Adam v. Alexandr. White to move. Where should I go?

The next ICA tournament is the Western Idaho Open, Dec. 10-11 at Boise State University. The next scholastic tournament will be sponsored by the WRHS Chess Club at WRHS, Common Room, on Dec. 3.

Brooklyn Castle

2011-11-15T19:56:00.001-07:00

from IS 318 website

The Outreach Director of the documentary, Brooklyn Castle, contacted me about their project. It was originally called Chess Movie, and it is about the IS 318 Chess Team. Elizabeth Vicary and other scholastic chess celebrities organize and help run the chess club that is made up of junior high school students. Ms. Vicary runs a blog that updates the world about politics, personal happenings, and the successes of the IS 318 Chess Team. Now, the successes have attracted the attention of movie makers.

Brooklyn Castle from Rescued Media on Vimeo.

I first heard of Brooklyn Castle on Vicary's blog as I was perusing the site in an effort to understand the efforts in producing a Nationally ranked team and simultaneously raise the funds to do so. Our club also suffers from a deficit of funds and support, however, IS 318 is able to attend most national functions with the support of some valued benefactors and donors. Justus Williams is a frequent mention on Elizabeth's blog, as are other chess playing children and they are the focus of the film.

This next week, they will begin their domination of the national chess scene by attending grade nationals in Dallas. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to go and have our sights set on Supernationals 2013. IS 318 is a school with 65% of the population under the poverty level and despite this handicap their chess team is the highest ranked team in the nation. As surprising as it sounds here in Sun Valley, our public school system has 41% of the student body on free-and-reduced lunches (an indicator of socio-economic levels in a school system).

I look forward to seeing this film and Kali Halloway indicated, "we’re very near finishing the film (in fact, we’ve just started to submit to film festivals) and rolling out our outreach campaign (which will focus on getting more chess programs in schools throughout the country)." They do, however, need additional financial support to finish and market the documentary and have a website dedicated to raising the money.

Support Veterans

2011-11-11T18:32:00.001-07:00

Every year our high school chess club collects signatures and words of support for our troops abroad and we send our prayers along with chess boards. Please think of everyone's veterans and soldiers around the world and pray that battles could be carried out on the chess board instead of with real bullets.

Idaho Chess Icon passes away

2011-11-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

Glen W. Buckendorf
June 19, 1929 - September 12, 2011

Glen W. Buckendorf will be missed at chess tournaments and by his family and friends. Glen passed away on September 12, 2011 at the age of 82 in his home. Glen was a celebrity of sorts in the Idaho Chess community and was a tournament standard at the Idaho Closed for nearly 54 years! In 2010, Glen was awarded lifelong supporter and Emeritus Trustee of the ICA (Idaho Chess Association). He was 10 Idaho State Champion and was a contemporary of Dick Vandenberg, who recently passed away in 2010. Without Glen's and Dick's avid support and efforts to enhance Idaho Chess, it would hardly be what it is today. (Click here for the Times-News link).

Emeritus Trustee of the ICA

I remember first being paired against Glen at the MVCC. Though he was a Twin Falls "regular", he actually lived in Buhl. He was a quiet and a gentlemanly character that played very serious chess. I was in awe by such experience and even hope to be playing in tournaments when I reach my eighties. Glen was sharp as a knife when it came to chess. He would slice through opponents and positions with the skill of a master chef. I enjoyed watching his games as he would sit very quiet without moving or adjusting his pieces or body until he decided on the best move. Then he would lean forward and then gracefully make his move.

I know I played him in tournaments a couple of times, but I could only find one of my games with him. Here is a blitz game we played in the 2010 President's Cup:

Glen always arrived to a chess tournament escorted by his wife, Annette. They would arrive arm-in-arm, Glen in his three piece suit carrying his Bible, and she dressed comfortably totting a scrabble board. It always warmed my heart to see them arrive and I will miss that feeling. For the past few years, Glen would donate chess books from his personal library as awards for players that did not win a trophy or placement for money. I think that most would agree that winning a book donated by Glen was more desirable in most cases. I, in fact, won two books on some occasion: Sicilian: Lasker-Pelikan by Speelman and Blackstock, and Spanish (RuyLopez): Marshall by Harding.

Desmond with Glen

At the Winter Solstice Tournament (Annette in upper right background).

I appreciate the experience of the older players and try to respect them as a source of inspiration. Their dedication and mentoring of younger players is as important as grandparents are to their grandchildren. Think of the changes the older generation has witnessed in the chess world. There have been celebrities come-and-gone, the development of chess computers and software, more organizational influence from the USCF and other entities, introduction of algebraic notation, the use of digital chess equipment, and many new innovations in chess writing and publishing. In Glen's time, what hasn't changed is the game of chess itself.

Glen plays Alexandr Veraschagin

Glen was not into all the fancy chess equipment or interested in dropping names of openings or discussing a new line. Glen was a player, and that is what he did. He came to tournaments and was interested in playing the best he could and I am very glad to have known him and played him.

Footnote: this article was started on Sept. 15 but I wanted to find one of my games with Glen and some pictures to complete the article.

Building websites is enjoyable

2011-11-06T17:12:00.001-07:00

I made some nice changes to the WRHS Chess Club website.
I also added a comment page in the "About Us" section. I really enjoy editing websites on the WIX.com editor. It offers a dynamic, creative, artistic, and more interesting website than the traditional HTML coded sites that tend to be more static and unappealing to the surfer's of today. Here are some of my other creations (click on them to go and visit):

Integrating a Simul into Integrating Chess

2011-11-04T18:03:00.001-06:00

Olivia records a move

Austin likes his new opening repertoires

Playing chess seventh period every day is a great way to end the day. The Integrating Chess and Critical Thinking Class is one of the most unique classes at Wood River High School and a popular one among the students that signed up. For the students that were placed in the class by counselors searching for an open class, it was certainly an eye-opening experience. One such student said,"I didn't realize there was so much [about chess]." Another said that he can now "demolish" his brother. Most of the students in this class are new to the game, but their are some veterans of chess club that I use to help teach concepts.

Emmett calculates during the opening.

John Nahlen educates students.

Students are able to get 1/2 a credit if they take the course for 9 weeks, or a full credit if they sign up for the semester. Our quarter ended today and to celebrate and provide something special, I brought John Nahlen, a computer programmer for Smith Optics, Inc. and nearly a scholastic state champion (2nd place 2005 Idaho Scholastic Championship), for a simultaneous exhibition yesterday. This would be good for John and the students that participated. John's primary game is bughouse, and he has even developed a bughouse database on the internet but he still is a strong player.

This class taught beginner's how to play

Ty plays while Kalen observes.

I set up one long row of tables, introduced John, explained how simultaneous exhibitions are run, reminded students of chess etiquette, and encouraged hesitant students to join in the fun. Only eight of 25 students had the courage to play. The others watched or played their friends in the class. After ten minutes of play, John won his first game and then like clockwork every ten or so minutes brought another victory. After about an hour, only three students remained: Tommy, Desmond, and Christoffer. Christoffer was the first of the last to go after castling on the queen-side incorrectly and successfully penning his King for a severe attack. Tommy did not recognize the seriousness of a rook on the seventh rank and succumbed. Desmond blundered his bishop away after creating a winning position and then politely resigned after several more exchanges that put him down too much material for any hope in a pawn game.

Tommy gets nervous.

John plays the Italian game in all his games.

In the post-game show today during class, I asked students what they thought about the experience. Some noted how serious John was - some noticed how he seemed "pissed" when they made a bad move. Others described how nervous they were, and their feelings when they made a mistake. As this was the first competition for all but one of them, I explained that experienced players really know how to capitalize on a blunder, but they are willing to share better moves, as John did afterwards. As this class houses mostly beginner's, this was a valuable experience for those that played and an interesting one for those that watched.

Students will remember their first competition!

In the end, John won all eight games and the students were impressed and excited about learning more chess. Seventeen students are registered for the semester, so they will be back next week for more chess during the school day, but eight are leaving for other 9-week courses. On the way out of my room, a couple are determined to meet with their counselors to sign up for the next 9-week session. Chess certainly is the way to end the day!

John Nahlen shakes Alex's hand, "good game."

Happy Halloween (Gambit)!

2011-10-31T22:28:00.000-06:00

It's Halloween Knight!

The Halloween Gambit, or Leipzig Gambit, is an aggressive gambit in chess, in which White sacrifices a knight for just one pawn. There are many different kinds of gambits, but the usual aim of a gambit is to obtain an advantageous position after giving up material as white. This gambit is related to the Four Knights Game and may transpose easily if your opponent is not cooperative. It was proven in 1888 to be an unsound opening meaning that you should not use it.

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 Nc6

3. Nc3 Nf6

4. Nxe5 Nxe5

5. d4

The goal of the gambit is to seize the center with pawns and drive back Black's knights. After 4...Nxe5, White usually plays 5.d4, in preference to 5.f4, which does not facilitate his development.

I shared this gambit with my class, Integrating Chess and Critical Thinking, and even tried it out on Desmond a couple of times. None of the students would try it. In my first game, I was destroyed. In the second game, my intent was to play the gambit, but Desmond wasn't going to let me and I decided on the Scotch after 2. . .d6.

Chess Club

2011-10-30T18:45:00.002-06:00

We had ten students and Bughouse was the game of choice (clocks came out after the first game).

We made posters and a bulletin board

It is finally here! Chess Club begins at last. We popped the popcorn and then began strategizing for the year. I informed the players of the tournaments for the year (including the ICA tournaments and our goal for 2013, USCF Scholastic SuperNationals). We also decided to expand the resume-building and college-application titles: President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Nominations included everyone in attendance vying for all of the titles. We plan to elect whomever gets the most votes for a particular title and I plan to have ballots ready for next week.

Good for a Halloweeny theme

We also created an bulletin board "Beware of Chess, Brain Food." This is a nice idea which embodies society's ironic admiration of thought and thinking, but their apprehension and fear of embracing it. Especially their prejudices toward chess players ("those nerds!"). Each member chose a chess quote and wrote their name on a gyrus. The gyrus and sulci of the brain are the ridges and valleys, respectively. Our brain even included the pre and post-central gyrus upon which I signed and provide my favorite quote: "Avoid the crowd. Do your thinking independently. Be the chess player and not the chess piece." After we completed the bulletin board, we settled in for some Bughouse and more popcorn.

Chess Club will meet on Thursdays, afterschool until 5:30 pm, in my room C214 and it is open to everyone.

Our theme song for the year:

http://www.wix.com/aporth/wrhs-chess-club

WRHS Chess Club Beginning!

2011-10-26T20:07:00.000-06:00

Chess Club Starts tomorrow, afterschool, room c214, and every Thursday!

Everyone at school is excited for Chess Club to begin. Since soccer coaching ended for me on Monday at WRMS, I guess its now chess season for the rest of the year. I in fact coached two teams, the WRMS and a 1st grade Blaine County Recreation team. Both were over-loaded teams.

My second team of 1st graders

But, to show you some of my "busy-ness" with WRMS Soccer, I have some game recaps. It was an amazing season with over 40 kids participating on this one team until this last week when about 7 quit because of bad grades or lack of playing time. Soccer, or Futbol as known the world over, is the next best thing to chess. In fact, the second largest organization in the world is FIDE and the largest organization is FIFA. It is a game played with 11 players. Our record was dismal due to the frequent substitutions I was forced to make, but I usually played with starters until I was sure that we could win, then I would begin substitutions for the rest of the game. Fortunately, I did not bring everyone. I only rostered 20-25 players for each game. Our record was 4-7-1. The following is an excerpt from a 23-page booklet I made for each player that included team stats, individual stats, individual pictures, and excerpts from assignments during the season (Pre-season Thoughts, Soccer Heroes, and End-of-Season Reflection).

The mustaches represent some of the kids we played against that actually had mustaches! We were the smallest (size-wise) in the league.

Game Summaries:

Vs. O’Leary (A) 2 – 2 Tie

Our first game started off to a great start with our team owning the ball for the first 15 minutes of the game with O’Leary scrambling to even touch it. In the first 8 minutes, Michael dropped the ball and it hammered into the net by Joey from well outside the eighteen yard line. Within another 5 minutes, Danny Graves headed the ball in after a corner kick from Joey. Our team was on fire! But, a 2-nil lead going into half time caused the WRMS team to relax and defensive errors on marking forwards (Don’t forget Goal-side/Inside!) allowed O’Leary to tie the game up. Last ditch efforts from our forwards to regain the lead produced some spectacular shots, break-aways and opportunities that kept the crowd bitting their nails. Michael will remember to take an extra touch on some breaks and Jack will remember the cross-bar for the rest of the season. Great game to start the season!

Vs. Bliss (A) 6 – 3 Win

This was a solid game that offered all the WRMS opportunities to develop their skills. The score was 2-0 at half time and there was little to say about the game other than to continue to the forward push but offer drop balls to the midfield and defense as the penalty area becomes packed with bodies. Both Jack, Michael, and Irvin pushed forward often causing the Bliss defense to scramble. Once the drop balls began, it was open season on the Bliss goal with Steven cracking a goal of the year rip that practically made the goalie move out of the way, rather than step in front of the ball. Michael was smeared all over the penalty area in a horrendous foul that gave Jack a pk opportunity. Nathan returned the favor in the second half providing Bliss with a pk.

Chess is a favorite past time while waiting for our game to start (girls play first)

Vs. Jerome (H) 2 - 6 Loss

If you ignore the first two minutes and subtract our own goal, it was a 3-2 game! WRMS struggled to maintain composure and pressure on the ball after the aggressive and fast pace Jerome team. But in the second half, Jerome only had 4 shots the second half and they ran out of steam, though they scored three more times. They were offsides 9 times in the second half indicating that the WRMS defense really figured out how to shut down their relentless attacks. Next game, we will trap the ba-jesus out of them.

Vs. Robert Stuart (H) 0 – 6 Loss

This was a one man show for #6 – on the Robert Stuart side of the equation! WRMS was playing with a mixed group of 7th and 8th graders, while Robert Stuart kept their 8th graders in the entire game. They also kept #6 in the entire game to continue to destroy. This one player played in the backfield by running down our forwards. He controlled the mid-field and practically passed to himself on offense. Despite the five goals by our African-American friend, we began attacking in the second half and had some unlucky crossbars. Maybe the net next time Joey Reidy!

Vs. Bliss (H) 7 – 0 Win

They say paybacks are a bitch and it is unfortunate that we would happen to play Bliss the day after our worst loss in history. This game featured Bliss having only three different stats the entire game – a foul, a corner kick, and 6 goal kicks. The coaches finally decided to play a starting lineup this game which produced successes with overlap, drop-balls, and wall-passes. WRMS moved around comfortably and quickly. Alex Leon debuted in his first game and scored a hatrick. Welcome to the team, Alex. Other goals included Michael, Danny, and Yuri.

Vs. Wendell (A) 1 - 3 Loss

Ever seen a do-over throw-in? Well, the refereeing was very sub-par and they even missed an offside goal by Wendell in the first half. I always say you have to play better than the refs. It was a weird day for WRMS as we played mostly in the mid-field and on the defensive third of the field. Our best opportunity occurred in the second half when Matt and his long legs were able to get a shot off. Another chance came late in the game with Keegan taking a nice shot from a cross by Yuri. But, it hooked left and Wendell got a goal kick for our efforts. Yuri and Danny tried to fire up our team and aggressively pressuring most balls midfield. Our team left Wendell with 6 fouls, 1 yellow card, virtually no shots, 1 goal from Alex, and Wendell’s coach and refereeing staff with smiles.

Vs. Commies (H) 2 - 3 Loss

This was the heart-breaking game of the season. WRMS did everything right and pretty much out-played the Commies as a team. The Commies had a superb goalie that stopped all our attacks in the first half saving 2 goals that the “short-stack” produced – Jack, Yuri, and Mikey. In the second half, their goalie entered as a mid-fielder and essentially tipped the tables with great through-balls and a half field goal against Matt who could not reach high enough. Bummer of a loss. It is amazing to me that one player in middle school soccer can have such a dramatic effect on the outcomes of the game. Where are our super-stars?

Vs. O’Leary (H) 2 - 1 Win

O’Leary and WRMS always play very even during their games. We also play very similarly and the games tend to be close, back-and-forth, and very exciting. Our guys are smaller than every team we play and so we looked like wet puppies during this game against some towering players in the defense and forward positions of O’Leary. Despite the rain, Michael was running hard and scored during the first half. In the second half, Zach stepped up from stopper and shot several times from outside the eighteen but could not capitalize to seal the game. That job was up to Alex Leon. Great game, bad refs. Remember that the ball has to come into play from a throw-in to be a bad one, and if you call it on one team, a repeat by the other team must be called.

Vs. Commies (A) 0 - 2 Loss

The short and small field paid dividends for the Community School. Once again, horrible reffing scored an offside goal and missed some critical calls that could have turned the tables. The star Commie player took a free kick and scored from mid-field again and WRMS just could not score despite being in the Commie penalty area. How many times can we get called for offsides, hit the crossbar, or the keeper in a game? We dominated possession and every stat I record, but the planets were not in alignment and we lost.

Vs. Jerome (A) 4 - 6 Loss

Three to two at half is a great result for our team against the toughest team in the league. But for the love of Pete, where do these referees come from? This ref was inconsistent and afraid to make the big calls. As Michael gets crushed by a forearm, the ref asks him if he is alright and doesn’t make a call! Insult to injury, Jack is squashed in the penalty area, the ref comes over and asks him if he is alright and then awards us a corner kick? Really, people? Heads hanging in the late second half, Jerome scores three goals.

Vs. Robert Stuart (A) 7 - 3 Win

Wow! We arrived on their homecoming and spirit week. Their players gave us the "tunnel of love" as we stepped off the bus, but we were ready to scorn them after the nasty spanking we got on our home field. We thought we were in for a horrible game when it was 0 -2 in the first 10 minutes. But, some critical pointers and loud barking by yours truly began to sink in and suddenly flood gates were open and goals began flowing. There were drop-balls, overlaps, and a wonderful combination from Danny across field to Alex who one-touched back across the field to Michael who one touched it into the goal! I also think that the excellent refereeing had something to do with it – the best of the year with equal and consistent calls! You wouldn’t think we had a losing season after the way we have been playing.

Vs. Wendell (H) 1- 3 Loss

Wendell came and played. We came to substitute. I was able to substitute all 29 players in our last game. Mikey had a great header goal from a corner.

2011-10-18T21:27:00.000-06:00

Sorry, I have been off the grid for a bit. Only one more week of soccer and then the articles I have been sitting on will be posted. Thanks for your patience.

Armenia's Gambit or gamble?

2011-08-31T22:49:00.002-06:00

Chess is now a compulsory subject in all Armenian schools, including the secondary level (see also News.am). This is great news as many studies have shown how chess can improve all areas of study for students that regularly engage in chess activities. It appears the Ministry of Education is pledging $1.5 million for textbooks and manuals, equipment such as boards and portable tables, and even salaries for chess teachers. The ministry indicates that chess will "foster schoolchildren's intellectual development" and improve children's critical thinking skills.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian is a chess enthusiast

Ted Winick, President of the Chess institute of Canada, says North American schools should follow the Armenian example as numerous other examples of success can be found in Russia, Cuba, and Quebec (Canada). After the Armenian World Championship win this past month, it is no wonder that this is an attractive offering to students this next year (see also Armenian Chess Players Rewarded for Championship Win). Hopefully, this will help my own program grow and develop as more countries and schools continue to adopt chess curricula.

Idaho History: Western Idaho Open

2011-08-28T22:47:00.002-06:00

courtesy of: Jeff Roland, ICA Trustee for Web Development and Maintenance

If you read the article on the 1964 Western Idaho Open (shown below), the organizers of the day were very excited about the “large turnout” of 19 players! Last year, we had 27 players at the 2010 WIO, and I plan to really promote this year’s event even better. At the PCC Centennial Open in Portland a couple weeks ago, I actually asked several players, a couple of them masters, if they would come, and they seemed positively inclined, especially as they are excited about Idaho joining Northwest Chess. And I am planning to get our ad in Northwest Chess. However, the weather will probably be the biggest hurdle. It is hard to get over those Blue Mountains!!! However, not impossible for the chess fanatic! It is ironic that the time of year most conducive to indoor activities like chess also makes it difficult to travel to play in them!

My theory, and has yet to be refuted to my knowledge, is that the only reason over-the-board tournaments don’t have more people these days (and this seems to be a national trend) is because the USA doesn’t have that charismatic superstar figure like Bobby Fischer was. The big boom of Idaho (ICA) tournaments happened directly after Fischer won the World Championship, and lasted for several years, then steadily declined over the years. I don’t think the decline was due to anything we as organizers did wrong. Numbers just declined as people found something else to entertain themselves. We’re actually doing better than they did back in 1964. At some point, I predict there will be another big chess boom in America. It is only a matter of time. And when that happens, the structured annual events and consistent tournaments and titles that the ICA does now (in spite of low turnout), will be crucial to that future success as those tournaments and titles and clockwork precision in holding the events will already be in place. I am very proud of the fact that ICA continues to go the distance and continues to hold consistent annual staple tournaments (like the Idaho Open, for example), and even if they aren’t large in number of players, they are still Idaho Opens! They still produce champions! They still produce excellent chess. And they are still newsworthy.

Also, just to share even more how things were different back then, here is the tournament announcement. Note that play started at 9:30 am, Entry was $1.75. USCF Membership was $5.00. Time limit was 30 moves/hour, and clocks were only used on the slow games.

To find out how you can join the 2011 Western Idaho Open, contact the Idaho Chess Association.

Making Chess More Popular Among High School Students

2011-08-24T09:50:00.002-06:00

As we start a new school year, it might behoove the first spirit assemblies to not only celebrate athletes, but also recognize the chess clubbers. At our school, the assembly organizers include the chess club in their program and from feedback from the kids in the program, the appreciation and recognition is welcomed. I find that the school climate and culture is better toward chess club news and interest is also generated in the club. In fact, some schools have even replicated the Saturday Night Live skit. But, I wonder if the YouTube videos that were uploaded by schools are furthering the stigma of chess or providing a bit of tongue-and-cheek humor that hard-working chess club kids enjoy? This year, I do plan on bringing our cheerleaders into a scholastic tournament at the start to rev up the fun. Maybe I will even ask them to perform the SNL skit to the ICA Wood River Progressive tournament this October?

Haitian Video

2011-08-23T21:27:00.001-06:00

Class of 1986

2011-08-21T21:43:00.003-06:00

On the way to my 25th Class Reunion

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

—Bilbo's speech at his birthday party

What the heck does this mean? Tolkien was a genius to cipher this quote and I should have said it at my reunion just to trip some people out.

25th Reunion of Class of 1986

My Old Digs

I have never been back for a reunion and seldomly visit Wisconsin due to all of my family's activities and the gorgeous place in which I live here in Idaho. Who'd vacation anywhere else? However, I had a great time at my 25th Class Reunion in Columbus, Wisconsin this past week. Of the twenty-eight that showed up, none were my close high school friends, but I soon discovered that my classmates were friends, indeed. Reacquainting yourself with folks that knew you growing up during the horrors, trials and tribulations puberty is an experience meant for the meek and the proud. Kids that were mean to me and I despised in my youth, and vice versa turned out downright friendly and a pleasure to be around. And we were out until 4 am! When growing up for 12 years with the same kids in your classes, at lunch, on the play ground, and in evening sports, I suppose they are like family members, as you spent almost as much time with them as your true family. A real family will weather the storms and bask in the sunlight - altruism at its finest!

I was apprehensive to meet school mates for the first time since graduation in 1986 and feared recognizing and remembering names. Maybe iphones should be equipped with face recognition aps? Too bad I only carry a basic phone. I should have consulted and studied my yearbook before attending, but I was delighted to know most of the ladies and many of the guys. I found it more difficult to recognize the males, however. Whether you were female or male, the smiles were exactly the same among all the increased mass and decreased hair and that sincerely tapped the nerve cells storing that information - I would blurt out the correct name (name tags were helpful too).

The Ladies

The Guys

Surprisingly, some classmates were still enjoying the same enterprises like hunting, trapping, drinking or even coaching the same sport they excelled in. My chess passion was already known among facebookers and I was thrilled to notice enthusiasm in their tone. I remember forming a chess club at our high school with a group of friends. We only played a handful of games during the entire four years and used it mostly as an excuse for field trips to the Field Museum in Chicago and the Milwaukee Public Museum.

After renewing my old friendships and regaining some new ones, the reunion organizers and myself decided to embark on a class website. So, I built it this week for my class mates and I hope that my friends were not so, just for the night, and contribute to our "family" history website.

WRHS Website Updated

2011-08-21T12:15:00.002-06:00

As I get ready for school, my numerous websites need updating. The WRHS Website is updated.

2011-08-21T12:11:00.006-06:00

The beauty of a move lies not in its appearance but in the thought behind it. - Aaron Nimzowitsch

Tournament Calendar is Updated

2011-08-02T10:13:00.000-06:00

There are many great tournaments in the area that are posted at the Tournament tab. Start making plans and saving money so you can attend these fun events! If you are aware of any other tournaments that folks might be interested in attending, please comment and I will update the calendar.

Skittles Room, National High School Championship, 2011

Happy Birthday to my favorite little chess player!

2011-07-29T14:06:00.001-06:00

11 years old and a great player (Dad's prerogative!).

Idaho Scholastic Player News: Round 4

2011-07-28T00:15:00.008-06:00

Get your pom-poms out and start chanting I-D-A-H-O (or at least mouth it if you are at the tournament!). Savanna Nacarrato, of Sandpoint, Idaho is enjoying her visit to the 2011 Susan Polgar Girls' Invitational which is hosting 46 participants from around the country. [She currently has 2.0 points and is paired with Annastasia Wyzywany in round 3 (post: Wed., July 27.] [Savanna won her game against Ms. Wyzywany, a class A player from Louisiana, and is now entering round 4 with 3.0 points and a pairing with Mandy Lu of Michigan. She is tied with four other girls and Idahoans are all pulling for her with three rounds left to play!(post: Thurs., July 28)] [Results were released for Round 4 and 5 which were tougher for her. Savanna was paired with Maggie Fen in round 5, but still has a chance to improve her standings in the final round. She is currently in 9th place and is paired with Joy Chen for round 6 - each with 3.0 points. The sole leader, Apurva Virkud has 5.0 points. We are very proud of Savanna's efforts and representation.(post: Thurs., July 28)] The tournament finished today and Savanna won her last game for a total of 4.0 pts. and a 9th placement. This was a job well done and I do believe her first experience competing at this level of play. As she is a ninth grader, we look forward to seeing more of Savanna representing Idaho, her family, and herself at other prestigious events. Good luck, Savanna!

Savanna is on left

The Susan Polgar Girls' Invitational combines chess instruction and a 6-round scholastic girl's championship. This year, there are over $120,000 in college scholarships and other prizes donated by Texas Tech University and the Susan Polgar Foundation. In order to participate, players are primarily selected from state scholastic girls championships, but may be selected as the highest rated scholastic girl in a state without a championship tournament. From the pictures I have seen, it sure looks like fun, and I hope my daughter will be lucky enough to participate someday. (photos from Susan Polgar Chess Daily News)

Chess Projects

2011-07-27T18:24:00.000-06:00

I have written chapters 1- 4 in the high school textbook I am writing. It appears that there will be at least nine chapters by the end of it all (but, maybe more if I can bust them all out in a month!). I think I have a very solid start with an interdisciplinary approach that includes history, geography, literature, arts, and mathematics. And I have included an approach that might prove useful to some: scientific thinking. The idea might not produce any grand masters, but it is sure to exercise the brain and more formally include logic in chess thinking and analysis for teenage beginner's. Here is a list of the chapter title's:
1. Let's Play Chess
2. Boardom
3. Notation is Floatation
4. Even a Pawn Must Hold a Grudge

Tigran Petrosian is from Armenia

My next project I am embarking on might prove useful for my textbook. The plan is to obtain chess data from the world and correlate it with several geographical and social factors. The idea came to me while reading an article about Armenia winning the World Team Championships this past week that was held in China. I began looking up information on Armenia and discovered they have more grand master's per capita than any other country. I discovered that Idaho is 65% larger than Aremenia but has only half the population. I don't think we have one grand master residing in our borders! I will post some preliminary information just before school begins at the end of August.

Need some "Pawn Chains"

2011-07-20T15:46:00.002-06:00

Attention readers or transients! I need a good "pawn chain" game that sets up a successful pawn chain. I also need a game demonstrating how to attack the base of a pawn chain. Here are two that I found but I am looking for better.

Maroczy - Barmen Shuchting, 1905

Petrosian vs. Lilienthal, 1949

2011 Summer Classic Rounds 4-5: Tales from the Reserve Section

2011-07-11T19:19:00.011-06:00

95 years of separation.

One of the greatest things about chess is the interaction of different generations and and age classes. It became apparent to me when I was looking at the variety of players in the Summer Classic Tournament. There is an age span of 95 years displayed in the group photograph! Nearly a century of separation between the youngest and oldest players. This offers chess tournaments and organizers challenges, and requires patience and toleration of the players.

Breathing in surround sound

Tournament etiquette can sometimes be turned upside down by the various players and the Tournament Directors have to straddle a fence to preserve the fun for some participants and the seriousness for others. During my round 4 game against Gary Hollingsworth (see rounds 1-3), I noticed an elderly gentlemen's breathing pattern in another game across the room. As I struggled to maintain focus, the rhythmic breathing began to sound like Darth Vader in surround sound. Definitely something you can't and shouldn't complain about. A bit later, another gentlemen always brings munchies that he will tear into about an hour into the game. Riiipp! The crunching sound of the grocery bag and the wrappers then become sporadic as the munching sounds now echoed across the small room.

With such a variety of persona, it is easy to spot the loud families. Some people are unable to whisper (especially kids, with their robust diaphragms!) and yet others speak loudly because they can't hear so well (the older crowd). The one good thing about bad hearing is that you can turn your hearing aide off when playing in a tournament. There will always be occasional voices when there is a blunder. And, everyone in the room will crane their head to see what happened.

This is why some people insist on listening to music during tournament play. This tends to be at the Tournament Director's discretion. In Idaho, some allow it and some don't. Sometimes players can ruin the privileges for others as one man listened to a symphony that I could "sing along" to. I prefer Deadmau5, but invariably, I model good behavior and refrain from the zune (microsoft's ipod).

Some players like to listen to music while they play (more to drown out other distractions than anything else).

With the youngsters playing and learning etiquette (I like the "brush your teeth rule"), toleration can be very difficult. It is clear to me when a child is more concerned about his rating than the actual game he is playing by what they say (and how often they say it). One little guy will always offer a draw (draw etiquette link) in the quality of voice that is like whispering in a megaphone every time his game takes a bad turn. It was cute when the little boy offered a draw when Kevin Patterson went a piece up, but every turn after that? He began to beg for a draw. I had to restrain myself from turning around and saying "resign or play your game!" This is one of the scholastic drawbacks - rating fever. Kevin was a good sport.

Gary from Pokey

Here is my round 4 game against Gary Hollingsworth. There is a Draw lesson in this game. I accepted the draw offer by Gary after 15 minutes of consideration. Fritz gave me a slight advantage, but I was a little too concerned about the h-file pawn to continue play and I would have to prove my bishop was worth his huge pawn majority. Plus, Gary and Jamie (each with 3.0 pts. as well) both had easier pairings going into round 5 than I was to have.

Unfortunately, I had to sit next to the same boy while Jamie Lang had a go. While looking at the pairing sheets, I told Jamie to please win quickly. Jamie won a piece and the draw offers commenced but the little guy seemed to have Vaseline on his king and the game continued longer than I hoped. He was getting bored and made a pyramid out of the pawns he had taken from Jamie and then knocked them over onto the table. I finally said something when he was holding onto the table so he could rock better in his chair while shaking his Pepsi. Our table shimmied and I began to feel like I was playing on a boat! Thankfully, my round 5 game was not affected by all the distractions offered and I played the shortest tournament game (seven moves!) against Kevin Patterson and I tied for 1st place with 4.0 points. E4 G4 is not an opening I am likely to play!

Chess is a spectator sport as Kevin watches his daughter Emily play.

In these cases, someone should not have to complain. Players should know better and TDs should also be cognizant of the playing environment for everyone in the room. But, in the end, as chess players ultimately know, tournaments are a test of patience and comfort level. If each tournament pair played their game in an isolated, sound proof room, I probably wouldn't go to tournaments. Nor would anyone else. The pleasure is derived from being around a large group of chess enthusiasts from different ages and diverse lifestyles. Being able to look into their sympathetic eyes when there is a disturbance, smile, and move your game forward with unsaid camaraderie and the knowledge that someday it was you or someday it will be you creating the ruckus.

Idaho chess hero, Glen Buckendorf

Integrating Chess and Critical Thinking

2011-07-05T21:45:00.004-06:00

I was holding off the news of a new class at Wood River High School: Integrating Chess and Critical Thinking. I do believe this is the first elective credit class of its kind at the high school level in the United States. It has taken me over five years of discussion and three administrators to convince them that this will be a great class that students want to take. My new principal, Peter Jurovich, allowed me much longer than two minutes to present my ideas and justifications, unlike predecessors - and he didn't even laugh! Students will be able to learn about chess, the history of chess, the art and science of chess, develop their skills, and learn to think more critically in an interdisciplinary manner.

Our school is redesigning its curriculum, school day, and many other areas in order to better serve kids. We are adopting the IB MYP program, Project Based Learning, and rethinking homework policies. This class will be a perfect match for those programs. I thought this was also a perfect time to propose a new chess class and typed a seven page proposal for the academic council in order to sell my idea. There are currently over 30 kids signed up for the course which will be offered all year, this next year. Students are able to take it as a nine week class for half a credit or a full semester. Plus, they are able to sign up multiple times as the class is designed so students can enter the class at any point.

If this sounds like fluff, it certainly isn't going to be an "easy A." I have identified twenty-eight state standards that this class will address or reinforce in language arts, world history, mathematics, government, science, and US History. I think this will also be an excellent opportunity to pre-post-test students on the state standardized tests to determine the benefits of playing chess on a weekly, if not daily basis.

I have selected software (Think Like a King, Fritz, and Chessmaster 10000), internet servers (Gameknot and Chess.com), various work books (Square One, Teaching Chess, Chess Tactics, Susan Polgar's curriculum), Tips for Young Players (Sadler 1999) as a text, and I am writing my own textbook that I can use for the unique curriculum and exercises that I put together. Chapter 1 is nearly complete. I really want to create an appreciation for the game and the culture, as well.

If any donor would like a tax deduction, please help us by financially donating so I can purchase some workbook and textbook resources. c/o Adam Porth, WRHS, 1250 Fox Acres Road, Hailey, Idaho 83333.

I have the course broken down into these sections:

understanding the game of chess
playing chess
tactics
strategies
analyzing chess games
understanding chess organizations
history
art
science and math
biographies
journalism
creating a chess video of an analysis or an opening
chess variants

The goal is not to breed mini-Bobby Fishers or produce grandmasters. But, I hope to develop, extend, and expand the processing of information, exercise critical thinking skills in an environment that kids want to be in, and to instill a passion for the game and culture of chess. Too much of our society falsely prescribes chess playing to either geeks, geniuses, or grandpas, and I believe that an interdisciplinary approach will attract the most interest in chess playing. You could spend an entire year just working on chess skills, and I believe that students will be more apt to fall in love with the game when they start exploring the culture of chess, as I have. Stay tuned for successes and failures from the classroom!

Happy 4th of July 2011

2011-07-04T21:32:00.002-06:00

Erwin Kett is our chess-playing Uncle Sam

More Chess in the Hills

2011-07-03T21:56:00.000-06:00

Chess out Slaughter House Canyon

Chess in the Hills

2011-06-29T20:38:00.000-06:00

Me and Des played a quick game up Muldune

2011 Twin Falls Championship

2011-06-26T09:21:00.008-06:00

Israel Flores (1st), Jeff Roland (2nd), Dan Looney (3rd)

It was a lovely day to play chess with my friends in Twin Falls at the Idaho Chess Union's TFC. So lovely, in fact, I arrived without my usual competitiveness and resigned after thirteen moves against Jeff Roland (1679). I needed a wake up jog which I neglected after the long drive. All of my oxygen was withheld from my brain because all of my blood cells were in my butt!

After the game, I quickly went to the nearest coffee shop (Java) and downed a four-shot espresso latte and walked around the block before I faced Hugh Myers (1657). The last time I played him, a few years ago at MVCC, I figured I lost on move 2 and resigned by move 14! This game started out fairly and then I suddenly felt the heat and pressure of a collapsing game. Deja vu? Another coffee for me and relief in the bathroom and I was ready to look at the board with a fresh perspective. I fought back, he played passively and defensively in the endgame, and he resigned with only 23 seconds left on my clock! I really thought he would just run my time out like others before. I really have a new respect for Hugh for being a gentleman and resigning a lost game on the board. I only hope I would do the same.

My round 3 game turned out as bad as my first round and so I rolled over and let Dan Looney (1641) maul me like a bear, while secretly I tried to get a back rank mate (my only hope!). But a player such as this would have nothing of it. He ended in third place in the tournament and Jeff took second place. My last game was against a highly rated player, Fred Bartell (1799), and I have never beaten him in a tournament game. And this is still the case. I played a much better game except when I ran into time issues again and lost an even position. It certainly takes me longer to work through some of the problems faced on the board and I find G/120 much more comfortable. I am happy with two of my games and felt that I learned some new things from the other two.

Israel Flores is a newcomer to the Twin Falls chess scene and won the Twin Falls Championship with a perfect tournament score. Jeff Roland, 2nd place, and Dan Looney, 3rd place. Nedzad Imamovic was another newcomer and ended in 4th place. Glen Buckendorf donated three books from his library for 4th - 6th place.

Twin Falls Championship tomorrow

2011-06-24T11:36:00.000-06:00

4SS G/60
This will be my fifth time at this tournament and my aspirations are to play well and win at least two games. Here is a confirmed player list:

1.) Nezdad Imamovic 1800
2.) Glen Buckendorf 1800
3.) Fred Bartell 1799
4.) Jeff Roland 1679
5.) Hugh Myers 1657
6.) Barry Eacker 1642
7.) Dan Looney 1641
8.) Emily Patterson 1516
9.) Aleksandr Vereshchagin 1445
10.) Chris Pentico 1434
11.) Adam Porth 1224
12) Israel Flores 1200
13.) Kevin Patterson 1196
14.) Katie Rae Patterson 1019

Growing Chess at the Farmer's Market

2011-06-23T23:22:00.001-06:00

Chess at the Hailey Farmer's Market

I set up a chess booth at the Farmer's Market today in Hailey to teach and play patrons of the agricultural arts. It was a huge success with the children waiting for their moms to finish shopping engaging in intense, humorous, and interesting chess. Amidst the pies, plants, early radishes, and turned wooden dog bowls, giant chess was played by several youngsters and I had a table set for standard chess play. I also was able to play long-time friend, Erwin Kett. Erwin is a supporter of the WRHS Chess Club and gladly showed up for two long games of chess. He was unhappy to leave for an appointment after 2 1/2 hours of play and desired just one more game to try and beat me.

Some Chessnuts plotting their next move!

While playing Erwin, I offered help to the kids and clarified rules when necessary. I was happy to show one boy how to mate quickly (mate in 2) with a queen and a rook using the "ladder" technique. I call it "drawing a line in the sand." Interestingly, when I let him perform the maneuver on his mom, he used four extra moves (he really wanted to own the checkmate!). In fact, it was nice to see how many moms played a game with their boys. I witnessed interesting pawn structures and beautifully symmetric openings (ah, the dreaded a4 and h4 opening that begins some sort of a rook assault).

Humans love symmetry, but never open like this. . . bishops will gobble up your rooks and you lose the exchange by two points, and your pawn structure gets screwed up!

Chess is great for family engagement

Here is another symmetrical game I saw . . . it definitely looks like some thing is happening . . .but not really! It might be something out of Stratego, but not chess. Don't do this.

Two little guys refused any help until I just couldn't take anymore checkers-jumping and interfered by showing them how the pieces move. Adults were somewhat stand offish and watched from a distance, but you could see by their faces they longed to play. Maybe they will start playing? As I plan to have a chess booth every Thursday at the Farmer's Market in Hailey. Next week, I hope to have a sun shade and also to up the booth presentation by having a checkered table cloth. Also, a sign that said "Free Chess, Help Yourself" because I was asked by several people "How much?" Farmer's Markets are great places to visibly engage people in chess.

Chess Mom and son

Chess and Bowling: End of the year Party!

2011-06-22T09:32:00.002-06:00

Miles getting his last game of his Senior year in.

WRHS School Champions: Nick Bruck, Desmond Porth, Miles Hendrix

Middleschool resentment.

Nick collects his letter and his loot.

Good group of chess enthusiasts.

Farwell to the seniors.

Chess business: thanking our patrons and supporters.

Alumni Kitt visits for pizza.

All six grants came through!

2011-06-20T20:41:00.002-06:00

Well, it was Christmas in June as the gifts and grants began rolling in! The Vernier Probeware was only one of my grants for increased technology in the classroom. In fact, our science department will be receiving about $20,000 in Vernier probeware, two laptop carts with printers and 12 computers per cart, and $20,000 worth of digital microscopes. Total coming in this next school year: $60,000 from grants I wrote.

Vernier Probeware, Chess and Science Education

2011-06-01T18:24:00.004-06:00

Here is an excerpt from a grant that I wrote for Vernier Probeware. Wish me luck as it is worth $10,000 in lab equipment.

"Innovative Lessons: One such innovative lesson will be an interdisciplinary and physiological study of athletics and intellectual sports in a real situation. I am currently a soccer and chess coach for our school and this provides a unique opportunity to measure physiological characteristics of each athletic type. There is a widely held view that chess is not a physical activity. The athletes would be the control group. My plan is to engage the physiology students in a real, scientific investigation from initial hypothesis formation to research article publishing in the study of physiological changes in athletes and chess players during competitions. Research from Harvard and other universities have demonstrated the physical nature in brain wave patterns of chess players through MRI and PET scans, however, I have not found any research on other physiological characters such as temperature, heart rate, respiration, etc. One such study did demonstrate that chess players may lose up to ten pounds during tournaments! Vernier probes would be an integral part of the data collection and analyzing process, as the current equipment is cumbersome, awkward, and does not reflect the sensitivities needed for such research by students."

Imagine some probes hooked up to this player - EKG, heart rate, respiration, temperature probes, etc.

WRHS Championship Results

2011-05-29T08:40:00.008-06:00

Desmond, Nick, Andrew, and Miles

Nick Bruck is the 2010-11 WRHS Chess Champion and coolly remained undefeated after the third and final day of play. Half of the tournament included elementary and middle school students, and only seven high school students. I was greatly disappointed at the lack of participation by our high school this year, however, the games that were played were very good when compared to previous years. Blunders were there but not as numerous and the openings were much better understood. Chris "Curly" Ellis and Julia Broderick dropped out of the final games due to school work requirements and some forfeits for the underclassmen were for missing scoresheets. Prizes for the participants include choice of executive bag with triple weighted pieces, Fritz 11 software, or a vintage, inlaid travel board for 1st - 4th place.

Tournament prizes will be gifted at our end-of-the-year party this next Wednesday at South Valley Pizza (meet at 6 pm). Afterwards we will go bowling at the Bellevue Lanes. Also, Varsity letters will be gifted to our seniors: Nick Bruck, Andrew Uriarte, Miles Hendrix, Chris Ellis, Alex Bates, and Shane Bruess.

No.	Name	Pts	Rnd1	Rnd2	Rnd3	Rnd4	Rnd5
1	Nick	4	W13	W3	W4	D6	D2
2	Desmond	4	W10	-H-	W5	W8	D1
3	Miles	3.5	W8	L1	W10	D5	W6
4	Andrew	3.5	W9	D5	L1	-X-	W7
5	Adam	3	W12	D4	L2	D3	W8
6	Alex	3	-H-	W14	-X-	D1	L3
7	Dylan	2	-H-	-H-	L12	W13	L4
8	Max	2	L3	W13	W14	L2	L5
9	Real	2	L4	-F-	L13	-X-	W10
10	Colten	2	L2	-B-	L3	W12	L9
11	Curly	1.5	W14	-H-	-F-	-F-	-U-
12	Hunter	1	L5	-F-	W7	L10	-F-
13	Victor	1	L1	L8	W9	L7	-F-
14	Julia	0	L11	L6	L8	-F-	-U-

Miles in Round 4

Round 5: For the Championship

Dylan and Andrew

Round 4: The Titans face off

Nick and Alex: two machines

Coffee News

2011-05-25T22:41:00.003-06:00

Pseudomonas putida

Methinks I must have been a bacterium in another life: Pseudomonas putida. Many species in this genus persist in a variety of habitats and have a diverse diet. Some species of Pseudomonas are found feeding on a variety of substances including meat, decaying food, peteroleum oil, cyanide, toluene, geothermal features, and sometimes on humans and other beasts. One species produces the characteristic rainbow effect on deli cut roast beef. Don't worry though, as the critter is harmless to you or I (unless it is one of the parasitic species of Pseudomonas aeruginosa - the second most common infection in hospitals!). So, why not live on coffee? The little guy is a chemoautotroph that lives on the aromatic compounds in coffee including caffeine. This makes perfect sense as caffeine is a molecule that contains carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The prime ingredients in living systems. More on this newly discovered bacteria is at Scientific American.

Caffeine

someone's not happy : (

2011-05-25T22:17:00.002-06:00

Turn that frown upside down: European Chess Union letter

From Chess Vibes:
Boris Gelfand (Israel) defeated Alexander Grischuk (Russia) in the 6th and final game of the Candidates final in Kazan, Russia. The grandmaster from Israel won a superb strategical game on move 35 and thus became the opponent for World Champion Vishy Anand in a title match that is scheduled for next year. (full article)