University of Texas at Dallas faculty member and former chess champion Dr. Alexey Root will discuss how chess can help students succeed academically.

Dr. Alexey Root:
Explore Chess for Academic Success

Sunday, November 14, 2010, 2-4 p.m.

at New Tech High School (113 Samuel Blvd Coppell, TX 75019)

Cost is $5 non-members/FREE for CGA Members.

Open to all ages; parents of younger children (3rd Grade & Lower) required to stay with their children.

Please bring a chess set and board with you to the presentation. Or purchase tournament-sized sets and boards at the event. You may also pre-purchase a set when you register (click the register tab above).

As part of the presentation, participants will try mini-games of chess from Root’s books. Mini-games help children learn to take turns and to strategize, and are enjoyable for older children, teens, and adults too. No prior knowledge of chess is required. Mini-games include a chessmen version of “Connect Four”, which illustrates horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines. A “Decoding” mini-game combines learning how the rook moves and captures with spelling practice. Participants will also try the “knight’s tour problem,” analyzed by the eighteenth century mathematician Leonhard Euler. Repeating a popular feature from last year’s presentation by Dr. Root, participants may act out their proposed knight’s tour solution on a giant (25″ squares) chess board. Participants will also play chess with each other on regular-sized tournament chess sets and boards.

Root has been a tournament chess player since age nine and won the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship in 1989. She is a senior lecturer at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and was the associate director of the UTD Chess Program from 1999 to 2003.

Root’s work explores how chess can help educators reach academic goals with chess. Her books are Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators (2006); Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving (2008); Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities (2009); and People, Places, Checkmates: Teaching Social Studies with Chess (2010). Dr. Root’s books, and the tournament-sized sets and boards, will be for sale for $25 each at the November 14th program.
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