Strategy

Chess master Alexey Root stood before more than 250 Gifted and Talented sixth-graders in the UTPB multipurpose room explaining the importance of practicing the basics, understanding what every chess piece means and what it can do.

"Even master chess players do this stuff," she said.

The students, about 150 from Ector County Independent School District and about 100 from Midland Independent School District, nodded, their heads propped up on their chins, brows furrowed as they concentrated on the game.

Root, the 1989 U.S. Women’s Chess Champion, came to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin on Monday to show different chess teaching strategies to GT teachers from both ECISD and MISD

In this UTPB-sponsored event, Root is lecturing the students on chess strategies while providing the teachers with examples of different strategies for teaching the game.

It’s all about practice.

Root spent three hours going over chess moves and strategies and playing different opponents.

"You have to really understand how each piece can move … I can tell you, as a very good chess player, I still practice every basic move," Root said.

Root has been playing chess since she was 3 and competing since age 9. As a former high school English teacher, she advocates chess as an essential part of a student’s education. After winning the 1989 championship, Root started her master’s in education and has been blending the two ever since.

She is currently a senior lecturer at UT Dallas, where her classes focus on strategies for integrating chess into the classroom. She is also the author of numerous books on educational strategies for teaching the game.

Watching Root explain the rules of the game, Ireland Elementary School GT teacher Donna Allen was as interested as the students.

"My first thought was that chess was boring, but it’s not. It’s a game of war," Allen said

Chess has been taught as a part of ECISD’s GT curriculum for the past seven years, ECISD GT coordinator Pam Hicks said, adding that officials are excited to see how Root’s teaching strategies could be applied.

"Chess is amazing. It’s very creative and it mimics life where every action we choose can determine a different course we’ll take, a different outcome in our lives. It teaches them to step back and think before they act," Hays Elementary School GT teacher Vanessa Brower said.

GT parent Veronica Barry has seen both of her sons grow from their exposure to chess in the GT program and is very enthusiastic about it. She said it teaches them patience and to think things through. It’s had a particularly good effect on her younger son, sixth-grader Michael Melichar.

"He’s always been a ‘I’m just going to do it’ kind of guy and now he thinks; he’s more thoughtful before he does something," she said.

Gifted and talented sixth-grader Sonny Alaniz, 12, has been playing chess for the past three years.

"I think it is exciting and challenging. It was very confusing at first, but I learned it and it got easier," he said.

Alaniz said that working with Root was good because it gave him a chance to practice.

Chess is just now being brought in to some schools in MISD, and the teachers were busily taking notes next to their chessboards.

"This is so helpful because it breaks it down to its basic strategies," MISD GT teacher Carolyn Hooper said.

Allen agreed.

"It was wonderful because she knows everything there is to know, and she taught them things they didn’t know," Allen said.

BITS AND PIECES

>> Chess is called the game of kings because nobility primarily played it for centuries.

>> The word "checkmate" comes from the Persian word "shah mat" which means, "The king is defeated."

>> "You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it’s a really good idea and whether there are other, better ideas." — Stanley Kubrick.

>> "Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player not the chess piece." — Anonymous.