The vision thing

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: The vision thing

Ironically, the best acceptance I have experienced with recording moves has come in the school classrooms, where the "'chess pickup" is a little slower. My after school crowd has been more reluctant. Must recalibrate!

Do you analyze their games with them afterwards? It then becomes obvious why they need an accurate and legible scoresheet.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: The vision thing

I wish I was the author of such a brilliant idea... :) but actually this goes without saying with any serious chess teaching. What can one do without chess notation ? Think about it for a second. If it is taught and practiced from the start, absolutely no problem. It is when you wait to introduce it that more resistance occur. Good habits set in quickly... but bad ones even more rapidly.

In the two classes that I introduced children to chess most of the children did not even know how the pieces moved in week one. In Windsor, this past April John Coleman had an orientation class for the kids going to the OYCC, many of whom did not know how to record a game. Most were recording the game satisfactorily after one session. If you put it to them in a manner suggesting that if they want to become a REAL chessplayer they have to be able to record the game then most of them accept it without complaint.

[Jean Hébert]

Re: The vision thing

I like Jean Hebert's idea of writing down the moves but this is a huge step for them. Gotta find a way to make them want to do it!

I wish I was the author of such a brilliant idea... :) but actually this goes without saying with any serious chess teaching. What can one do without chess notation ? Think about it for a second. If it is taught and practiced from the start, absolutely no problem. It is when you wait to introduce it that more resistance occur. Good habits set in quickly... but bad ones even more rapidly.

[Hal Bond]

Re: The vision thing

Ironically, the best acceptance I have experienced with recording moves has come in the school classrooms, where the "'chess pickup" is a little slower. My after school crowd has been more reluctant. Must recalibrate!

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: The vision thing

I like Jean Hebert's idea of writing down the moves but this is a huge step for them. Gotta find a way to make them want to do it!

Kevin Spragget has picked up on this topic on his blog.

I like Jean Hebert's idea of writing down the moves and I haven't really seen it as a huge step for the kids. The kids don't seem to mind and they even want to do it so that they can be real chess players. I have taught two groups of beginners over the course of six or seven weeks and in each case the kids were learning to record their games by week four. Many of the kids ask for scoresheets to record their casual games. I emailed them scoresheet templates so that they can practice at home. We practiced by showing a series of short games of about 25 moves on the projector and having the kids record the game. Of course they were able to compare their results with their neighbor. There didn't seem to be any difficulty to transition to recording their own games afterwards.

I introduced clocks in the fifth and sixth weeks. Of course Windsor has clocks in all of its tournaments and classes (even the CMA events) as a legacy of the Trillium grant associated with the 2010 CYCC and also as a result of John Coleman's stock of clocks which were previously used for the Windsor Chess Challenge.

We had one young boy who is going to CYCC who was attending the intermediate class (a successor to the beginners class) who went to the advanced class where recording is mandatory since there are no casual games there. He was reluctant to record his moves but I explained to him that we couldn't help him to get better if he didn't record his games so that we could see the mistakes that he was making now and correct them so that he didn't continue to make the same mistakes. He seemed to accept this explanation and there have been no more complaints about recording the game. He is now attending the intermediate class and the advanced class ahead of CYCC.

[Hal Bond]

Re: The vision thing

In Guelph the Catholic Board runs an event separate from the Public School Board. Between them they draw close to 400 players. The Catholic Board has seeded players to the Chess Challenge but they waver on this practice because too few of the kids want to step out of their comfort zone. The public schools do a team event - 4 board matches in primary, junior and intermediate, but this is a cumbersome format and they are looking at going grade by grade next year.

I like Jean Hebert's idea of writing down the moves but this is a huge step for them. Gotta find a way to make them want to do it!

[Gary Ruben]

Re: The vision thing

For the membership to reach 10,000, I think it will have to include more than Southern Ontario.

I always looked at building a membership in steps.

1. Interest people in joining and enroll them in the organization.
2. Entertain the member during the term of their membership.
3. Retain the member and register a renewal.

This should be the basic CFC three step.

You'll always get a certain percentage of turn over in the membership. However, the base number should be higher than it is now.

Did you know a Canadian finished 4th in the First Junior World Cup? He tied for first in his section of the preliminary round and finished 4th in the final round. It's an International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) event.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: The vision thing

For those of you more familiar with players in the York Region than I am, about what percentage of the players in e.g. the York Region final (pick a couple of random grades) are:

a) active CFC players/members
b) active CMA players
c) neither of the above (probably this is the only event they play in)

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: The vision thing

Any idea of how many children play in the tournaments?.

http://www.optimistchess.com

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: The vision thing

Optimists organize chess tournaments in the York Region (above Toronto). Regional winners go to Ontario challenge.

Any idea of how many children play in the tournaments?

The Optimists sponsored tournaments in Windsor in the past. I think scouts and guides would be natural groups to look at with organizing or sponsoring such events for their members.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: The vision thing

If anyone is aware of similar events in other cities I would love to hear of them.

Optimists organize chess tournaments in the York Region (above Toronto). Regional winners go to Ontario challenge.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: The vision thing

Any chance to organize more tournaments like that in Windsor?
IMHO, only regular competitions produce strong players who might stay longer in chess and could become CFC members.

Apparently London has a similar event though slightly smaller. Also they don't feed players into the OYCC as Windsor does. If anyone is aware of similar events in other cities I would love to hear of them.

As pointed out on Chesstalk, Hamilton has a similar event though for checkers and not chess.

Chatham has a smaller event of 200 to 250 players run by John Coleman (the man does get around). I helped in Chatham the last two years. He has a well oiled machine with teacher and high student volunteers running the grade school sections. Chatham adds a small high school section to the grade schools. Chatham has no playoff like Windsor does.

In Ontario, high school students are required to do a certain number of volunteer hours in order to be able to graduate. Both the Windsor and Chatham tournaments provide some high school students the opportunity to earn credit for some volunteer hours.

The GTA would be a logical place to start as there are enough local organizers and children playing chess already. Perhaps there are already such events outside of the CFC and CMA that I am not aware of.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: The vision thing

Every year Windsor [actually John Coleman with the help of an army of volunteers] holds a scholastic tournament over two days (once over three days) where 1400 children in grades 1 through 8 come together for a one day tournament (approximately 700 each day).

Any chance to organize more tournaments like that in Windsor?
IMHO, only regular competitions produce strong players who might stay longer in chess and could become CFC members.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: The vision thing

By comparison, french schools in northern Ontario are way ahead of us in terms of penetration into the regular curriculum. The Nadeau family (Denis, Ellen and François) and Pierre Hardy spent last fall between 250 and 300 full days teaching chess in various schools belonging to the french school boards (and getting paid for it by the school boards).

The Chess Institute of Canada do similar things in Toronto downtown.

[Jean Hébert]

Re: The vision thing

Jean, my memory may be faulty. I thought the math curriculum included a segment on chess and was contributed to the strength of Quebec chess.

You are talking about a short-lived experiment that went on about 20 years ago on a very small scale. The chess content in that math program was very small and did very little for Quebec chess, although it apparently improved math results. Currently only some classes in a small number of schools spreaded all over Quebec (probably they can be counted on your fingers) benefit from chess lessons during regular hour classes, thanks mostly to individual efforts and contacts.
By comparison, french schools in northern Ontario are way ahead of us in terms of penetration into the regular curriculum. The Nadeau family (Denis, Ellen and François) and Pierre Hardy spent last fall between 250 and 300 full days teaching chess in various schools belonging to the french school boards (and getting paid for it by the school boards). And it seems that more people will be needed next year since that teachers and school principals appear extremely happy about the positive impact that learning chess has on the kids.
Two weeks ago in Sudbury they had their annual "tournoi d'échecs franco-ontarien" with over 250 french speaking kids (remember, this is Ontario!). I took part for the third year in a row as special guest and speaker.
I wish that this kind of effort could spread elsewhere, but unfortunately neither the federations nor CMA seem to be interested in lobbying for chess lessons within the regular curriculum.