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Chess Life Online 2014 February My SuperNationals V Plans
Chess Life Online 2014 February My SuperNationals V Plans | My SuperNationals V Plans |
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| By WIM Dr. Alexey Root | |
| February 25, 2013 | |
 After driving 680 miles with five Denton (Texas) High
School chess players and the chess club's sponsor Fred Mueller, my first plan is
to check in Thursday night at the Gaylord
Opryland. The $149/night room rates are only valid until March 1, so we
have already made our reservations. Since I have never been to Nashville, I would appreciate comments from Chess Life Online readers about what tourist attraction our Denton High School group should visit on Friday morning. We are considering the Parthenon. Wherever we go should be doable in less than three hours, as I want to attend the Opening Ceremony at 11:00 a.m. Curt Eley, UT Dallas Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, is one of the speakers. His speech will influence my Sunday night speeches, given when I hand out the UT Dallas Chess II scholarships to the winners of the K-6, K-9, and K-12 championship sections.  Between the Opening Ceremony and Round 1 at 1:00
p.m., the Denton High School students and I will go to the SuperNationals V
bookstore. As the students' volunteer chess coach, I will point out instructional
books and software. The House of Staunton's Shawn Sullivan stated, "Our goal is
to have the most complete chess shop ever offered at a chess tournament. We
will have thousands of different products available." Sullivan will host
several book signings, including one with GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, who is giving
a simultaneous chess exhibition on Thursday at 2 p.m. I want Kosteniuk to autograph my
copy of her Diary of a Chess Queen.I also hope to collect autographs on our Brooklyn Castle chess board. The Denton High School students, Mr. Mueller, and I saw the film (and acquired the board) in the spring of 2012. The school featured in Brooklyn Castle, I.S. 318, defends its K-12 championship section team title at SuperNationals V. I want autographs from I.S. 318 teacher Elizabeth Spiegel and assistant principal John Galvin. Since the Denton High School students are the same ages as the students featured in Brooklyn Castle, they can ask those former I.S. 318 students to sign our board. After each round, the Denton High School students will meet me in the Skittles room. There, they will have two different booths of chess masters to turn to for advice. ChessKid.com staff members, including IM Danny Rensch, will analyze chess games. UT Dallas Chess Program Director Jim Stallings said, "UT Dallas team members will play blitz with the scholastic players; analyze their games; or, tell them about campus life at UT Dallas." UT Dallas chess team members scheduled for SuperNationals V are IM Arthur Calugar, FM Tyler Hughes, WFM Patrycja Labedz, Danny Gater, Courtney Jamison, and Tony Paul.  Saturday morning from 10:00-11:00 a.m. is my seminar,
based on my book Thinking with Chess:
Teaching Children Ages 5-14 (Mongoose Press, 2012). For door prizes, ABC-CLIO,
the publisher of my other five books, has donated 10 copies of People, Places, Checkmates: Teaching Social
Studies with Chess (2010). My seminar is at the same time as IM Larry
Evans' seminar "Basic Strategy and Tactics." With more than 5,000 scholastic chess players expected at SuperNationals V, there should be plenty of parents, chess coaches, and teachers to fill both of these free seminars and the other side events offered during SuperNationals V. For the complete list of happenings, go to http://uschess.org/tournaments/2013/snv/ For more about Dr. Alexey Root here and find her books at USCF Sales. |