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Press Lecture to Explore Mathematics of Chess Moves
Press Lecture to Explore Mathematics of Chess Moves | Lecture to Explore Mathematics of Chess Moves |
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| By Joan DuBois | |
| September 17, 2009 | |
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OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE University of Texas at Dallas faculty member and former chess champion Dr. Alexey Root will discuss how chess illustrates mathematical concepts at Coppell Gifted Association (CGA) public lecture and demonstration on Sunday, November 8, 2009, 2-4 p.m. at New Tech High School in Coppell, TX. Cost is $5 non-members/FREE for CGA Members. No charge for children and students. Open to all ages. As part of the presentation, participants will try activities from Root’s books, including the famous “eight-queens problem,” which illustrates the mathematical concept of domination, a central idea in graph theory. Participants will also try the “knight’s tour problem,” analyzed by the eighteenth century mathematician Leonhard Euler. After attempting these chess-math problems, participants may act out their proposed solutions as living chessmen on a giant (25" squares) chess board. Participants will also play Pawn Games 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 championship in 1989. She is a senior lecturer at The University of Texas at Dallas and was the associate director of the UTD Chess Program from 1999 to 2003. Root’s work explores how chess can help educators in the classroom. Her books are Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators (2006); Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving (2008); and Read, Write, Checkmate: Enrich Literacy with Chess Activities (2009). Dr. Root’s books, and the tournament-sized sets and boards, will be for sale at the November 8th program. Dr. Root’s presentation is sponsored by the Coppell Gifted Association. The Coppell Gifted Association is an organization of parents and professionals who are concerned with supporting and creating expanded opportunities for the education of gifted and talented students of all ages and their families. CGA supports and encourages the development of such programs, both within the public schools and as extra-curricular activities utilizing community and individual resources. More information is at http://coppellgifted.org/. |
