|
[An About Chess guest article; September 2006.]
Educators and parents looking to connect chess with academics might consider a curriculum unit based on the following classics of children's literature. Not only are these two books entertaining reading for grades 4-8, but they also touch on important lessons of morality.
Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll is the chess dream of a seven-and-a-half year old girl. Alice began as a pawn, with a pawn's limited vision of the chess board. When Alice encountered other chess pieces, she saw them only as long as they were a pawn's move away from her. Otherwise, from Alice's perspective, they vanished "into the air" (Carroll, 1871/1977, p. 182).
Alice wanted to be a queen. Teachers and children could consider how one's perspective (as a pawn for example) influences one's view of the world. How does one's station in life affect one's treatment by others and one's actions toward them? On the chess side, there is much to explore, too. Alice's promotion quest is a common theme in chess, namely "queening a pawn." Carroll gives actual chess moves in descriptive chess notation (i.e. 1.P-K4 P-K5) at the beginning of Through the Looking-Glass, but the game isn't real because one side moves twice as often as the other!
In contrast to Lewis Carroll's chess notation in Alice Through the Looking-Glass, not many moves are given in the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling. Rowling refers to Harry moving four squares to the right, to Hermione taking a bishop, to threats narrowly avoided by Harry and Hermione, and to the captures of black chessmen. Lewis Carroll used a system called descriptive notation, where one writes of, for example, the king's pawn moving to king's four. Nowadays, algebraic notation is more common (i.e. 1.e4 e5).
Like Carroll, Rowling uses chess as a metaphor for morality. Chess may help students develop an internal locus of control. Believing that one can make a difference is a component of self-sacrificing behavior. For example, Harry Potter's friend Ron was willing to sacrifice himself to save his companions in a "living chess" scene. Teachers and students could discuss what sacrifices people make for each other. For a chess content lesson, teachers might show famous games with chess sacrifices. Sacrificing in chess means to give up a higher value piece for a lesser value one, or for other compensation like an attack.
A discussion of the Harry Potter book might be followed by showing the chess scene in the first Harry Potter movie. In that scene, Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione must cross a room with gigantic chess pieces. The chess game is one step in the on-going struggle to defeat the evil Voldemort, killer of Harry's parents. Hermione, Ron, and Harry assume the positions of a black rook, knight, and bishop. Ron directs the play of all the black forces, as he is the best chess player. Each time a black piece is taken, it is horribly beaten and dragged unconscious to the side of the board.
Rowling used no formal chess notation, but International Master Jeremy Silman imagined a game score for her words. His ideas were used in the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and can be found on his website
Harry Potter: The Complete Position
(www.jeremysilman.com).
In the Harry Potter chess scene, Ron realizes that he must be taken to win the game. He has to decide whether to sacrifice himself so that his classmate Harry can checkmate the enemy king. Ron's sacrifice would allow Harry to continue his quest for the sorcerer's stone. I won't give away the ending of this living chess scene. Reading an excerpt about Ron's intended sacrifice could spark moral discussion among your students. Also possible is a chess exercise, where students read the Potter chess passage and then, like Silman, create their own game score to accompany Rowling's words.
For a longer list of children's literature with chess themes, read chapter four in Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators by Dr. Alexey Root.
***
About the Author:
Dr. Alexey Root is the author of
Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators.
She has a Ph.D. in education from UCLA (1999). Her work history includes full-time public high school teaching (social studies and English), and substitute teaching at all grade levels. Root has been a tournament chess player since she was nine years old. Her most notable chess accomplishment was winning the U.S. Women's championship in 1989. Her peak USCF rating was 2262, which is at the master level. She also holds the FIDE title of Women's International Master. For the last seven years (1999-2006), Root has been a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD,
www.utdallas.edu).
She has taught UTD education classes, tutored prospective teachers for certification exams, and supervised student teachers. From 1999-2003, Root was the Associate Director for the
UTD Chess Program.
Root's current assignment for UTD is to teach education courses that explore the uses of chess in classrooms. Her courses are available worldwide, via the
UT TeleCampus online platform.
Root also teaches chess at her children's schools and at summer chess camps. She lives in Denton, TX with her husband Doug, her children Clarissa and William, and two house rabbits.
|
| 