chess, as a school subject

My school has agreed to let me teach chess as a subject. It will be a SACE Stage 1 Integrated Studies Unit delivered off line to students from Years 8-10.

I've put together a curriculum and received some valuable advice from Alan Goldsmith who runs the Knights and Bytes chess bookshop in Adelaide.

Here's my curriculum draft:

Skills Development (50%)

• Demonstrated ability to identify tactical motifs - pins, forks, skewers, discoveries, double attacks, nets
• Demonstrated ability to solve tactical problems at level 2 difficulty or higher from Blokh's "Combinational Motifs"
• Demonstrated ability to master a list of endgame routines. Mate with: K + P versus K, 2 bishops, queen versus rook, (add some others) - ability to play both sides competently

Documentation and Evaluation (25%)

Record, analyse, annotate in detail and publish (on the internet) at least one significant competition game played by yourself

Research (25%)

Research one aspect of chess, such as

• an opening
• a famous game
• a famous player

and present your findings to a group

Tags:

• chess