The Chess Club at Prairie Creek Intermediate School meets Monday's from 2:40 pm to 4:30 pm. We currently have more than 40 students enrolled in our club. If you would like to join our club, please contact the Main Office or email the Chess Club instructor, James Hodina.
The Prairie Chess Club is also a "virtual chess club" on www.ChessKid.com. From our virtual club, you can access video lessons, chess puzzles, and play other scholastic players. You must be assigned a user name and password from the club instructor, James Hodina. If you are a member of the Prairie Chess Club and have either not received your ChessKid.com account or have lost it, then please contact James Hodina.
Prairie Creek Ties for 2nd Place at Iowa Elementary Team Chess Championships 
Prairie Creek Intermediate School tied for 2nd place with Lincoln Elementary School of Iowa City. A tie-break system resulted in Lincoln taking home the second place trophy and Prairie taking home the third place trophy. Weber Elementary, also of Iowa City, won the event, repeating as state champions from 2010. Prairie repeats its 3rd place finish from 2010. However, Prairie chess players significantly improved on their winning percentage from 2010, scoring two more wins this year. The team scores are determined by the total score of the top four results from an open tournament. (This work much like a cross country meet). In 2010, we had one person who finished 4-1 and three at 3-2 for a team score of 13 points. That would have only been good for a three way tie for 4th this year. In 2011, we had three players score 4-1 and four players score 3-2.
It was a team efforts. Although only the top 4 finishes counted toward the team trophy, all of the other players won games, too. This takes away points from the other team making it more difficult for the competition to catch us in the team standings. Congratulations to the follow Prairie Creek Chess Club 2011 Elementary Championship Team:
Regan Hodina, Payton Kline, Andre Vongpanya, Aaaron Ziskovksy, Joshua Grabe, Kollin Lehman, Courtney Vondracek, Levi Lane, Cassidy Kline, Jonathan Lantz, Seth Strahan, Mason Zastrow, and Emma Lantz
Click to view the photo album of Prairie Creek students at the event.
Click to view the summary and photos on Facebook
Snack Sign Up
Please sign up if you would like to send snacks for the chess club. We have a lot of kids, so I have listed two spots for each chess club meeting date. I have a cupboard with lock in the chess room. So if your treat is non-perishable, you may bring it early and I will keep it safe.
Chess Club Resources
We have lots of resources and materials for our chess club students who want to improve their chess skills.
www.ChessKid.com
The website, www.ChessKid.com will be our primary learning resource for learning. Each student in the Prairie Chess Club has a Gold Membership to access videos, puzzles, and to play the computer and other players. Please contact me, James Hodina, if you do not have your username or password. We also have an online chess club on ChessKid.com that is exclusive to our members. You will see a link to this club after you log in. Many of our lessons at chess club will be using this website from the Prairie Creek computer lab. To really improve, you will need to go back and review this materials. i will provide some additional suggestions shown on our online ChessKid.com chess club. For your first free lesson on the rules of chess, click here, for a friendly video (no login required).
Chess Books at the Prairie School Libraries
Chess books are also available from the Prairie Creek Library. See a librarian for assistance. You can search online for books at the school library. Simple search on the word "chess" by subject and school.
Chess Sets Available from Prairie Creek LibraryWe have purchased 32 tournament style chess sets that may be checked out from our Prairie Creek Library. If you would like to bring a chess set home, just check it out like any other library book! Other On Line Resources
I have created a list of on-line chess resources on this website, most of which are free. Click her to go to the Internet Learning Resources page.
Chess Club Lesson and Activities
I will try and post information about our club activities as we go along. I will always have some recommendations for home study that go along with the lesson at club.
November 16, 2011We received our ChessKid.com online accounts today. Designed for kids 12 and under, this site offers a rich chess learning environment where students have access to online instructional videos, articles, and real-time "blitz" chess, and on-line "turn-based" chess games.
- Logon to www.chesskid.com
- Each students has been assigned a username and password to access the chess website for students. Contact me if your username and password has been misplaced or forgotten. All student user names begin with the word "Prairie" and adjoined with a second friendly object name. My username is PrairieChessCoach. You may create a parent account and join us if you would like!
- Use the navigation bars at the top of the screen, click on "Learn" to see all of the great chess learning tools.
- Tactics and puzzles: These are online puzzles just the like puzzles I hand out at chess club. THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO IMPROVE
- Watch chess videos: ChessKid.com International Master provide instruction on a variety of topics. This is rich content that you cannot casually pick up.
- Practice against the computer. While you can play "heads up" against the computer, I recommend practicing some of the thematic positions such as basic and advanced checkmates, converting a material advantage, or how to promote a pawn. (You must scroll down to find these resources).
- Articles. These have an interactive component with the on-line chess diagrams and puzzles.
- Return to your home page and find our virtual Prairie Chess Club which shows as a link on your www.ChessKid.com home page.
- Click on Forums and take a tour of some of the lessons. I have grouped the learning resources (above) into thematic lesson plans such as opening rules, forks, pins, and how to win King + Pawn endgames.
November 9, 2011Today we reviewed some basic endgame principles. - Basic checkmate patterns in endgames. We practiced how to checkmate an opponents King with our own Queen + King.
- King opposition. How to promote a pawn when it only a King and Pawn are left facing the lone opponents King. The theory of "opposition" was introduced.
- Visit the Chess Handout page to view and download the handouts for "Basic Checkmate Patterns."
November 2, 2011Today, we learned strategies for how to begin a chess game (the first 8 or so move). Students were taught the three Golden Rules of the Opening: - Control - Move to the center of the board (if you can control the center of the board, then you can control the whole battlefield).
- Power - Don't move the same piece twice (every piece needs to advance to reach its full strength).
- Safety - Castle as soon as you can (keep safe what you value most, the King). Don't move the queen out too early either (to expose the most powerful piece to unnecessary attacks).
We also learned about the Scholar's Mate and (more importantly) how to defend against it. (Watch out at home!)
We put our learning to test with a simultaneous match between two student teams and me. I gave the students the first 8 moves provided they followed the 3 Golden Rules. Once they accomplished this task, we then continued the game with my first move. October 26, 2011We did more difficult checkmate problems. this week. Everyone completed the chess puzzles, "Mate in 2."
October 19, 2011
We learned some basic checkmates including how to defend against the "Scholars Mate." Everyone completed the chess puzzles, "Mate in 1." I then went over the answers with the students to make sure that everyone could complete them. I also provided "intermediate" and "advanced" puzzles to take home. We will work on these more October 26.
In addition, I handed out the following chess introduction article.
I will post handouts on this website. Click here to view and download.
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