New Blog

I have decided to continue this blog under a different name - Fiore Chess Blog.

Be advised I will continue to cover Minnesota events, in addition to those in South Dakota and Iowa. As you will note, they will be covered under the Sibley Chess Club domain.

Thank you for visiting this blog...I encourage you to follow us at the new site.

2010 Minnesota Closed Games

2010 Final Four of College Chess

March madness is over but four teams are jousting for the prestigious President's Cup, otherwise known as the Final Four of College Chess. The teams competing are University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Texas at Dallas, Texas Tech University and University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College (UTB/TSC).

The event is being held at UTB/TSC located at Brownsville, Texas. To learn more read History of Chess in Brownsville or download the Final Four program guide.

Games from the event can be viewed individually at Monroi.com (registration required) or on this blog by clicking 2010 Final Four. The official page is found at 2010 President's Cup.

Frank Johnson Games from 2010 MN Open

I finally found the pgn code for blogs and figured it out to make it functional. There were several to choose from, but I was looking for one which allowed multiple games to be listed under one board/viewer.

Please check out the games played by Frank Johnson at the 2010 Minnesota Open. He also did some great video analysis which I also linked to this blog. Enjoy the Johnson Games by clicking the link or under the blog pages area.

Pre-registration List for Minnesota Scholastic Championships

Round 1 Pairings

(for pre-registered players only, rest to be paired Saturday.)

Dan Voje, Chief TD for the MSCA Scholastic Championships, has posted a pre-registration list for the event at Scholastic Championships. He is asking players and coaches to review the list and verify the following:

• name is listed and correct;
• listed under the correct section; and
• team, if any, is correct.

You are asked to email him at danvoje@chesscastle.com if there are any errors. First round pairings will be posted Thursday evening.

I will inquire about getting games for the top 2 or 3 boards of the high and middle school sections so I may post them here. Standings will also be posted if and when available.

Are Our Schools In Checkmate?

I am a member of the School Improvement Advisory Committee (SIAC) for the Sibley-Ocheyedan Community Schools Distict (S-O CSD). It is a committee made up of community members, teachers and students. Our mission is to formulate and prioritize recommendations for our school board. They in turn, will consider these recommendations when setting goals for the 2010-2011 school year.

Jeff Herzberg, Superintendent for S-O CSD, posted the following video on his blog, Superintendent Herzberg. The video is a speech given by Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D., at an international schools conference in India, where 1-1 initiatives (meaning all students get laptops) are being considered and implemented. Dr. McLeod also wrote The status quo no longer suffices: An open letter to the Ames (IA) School Board, presented this topic to the National Education Association Board of Directors and the Dubuque School Board.

How does this relate to chess? It was amazingly fascinating to hear all of the presenters at our second SIAC meeting (teachers explained the Iowa Core Curriculum) use key phrases associated with chess; critical thinking, problem solving, planning ahead, deductive learning, social interaction, etc.

Of interest is, "A Word From the Wise", an op-ed piece written by New York Times columnist, Thomas L. Friedman. It is referenced in Mr. Herzberg's blog and relevant to the discussion.

I invite the members and visitors of this website to share your thoughts on Dr. McLeod's video or presentations regarding the challenges our schools face. Please consider asking educators and others in your communities to share their perspectives. You may do so on Superintendent Herzberg's blog or below.