吴伟卿
(美国数学竞赛 和 国际象棋)
美国数学竞赛
This two hours course, “American
Math Competition”, is designed for challenging students strongly interested in
math competitions, mainly for AMC (American Math Competitions) series. AMC has
three levels: the AMC8 is for students in grades 8 and below; the AMC10 is for
students in grades 10 and below; and the AMC12 is for students in grades 12 and
below. The course starts with AMC8 but will quickly lead to AMC10 and AMC12.
AMC8 is equivalent to or higher than popular MathCounts which is designed for middle school students
in grades 6-8. The course will teach various math techniques to solve broad
range of math puzzles.
At the same time, students will have a lot of hand-on experience by exploring
series of AMC activities. The motto of National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
proclaims: "Do math and you can do anything". The school can’t
promise but only wish that the students in my class can do anything after
finishing this challenging course. Bon Voyage!
Course requirement:
Due to the contents of this course, it requires 9th grade or above.
Course outline (fall session):
Lesson 1: Introduction to Math: stories about Guass and Euler
Lesson 2-4: AMC8 exercises
Lesson 5: All about circles: cord, arc, secant, power of point, Ptolemy
equality and inequality, homothetic center
Lesson 6-8: AMC10 exercises
Lesson 9: All about triangles: centroid, inscribed circle and incenter,
circumcircle and circumcenter, altitudes and orthocenter, Euler line and Heron
theorem
Lesson 10-12: AMC10 exercises
Lesson 13: Let's count
Lesson 14-15: AMC10 exercises
Lesson 16: course project Rubik's cube
Course outline
(spring session):
Lesson 1-4: AMC10 exercises
Lesson 5: All about numbers: # of factors, sum of all factors, Euler theorem,
phi function
Lesson 6:
continuous fractions, Diophantine equation, Pell’s equation
Lesson 7-16:
AMC10 exercises
Lesson 17: Let's celebrate
Online Math Resources:
AMC Official Site: http://www.unl.edu/amc/
Mathcounts Official Site: http://mathcounts.org/
Wolfram Math Resources：http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
Advanced Chess II
The course will continue the main themes
as Advanced Chess I. Moreover and unique for this course, during the first half
of the semester, I will cover and explain 50 basic fascinating and beautiful
checkmate patterns contained in How to Beat Your Dad at Chess such as
back rank mate, Arabian mate, smothered mate, and Fisher Trap etc. During the
second half of the semester, I will cover and explain 50 basic famous and
wonderful chess tactics contained in Chess Tactics for Kids such as Greek
sacrifice, stalemates, zwischenzug etc. Every week's
exercises are based on the lessons. This course requires students to have
basic chess knowledge such as basic chess principles, checkmate and stalemate,
pawn vs. king ending, knowing how to checkmate with a single rook or two
bishops, solve one or two move puzzles. These two books are available at
Amazon: How
to Beat Your Dad at Chess and Chess Tactics for Kids.
Intermediate
Chess
This course will continue Beginner Chess
and further cover various chess topics. The students will learn from mini chess
games, basic checkmate patterns, and chess tactics. Students will also play
chess during classes and learn to play Bughouse and Blitz. Homework will be 20
simple puzzles each week. Beginner Chess or equivalent level is required and
parents' cooperation is required as well.
Advanced
Chess
The course will cover a variety of important
chess topics including but not limited to: chess principles, Queen's Gambit
Declined and Colle System for white openings,
Sicilian Defense for black openings, endgames, tactics (more than 1000 chess
puzzles which I have compiled), annotated games form Kasparov, Tarrasch, Capablanca and Alekhine (every move will be explained), checkmate patterns
and analyzing student games. Chess playing will be very limited during the
classes due to the valuable lecture time. There will be a lot of activities in
the class as well as in tournaments for the students. They will have
excitements and despair, ups and downs, wins and losses. But the most important
things about chess, as my son puts it, are "beat other kids, win trophies,
make friends and have a lot of fun". With professional chess teacher
charging $30-40 an hour, you can't beat this $85 a semester chess course. This
course requires students to have basic chess knowledge such as basic chess
principles, checkmate and stalemate, pawn vs. king ending, knowing how to
checkmate with a single rook or two bishops, solve one or two move puzzles.
This semester will specialized in king
side attack and explain first 17 games from the book Logical Chess: Move by
Move.
Beginner
Chess
The course will cover the most basic chess
knowledge such as piece movement, pawn games (including En Passant), pawn
promotion, values of pieces, concepts of checkmate and stalemate, basic chess
principles, one move checkmate puzzles, short chess games, scholar's mate,
fool's mate, basic tactic terms (fork, pin, skewer, double check, discovery
attack).
Mini
Exercise -- Four pages of exercises asking whether the position is
checkmate, stalemate, or black has a legal move. (Designed for very young
children.)
Basic
Checkmates -- Remember: these checkmates are basic but not
simple. Rook Roller, Rook and King vs. King, Queen and King vs. King, Two
Bishops vs. King, Knight and Bishop vs. King
Teach Chess in 64 Mini
Lessons -- Best interactive chess lessons for kids
Play Yahoo
Chess -- Best online chess playing website
Simple
Checkmates -- 202
checkmate puzzles. Always white to move. First 100 puzzles are one move
checkmate. Next 102 puzzles are two move checkmate. The document is only
available for students registered for chess classes at
Chess
Puzzles
-- I have compiled
around 1000 chess puzzles covering 1-4 move checkmate or tactics. The html
documents are only available for students registered for chess classes at
Chess DVD -- The most famous Susan Polgar's Winning Chess the
Chess
books covered in the classes:
1) Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev;
2) How to Beat Your Dad at Chess by Murray Chandler; 3) Chess
Tactics for Kids by Murray Chandler;