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 Ray Chinese School. To request a copy, please send email to Vincent Wu .

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 Ray Chinese School. To request a copy, please send email to Vincent Wu .

Chess DVD -- The most famous Susan Polgar's Winning Chess the Easy Way : Complete Series (Volume 1-10) are for advanced chess players to watch. The video series are only available for students registered for chess classes at Ray Chinese School. To borrow the copy for a nominal fee, please send email to Vincent Wu .

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;