Chess MB Workshop 2022

Chess MB Workshop 2022

$5

Last day to sign up: 5/29/2022
Orientation: 2:00-2:30pm, 5/29/2022 (Sunday) zoom: 811 518 2147

Requirement 1-5 Send your completed workbook to Mr. Ting by 6/12/2022
Requirement 6 In-person workshop on 6/26/2022 (Sunday) – 2:00-3:30pm Room A11, HOC5

You must have requirements 1-5 signed off by Mr. Ting in order to attend the workshop on 6/26 to earn this merit badge.
Download Chess Workbook (PDF)

SKU: chess2022 Category:

Description

Chess Merit Badge Info

The mental skill development that comes from playing Chess directly supports the BSA mission, and the second point of the Scout Oath. Improvements in concentration, strategic planning, sportsmanship, and stress control are all benefits players can receive from chess. It’s just a game, but a game played around the world for millennia.

For scouts that already play chess, this badge can be completed very quickly. It is composed of many Explain type requirements, demonstrating moves and scoring, and teaching very basic knowledge to another scout. The last requirement finally gets to the fun where a scout can actually play chess.

The merit badge pamphlet contains all the information for the knowledge requirements, all in one spot. Being such a simple set of requirements, and many youth already familiar with chess, this badge is at popularity spot #22 of all merit badges with about 25,000 scouts earning it each year. It is the only board game with its own merit badge!

Requirements

Requirements Due date
1 Discuss with your merit badge counselor the history of the game of chess. Explain why it is considered a game of planning and strategy. Workbook due by 6/12
2 Discuss with your merit badge counselor the following:

  1. The benefits of playing chess, including developing critical thinking skills, concentration skills, and decision-making skills, and how these skills can help you in other areas of your life
  2. Sportsmanship and chess etiquette
 Workbook due by 6/12
3 Demonstrate to your counselor that you know each of the following. Then, using Scouting’s Teaching EDGE*, teach someone (preferably another Scout) who does not know how to play chess:

  1. The name of each chess piece
  2. How to set up a chessboard
  3. How each chess piece moves, including castling and en passant captures

*You may learn about Scouting’s Teaching EDGE from your unit leader, another Scout, or by attending training.

 Provide all answers in your workbook, then teach another scout at workshop.
4 Do the following:

  1. Demonstrate scorekeeping using the algebraic system of chess notation.
  2. Discuss the differences between the opening, the middle game, and the endgame.
  3. Explain four opening principles.
  4. Explain the four rules for castling.
  5. On a chessboard, demonstrate a “scholar’s mate” and a “fool’s mate.”
  6. Demonstrate on a chessboard four ways a chess game can end in a draw.
 Provide all answers in your workbook, then demonstrate in-person
5 Do the following:

  1. Explain four of the following elements of chess strategy: exploiting weaknesses, force, king safety, pawn structure, space, tempo, time.
  2. Explain any five of these chess tactics: clearance sacrifice, decoy, discovered attack, double attack, fork, interposing, overloading, overprotecting, pin, remove the defender, skewer, zwischenzug.
  3. Set up a chessboard with the white king on e1, the
    white rooks on a1 and h1, and the black king on e5. With White to move first, demonstrate how to force checkmate on the black king.
  4. Set up and solve five direct-mate problems provided by your merit badge counselor.
 Provide answer to 5a and 5b in your workbook

5c and 5d will be done in-person
6 Do ONE of the following:

  1. Play at least three games of chess with other Scouts and/or your merit badge counselor. Replay the games from your score sheets and discuss with your counselor how you might have played each game differently.
  2. Play in a scholastic (youth) chess tournament and use your score sheets from that tournament to replay your games with your merit badge counselor. Discuss with your counselor how you might have played each game differently.
  3. Organize and run a chess tournament with at least four players, plus you. Have each competitor play at least two games.
 We’ll work on this in-person