That is the difference between a face sport and a side sport. You can’t stop the other guy from running if you are in a track meet, but if he is carrying a football and you are on the other team you will do whatever you can to interfere. With side sports you and your opponent(s) play on/against a common field/apparatus and compare scores at the end. … Or compare with yourself on a previous day.
That’s why I said “demonstrate them to a serious player.” A merit badge counselor might invite one of the better players from a local chess club to help with the testing (perhaps the teaching earlier) process.
If a non-tournament based set of skills need to be demonstrated, it would be rather easy for my partners to assemble a java applet that could be used to test such skills, and to make it available at no cost to anyone for use in verifying that.
Does anyone here know what the requirements are/will be, and whether this would be helpful?
I’m curious if they got any input from the USCF on the subject. I’m sure they consulted with chess coaches/teachers, and I’m sure some, maybe even all have a USCF rating, etc.
Plus it would interesting to know if they consulted any masters (lets say 2100 USCF or higher, or FIDE FM/IM/GM) that also teach chess to kids in the age group 11 to 17.
I’d be suprised if anybody that visits this forum knows anything about that. So its more wishful thinking.
Yes, and probably. It’s pretty clear in this announcement that USCF members were involved. (Thanks to Jeff Weiwel for the link, also posted earlier in this thread).
The USCF was heavily involved in this project through the scholastic committee. The effort was spearheaded by Ralph Bowman. The USCF publications team helped with the MB book material. Some of the first printing of the MB books were presented to the EB at the Delegates meeting. This is a go folks.
I do not know when the MB books will be available in scout shops nationwide.
Our friends the Sinequefields also played a significant role in the process.
A sample of some of the 6 requirements:
1.Discuss the history of the game and why it is a game of planning and strategy.
3.Use the Teaching EDGE to teach a scout who does not know how to play chess the name of a chess piece, how to set up the board, how each piece moves including en passent captures and castling.
4 (part 1 of 6)Demonstrate algebraic scorekeeping.
6 do one of 3 things
One option organize and run a chess tournament with at least 4 player plus you. Have each competitor play at least 2 games.
At the delegates meeting we saw a copy of the handbook and it was very nicely done. I do understand a reprint of it is being done to remove 1 major error but other than that it was very well done. Our understanding is that the book is being reworked to position it with the Girls Scouts as well.
There are plenty more errors in the pamphlet, including two in the Requirements, and one in the caption to the photo of an Eagle Scout who I recently assisted with a chess project.
When did the error referenced by Sevan get noticed, and has the reprinting occurred yet? It would be nice to be able to contact the appropriate person at BSA to contribute further corrections. I’m inquiring into how to reach such a person, but if a reader of this forum knows who I can contact, please message me or send me and email (hal@chessmagnet.com).
From Meritbadge.org: (Not an official BSA site, but usually pretty darned good)
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.
2.Discuss with your merit badge counselor the following:
a. 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
b. Sportsmanship and chess etiquette
3.Demonstrate to your counselor that you know each of the following. Then, using Scouting’s Teaching EDGE, teach the following to a Scout who does not know how to play chess:
a. The name of each chess piece
b. How to set up a chessboard
c. How each chess piece moves, including castling and en passant captures
4.Do the following:
a. Demonstrate scorekeeping using the algebraic system of chess notation.
b. Discuss the differences between the opening, the middle game, and the endgame.
c. Explain four opening principles.
d. Explain the four rules for castling.
e. On a chessboard, demonstrate a “scholar’s mate” and a “fool’s mate.”
f. Demonstrate on a chessboard four ways a chess game can end in a draw.
5.Do the following:
a. Explain four of the elements of chess strategy: exploiting weaknesses, force, king safety, space, tempo, time.
b. Explain any five of these chess tactics: clearance sacrifice, decoy, discovered attack, double attack, fork, interposing, overloading, overprotecting, pin, remove the defender, skewer, zwischenzug.
c. 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.
d. Set up and solve five direct-mate problems provided by your merit badge counselor.
6.Do ONE of the following:
a. 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.
b. 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.
c. Organize and run a chess tournament with at least four players, plus you. Have each competitor play at least two games.
I’ve been a Scoutmaster for 10 years. Some MBs are harder to complete than others. Some can be done in a few hours. If one has no association with or knowledge of the game then these MB requireements are going to take some time to complete. If one is already involved in chess then this will be relatively easy - which is consistent with my experience with many other merit badges.
The purpose of the MB program is not to create experts in the field of study. It is to introduce scouts to the field.
That is why there is are atomic energy, space exploration, foretry, etc. badges. That is why the aviation MB does not require that the scout become a pilot.
There are 110 MBs or so. Some are more appropriate for the 11 year old first year scouts. Some are focused more on older scouts. All are what the scout makes of them.
I suppose, looking at the requirements, it requires the scout at least to either organize a tournament, which is a fairly decent feat, or play a few games of chess, while keeping annotation, and then review those games with the counselor.
As long as the counselor actually takes that part of the requirement seriously, it would require a fair amount of effort on the boy’s part. Maybe they aren’t too easy after all.
Still, I would have like to see a checkmate with one rook and a king, instead of two rooks and a king, and maybe something about “having the opposition”.
Requirement 3 (teach another Scout) is no cakewalk if the counselor signs off only if the new Scout remembers a week later. Requirement 5d (Direct Mate Problems) could be difficult, as it doesn’t specify whether these should be Mate in 1, 2, or 3+ moves. The counselor can adjust the problems to the level of the Scout.
As I understand it, K+Q vs K and K+R vs K is covered in the badge book. Maybe I’m just pessimistic but I dare say that K+R vs K would be a mental feat for your average Scout leader who just knows the moves…and (just my experience…) most MB counselors are troop leaders rather than a designated District or Council scouter.
I would imagine that many scout leaders would do the Chess MB as a group thing. They would most likely get everybody taking the badge to organize a chess tournament together. Hopefully in that case, there are more players attending the tournamant that just those that are in that boy scout troop.
No very few will do a “group thing”. If one follows BSA training the troop meetings are not focused MB work. Most troop[ level leaders will not have the background or knowledge to be a counselor for this badge. Someone may organize a group at the district or council level - or a troop leader may have the background and a group with interest to have a larger group do it, but I doubt it will happen much. I’ll probably organize a gorup study - but not in a troop meeting.
the tournament requirement is for THE scout to do it - not a group. It is, I imagine, a leadership develo;ment component of the badge - just as the teaching requirment is showing up in more and more badges as the are modernized.
Maybe the USCF could send a certificate of achievement to all scouts who can certify that they have received their chess merit badge. Also maybe the ED could authorize a special 3-month promotional membership for those scouts, in recognition of their achievement. This would have a direct cost of course, but it could also serve as a loss-leader in getting those scouts, who have already demonstrated a lot of interest in chess, involved in the USCF. It would also help to foster an ongoing relationship with the BSA and USCF (“Your guys have shown us that they like chess and now we would like to encourage them to get more involved with organized chess”). This could easily become a regular source of new members for USCF.
Here’s a question for those of you who have been Scoutmasters or Merit Badge Counselors. How literally should the requirements be taken?
Specifically, one of the options for option 6 is to play in a scholastic tournament. My son rarely plays in scholastic tournaments. He plays in tournaments usually split by rating. It would seem to me I ought to give him credit for playing in those tournaments even though, technically, he didn’t play in a scholastic tourney. I would give him credit for playing in any tournament.
Then there’s the problem of “teach a scout”. What if there aren’t any scouts interested in learning? My inclination is to take that one literally. As I told him after he read the requirement, even if they aren’t interested in playing Chess, some of them ought to be interested in taking a few minutes to help their friend earn a merit badge. It seems like part of the requirements is to foster teamwork and cooperation. Persuading someone to do something they aren’t all that inclined to do might be part of the goal of the badge.
(ETA: And an alternative for the “teach a scout who does not know how to play Chess” portion. What if ther are no scouts who feel like learning Chess, but some of them already know, but my son were to use the Edge method to teach them how to play Chinese or Japanese Chess? I would be inclined to give credit for that.)
To me a tournament is a tournament. The goal is for them to play.
Teach - yep this is to be done just like it says. But the key to understanding this is that the goal is the teaching skill - much more than chess skill. The BSA is driving the use of the teaching EDGE into everything. So teach it. IF the student already knows that the littel horsey is called a knight I would not worry to much about it.
I have never had trouble finding a scout willing to help out a buddy by taking instruction, even if they were not all that interested - as what goes around comes around.