Round 4 Continues
Use the scoresheets the class has been building for four rounds. Replay one of their own games and let them analyze it. This is the payoff of all that notation.
Ask a pair, in advance and privately, for permission to replay their game. Choose a game with an instructive mistake, not an embarrassing one, and never name the loser.
Every move in this game was played by someone in this room. I want you to notice something. Because they wrote it down, we can sit here weeks later and learn from it. That is what a scoresheet is for. It is not paperwork. It is a chess game you get to keep.
Guided replay
Set the game up on the Interactive Board from the scoresheet and step through the first ten or twelve moves. At each turn, before you play the move, ask the class one of:
- "What would you play here, and why?"
- "Is anything hanging right now?"
- "Which of our opening principles is this move following, or breaking?"
Stop at the moment the game turned. Do not say "this was the blunder." Ask, "What changed here?" and let them find it. Then thank the two players by name for letting the class learn from their game, and mean it.
This is one of the most valuable sessions in the tournament, and it is only possible because you insisted on notation from Week 5. Say that out loud. Students who resented writing moves down for eleven weeks understand it completely in about ninety seconds.
Finish round four and pair the semifinals. Standings are getting real now, and so is the gap between the top and the bottom of the table.
Check your board assignments. By now the players near the bottom of the standings have been playing each other for two rounds, and some of them are bored. Mix in a few friendly non-tournament games, or pair two of them with a strong player for a two-against-one consultation game. Nobody should be running out the clock on a tournament they cannot win.