Genius Hour with Anthony

I had a chat with Mrs. Englot today and she told me that I had very little blog posts (3). So I finished them, they were only half-way done so it was pretty easy.

Taran and I started the day off with me playing white blindfolded, I eventually got so stressed that I couldn’t remember where the pieces were.

Then we played a 15/10 game, which means each payer gets 15 minutes to start, and every time you complete a move and press the clock, you get 10 seconds added to your time!

Check: when a piece is attacking the opponent king. This is important because check is priority, you either have to block it, capture the attacking piece, or move the kig to a legal square.

Checkmate: When the king is is check, but there is no way to block it, no way to capture the checking piece, and no safe squares to move to. Checkmate is one way to win the game.

See you all in the next one!

Today, since Taran was at band camp, I was left alone.

Mrs. Englot also let us use the computers in Lab 13.

My goal was to reach a rating of 1200 in Rapid (10-30 min match)

I also made some videos which will be uploaded after I post this.

This weekend, I am planning to go to Taran’s house to play a few matches.

Special chess moves:

Castling: when the king and rook both have not moved and don’t have any pieces in between them, castling can be possible. The king moves two horizontal squares towards the side you want to castle, and the rook goes right beside the king. There are requirements on castling though; 1. you cannot castle if you are in check. 2. you cannot castle through check. 3. you cannot castle through ANY piece.

That’s all for this week and I’ll see you in the next one!

Hey guys!

Today Taran and I started (again) with two warmup rounds, in which I won the first one and the second was a draw.

After, we went seperate ways; he went to practice the French Defense and I went for the Caro-Kann.

After we were done our E4 Opening studying, we came back together and played two games, when I was playing white, Taran was playing his newly learned opening, the French Defence. I ended up losing but it helped me get used to playing against this annoying opening. But unfortunately, we spent a little too much time studying that we didn’t have enough time for me to try my opening, the Caro-Kann.

Pieces:

King: The most valuable but weakest piece. It can move 1 square in any direction. Cannot be captured but is the main thing you must protect during a match.

Queen: Strongest and most powerful piece. Is a Bishop and Rook combined, so it moves horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. (Until blocked, or reaches the end of the board)

See you in the next one!

Hey stars, welcome to my second blog post!

As you know from last Genius Hour, I made a Youtube channel very late into the project, so this time I have made a Youtube channel early for Genius Hour 2!

Check out my Youtube Channel:

Today, Taran and I started the day with a quick warm-up round of chess, quickly leading into some chess trap practice. Finally, we did this thing where one of us were blindfolded and the other wasn’t. We each took turns playing with the black and white pieces until class was over.

Here’s the chess guide (continued)

Bishop: Looks similar to an ancient candle, these pieces can move as far as they want diagonally (Until they are blocked or are at the edge of the board).

Rooks: Are the same as bishops, but the move horizontally and vertically to any distance (Unless it’s the edge of the board or it’s blocked by a piece.) The have the ability to castle, which I will explain more in the next post.

See you in the next one!

Today was the first week of Genius Hour 2 and Taran and I started it off by practicing the ” Fried Liver Attack”

I played white and won the match.

For those that don’t know anything about chess, here’s a brief lesson of the game.

There are two colors, white and black, you play on a 8×8 square board (64 squares) with white and black squares, patterned.

Once you have a chess board, you are ready to learn about the pieces.

Pawns: Tiny basic pieces that Can move 2 squares forward on their first move, and 1 square forward after that. They capture by moving 1 square forward, diagonally.

Knights: You will easily figure out this one because it is shaped like exactly like a horse. The have very awkward movements as they move in a “L” format. So two squares in one direction, then turn 90 degrees and move one square forward. It’s the only chess piece that can jump over other pieces, meaning that it cannot be blocked.

It’s the most complicated movement so here’s a picture to help you.

A knight’s possible moves. (Above)

That’s all for this blog and I’ll show you more in the next one…

Bye!

For the next couple of months, I will be working with Taran to learn how to play chess blindfolded.

For this project, the small practices leading to the main project will be learning many openings, playing normally, and training our brains to memorize coordinates.

That’s my first post for Genius Hour 2 and I’ll keep you updated!

Overall, I had a great Genius hour presentation, my video played without errors and was within the 5 minute limit.

What was awkward was that I had to stand up there, looking at the class.

I don’t know why that was awkward, but maybe I need to switch up my presentation style next time.

This project was quite enjoyable and made school a little more entertaining.

Next Genius hour, I am planning to start and grow a new youtube channel.

Reason to do this:

-Social media is an important part of my life

-Fun thing to do for 4 months

-Practice editing and social interacting at the same time!

I do not know yet if I will be doing this with a partner, but if I do here are some requirements:

-Basic editing skills

-Easy to communicate with

And that wraps up my final blog post for Genius hour 1, and I’ll see you guys in the next one…

bye!

For my presentations, I’m planning on doing a 30 second speech, then playing a 3 minute video while the items are being passed around.

I’m currently done my shuttlecock and am a quarter there to completing the video, for my editing, I will be using InShot.

The edited video will be uploaded to my Youtube channel which will be played on the Smartboard (hopefully).

That’s all for today and I’ll inform you some more tomorrow.

Bye!

On Febuary 12, I stayed up late to finish the shuttlecock.

I did this because I realized I was quite behind and needed to pump up the pace.

Goals this week and weekend:

-Finish racket (frame, string, paint, grip, protective paint)

-Go to Lee Valley Tools and take a tour.

-Finish editing video for presentations.

See you guys next week at presentations as this is the last class for work.

-Bye!

IMPORTANT: NEW CHANNEL LINK: http://www.youtube.com/@invicitex88

Sorry for the change. The channel doesn’t have a lot of videos because it started late.

Ouch! I hurt myself while carving the racket during class today. It bled a little but I didn’t let that stop me, Mrs. Englot gave me a band-aid and I continued to carve.

Note to self: Wear gloves

I still haven’t seen a proffesional yet, so that will also be on my to-do list.

Presentations are coming up in about 2 weeks, so in order to finish this project, I will have to push myself.

This week: Finish sanding shuttlecock wood

This weekend: Finish racket structure

I will continue to make pushes to complete this project.

Carving the wood was harder than I thought, I’m guessing either it’s because of the quality of my tools, or the type of wood.

That’s all for for this week and I’ll make sure to upload to the Youtube Channel!