Inman Park Elementary in Fayetteville will host its first chess tournment 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 28. Pre-registration is $10; $12 at the door. Fee includes two slices of pizza and a beverage. For details, contact the school, 677 Inman Road, at 770-460-3565; www.inmaneagles.org.
On Friday afternoons, about 75 students from Inman Elementary in Fayetteville sit down for an intense hour of low-tech competition. No joy sticks, video screens or ear buds required; the only mechanical part of these games is a clock.
The Inman Chess Club offers students in grades 3 through 5 the chance to stretch their critical thinking and planning muscles while learning the fine points of a game based on strategy and skill. The club has been engaging youngsters since teacher Charlie Harper launched it last year.
“I’ve always been a chess enthusiast, and for years I’ve been talking to the principal about starting some kind of extracurricular for the students,” he said. “Then I started teaching the gift program a few years ago, and it gave me the flexibility to teach chess in the classroom. When I saw how they took to it, I saw we needed to include more students than my 50 third- to fifth-graders.”
Harper expected to get about 20 students involved in the after-school club, but instead, about 90 signed up. And only a handful had any exposure to chess.
“The first time we met, we split into groups and spent the entire session teaching the game, but anyone who was ready to play, we let them,” he said. “We had so many signed up, we didn’t have enough sets.”
The school’s parent-teacher organization bought 20 inexpensive, small chess sets and supplied volunteers who helped out during the Friday contests. “As soon the parents saw how many students we had, they donated money for us to buy 25 very nice sets,” said Harper. “We also just received $1,000 from the local Kiwanis Club to buy chess clocks.”
Along with the after-school contests, students often compete in monthly tournaments in Coweta and Clayton counties. About a dozen will spend a Friday evening going up against players of all ages with similar abilities. The games gave Harper the idea to establish a regular competition in Fayette County as well. The initial event is set for Feb. 28 at the school.
Having a tournament close to home will give more players the chance to play, Harper expects. One of those youngsters looking forward to the event is 9-year-old third grader Allie Ball.
“Having our own tournament at school will be awesome,” said Ball, who started playing chess last year. “I’ve been to other tournaments since October, and I’ve won two games. I’ve made progress, and Mr. Harper keeps teaching us new tricks.”
Fourth-grader Bryce Bennett joined the club at the beginning of the school year and was immediately taken with the challenge.
“Chess makes you try and think ahead about what you are going to do, not just what happening right now,” he said. “That was hard when I started, but I’m getting better at it. You just have to keep thinking, and you can’t think about anything else.”
Bennett knew a bit about the game from playing with his dad. “And now I know I’m getting better because I’ve beat him twice,” he said.
The advantages of learning chess are extensive, said Harper. “Critical thinking, evaluation, analysis, creating strategies - chess encourages all of that. There’s plenty of research that correlates chess with improved grades, literacy and mathematical reasoning. It also helps kids slow down and work on skills like patience. I think kids like it because they feel in control of their side of the board; they determine the outcomes. And it’s competition - kids love that.”
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