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Chess In the Media

Learning the game: Kids’ chess tourney a successful gambit (Grand Junction Sentinal)

Chess has existed in one form or another since the days of Richard the Lion-Hearted, but to a library room full of elementary-school-age children, it was the perfect way to spend a hot summer Tuesday afternoon.

“I don’t like baseball and stuff like that,” said Hayden Cook, 9, as he checkmated another opponent. Cook and Mitchel Lahm, 10, both took third place last year at a children’s chess tournament at Montrose High School.

“I’ve been playing chess for about, I’d say, one year. I’m pretty good at it,” said Davis Power, 10. “I think I’d rather be doing this.”

Halstrom student perfect in chess tourney (Rockford Register Star)

Halstrom School student Justin McDonald took first place in fifth grade with a perfect score in the Summer 2005 Rockford Chess Challenge.

McDonald was the only chess player to record a perfect score out of students from 26 schools competing in grades kindergarten through eighth.

Camp or club? (Hoboken Reporter)

It was the beginning of summer and Hoboken parent Toni-Ann Zampella was looking for a summer day camp to enroll her 5-year-old son.

One option was the Hoboken Chess Club's summer camp, which operates out of a basement space at 334 Park Ave. According the club's website, the camp "includes lessons, individual and team play, tournaments, park time, movie time, and sports."

Thinking that this might be a good opportunity for her son to learn chess, she paid a $360 fee up front by check. But after witnessing the club's founder and director Peter Croce with a large group of children in the park, she came of the conclusion that the "camp" was inadequately staffed.

She filed a complaint with the city's health officer, Frank Sasso, who began an investigation. Sasso in turn contacted the state's Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS), which is now conducting its own investigation. DYFS is the state agency that regulates day care facilities around the state.

Do you know of an interesting, humorous, or unique chess story published online? E-mail us at newsletter@uschess.org.