Chess In the Media
In a state high school tournament as silent as it was stressful, Niles North High School of Skokie took first place.
The battle of strategy and wits that was the Illinois High School Association's 2006 Chess Championship came to a close Saturday night after about 15 hours of competition and left its mark as one of the most stressful championships of its kind for the competitors, officials and team coaches said.
"Some of them literally get sick sometimes," said Brad Schmidt, a coach for Belleville East High School. "When you sit there that long and put that much exertion on it, they almost get physically ill."
When Brian Clason got the youngsters at Minnequa Elementary School playing chess last year, just watching the results backed up what educators have long known about the game's ability to stimulate young minds.
Clason, who's working on his teaching degree at Colorado State University-Pueblo, works as a community advocate in the Project Respect program that provides intensive, one-on-one interaction with at-risk District 60 students.
This year, Clason is working at the Keating Education Center, where he's formed a chess club and hopes to have players in next month's Pueblo tournament.
Michael Sullivan is a 38-year-old librarian who thinks like a kid. It's a rare characteristic that's enabled him to pry children away from their Gameboys and Xboxes.
On a recent Saturday morning, when many children were at home watching cartoons, about 100 students sat at cafeteria tables at the middle school in Amherst, N.H., intently studying rooks and pawns on roll-up chess boards. A handful of judges paced between tables as parents hovered nervously nearby. It was so quiet you could hear yourself breathe in the cafeteria, decorated with ''Got Milk?" posters of quarterback Tom Brady and other celebrities.
"It's a delicate time. You have to learn how to lose," whispered Sullivan, a chess teacher and author as well as the director of the Weeks Public Library in Greenland, N.H.
Do you know of an interesting, humorous, or unique chess story published online? E-mail us at newsletter@uschess.org.
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