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Kids' Chess Contest 'Stimulates Their Brain'

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 March 2006, 00:00 CST

By Annie Nelson, Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo.

Mar. 19--Sixty students stampeded down a hallway at Mill Creek Elementary School as if someone had yelled, "Free ice cream!" They were actually running to play a game of chess.

Mill Creek hosted the 2006 Columbia Elementary Open Chess Tournament yesterday. The tournament was open to any student in kindergarten through fifth grade who lives in the Columbia school district, said Dalene Delong, competition organizer and coordinator of Mill Creek's chess club.

The tournament followed a Swiss model: Each competitor played in all four rounds, getting a point for a win, a half-point for a draw and zero points for a loss, said Vairam Arun, a parent who helped organize the tournament.

The field was split into two competitive groups: kindergarten through third grade and fourth- and fifth-graders.

"It's a very popular, competitive tournament," Arun said. "I've seen kids in fourth grade playing deadly chess."

Arun's 10-year-old son, Vikram, a fifth-grader at Mill Creek, was the top competitor of the day in his age division. A nationally ranked player with the U.S. Chess Federation, the boy said he is ranked 80th in his age group and has been playing chess for 51/2 years.

During a game, Vikram said, he takes notes about every move on the board so he can go back and analyze the game later.

Charlie Ward, a USCF certified tournament director, helped organize yesterday's competition. He knows how tough a competitor Vikram is after losing to the boy in their first match together.

Ward has been playing chess since high school and is a member of the University of Missouri-Columbia Chess Club.

"I made a blunder in an exchange," Ward said of his loss to Vikram. Ward said he gave up a rook -- an important piece in the endgame -- in exchange for a minor piece. He said that he'd hoped to regain an advantage by the end of the game but that Vikram "played perfectly and maintained the advantage down to the end."

"We have some good scholastic players but none like him," Ward said. "He is an unusual talent."

Vikram's father said he would like to see the chess tournament expanded to include middle school students, which would include Vikram next year.

Rohit Rao, a third-grader at Mill Creek, went undefeated in the K-3 bracket, taking the championship trophy for that age group.

Medals were awarded to the top three competitors in each age division, and plaques were given to the three schools whose students scored highest.

Mill Creek finished first in the school division, followed by Ridgeway Elementary School and Columbia Catholic School.

Robert Wong, 8, who took second in his division, has been playing chess for 11/2 years, said his father, Lewis Wong.

The chess club at Mill Creek, where Robert is a student, only allows fourth- and fifth-graders. Wong said that when his son lived in Texas, the chess club at his school included students as young as first grade.

Wong said he would be interested in seeing Mill Creek open its club up to children as young as Robert.

"It stimulates their brain," he said of learning to play chess at an early age. "They think about the big picture, not just the small pieces."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo.

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Source: Columbia Daily Tribune

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