As a qualifier for the Canadian Youth Chess Championships this summer, it should be no surprise that Adwaith Harish, a Grade 6 student at R.L. Beattie Public School, loves chess.
While accomplished at the game, he’s certainly not alone in that passion.
Harish, who’s been playing chess for five years, was among 242 students from 13 different Rainbow District School Board schools to take part in the board’s fourth annual Elementary Chess Tournament on April 11.
Asked if chess is a good game for kids, 12-year-old Harish said, “It might be for you, it might not. I have a passion for it, I like it. It’s like a strategy game. So if you play, it can help with other stuff like strategy and you get to calculate moves four to seven moves ahead sometimes.”
His classmate, 11-year-old Madeline Welsh, has been playing chess for two years as part of her school’s chess club, and has also found a love for the game.
“The chess club is just like a fun thing you can do with your friends, or you can challenge yourself with new people,” she said. “I’ve definitely gotten better. My first year, I wasn’t as good, but this year I think I can beat some more people.”
RL Beattie teacher Lee Kennedy, who runs the school’s chess club, said he thinks the game is beneficial for kids. The club is incredibly popular, with a membership of 250 children out of the school’s population of 634.
“I find it's a great game to play,” he said. “It ties in with the curriculum, especially now with coding because we have to think about step-by-step processes … how do I move the next piece? Into what area? And then anticipate what my opponent is going to do, and what they should do and what they don't do sometimes.”
The Rainbow board’s chess tournament is organized by Fiona Ferguson, a retired librarian at Princess Anne Public School and Algonquin Road Public School.
She said she started chess clubs at both schools, and the kids were enjoying it so much that she helped to found the board’s chess tournament, which has grown in size over the years from a participation of nine schools to the current 13.
Ferguson said she’s been playing chess herself since she was a kid. She said her family emigrated from Scotland, where chess is very big.
“I'm one of two sets of twins, and we're very close in age,” she said. “My dad taught us all how to play.”
As for the benefits of the game, “it's good in so many ways,” Ferguson said. “It teaches them sportsmanship, learning to win and lose graciously. Critical thinking. You have a timeline. Some people say that you should know three moves in advance. I don't play that way. Because it all depends on what your opponent did. But there's always a plan. So it has to be planned out, what your objective is going to be.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.
