110 students move to state chess titles
By JANET ROMAKER
BLADE STAFF WRITER
BOWLING GREEN – Wearing a blue-velvet dress and exuding an air of confidence, 7-year-old Kailey Dildine yesterday strolled to a table for her next chess match during a state tournament at Bowling Green State University where rooks rocked and kings ruled.
The Perrysburg second grader was among 110 competitors in the 2008 Ohio Elementary Chess Championships in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union’s Lenhart Grand Ballroom.
Throughout the day, players focused on flat playing boards, each with 64 squares and countless move possibilities, in a game that is a complex blend of art, sport, and science.
“I’ve been playing just three months,” said Kailey, a member of the chess club at Perrysburg’s Frank Elementary School. “My mom told me about a chess club at school, and I asked her ‘What is chess?’ and my mom said it is like playing checkers on a table with pawns and stuff.”
Each participant competed in five matches, advancing toward the top prizes of $200 scholarships and gleaming trophies.
The tournament is one of two annual events sanctioned by the United States Chess Federation in which Ohio chess titles are awarded to elementary students. It was the first time the championships were played in northwest Ohio, said Beth Yingling, president of the Bowling Green Montessori Chess Booster Club, the tournament’s organizer.
About 200 competitors were expected. The snow storm likely kept many of them home.
“The goal of the tournament is to increase the number of chess players,” said Ms. Yingling. Her children Amanda Hoffman, 8, and Robert Hoffman, 10, students at the Montessori School of Bowling Green, were among the competitors.
“I started to play chess because my friends were playing and they got me interested in it,” said Robert after he won his second match.
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Let shoot for 150 next year.