7-year-old already a chess queen
Local girl has the skills, drive and strategic forethought to become a chess master
BY LOUIS MEDINA, Californian staff writer
Friday, Jul 13 2007 8:50 AM
Last Updated: Friday, Jul 13 2007 9:03 AM

Arissa Jade Torres may be shy, soft-spoken and only 7 years old, but she has all the confident moves of a chess queen. The soon-to-be second-grader at Patriot Elementary School has been playing the game seriously for less than a year, but she has already competed in six tournaments, winning first place in one of them; she has a trophy that stands taller than she is and she beats most of the adult chess players in her extended family.

Nevertheless, Arissa, a caring girl known to get sad and even cry for her opponents when they lose to her, is unassuming when stating in her little, little voice why she likes the game:

“Because it’s fun.”

Just as easily, however, she delivers words of unusually mature wisdom, which are difficult to imagine coming out of the mouth of a young girl who wears playful summer dresses and ribbons in her long, black hair:

“And you can get smarter because if you win or lose you can learn from the mistakes that you made.”

The making of a chess prodigy

“When she was 2, we bought a chess set and she would play with the pieces,” said her mother, Sheila Torres, 36.

Then, at age 4, “She actually came to us and asked us how to move them,” added her father, 34-year-old Rommel Torres.

Then last September, her proud parents said, she brought home from school a brochure for a chess academy.

That’s how she met her coach, John Marble.

“She seemed to have very natural instincts for how the pieces work together,” said Marble, who coaches chess at different area schools and has seen Arissa mature quickly as a player.

“She doesn’t have a favorite piece. She plays equally well with whatever pieces she has, which makes her very flexible when she plays,” he said.
“He’s a great coach,” Arissa’s mother said. “We love him. He’s really propelled her because she loves him.”

For his part, Marble said, “I’ve always had a real fondness for working with Arissa. Her parents are really wonderful people and they really support her.”

In fact, chess has become a family pastime in the Torres household since Arissa started to play.

“She beats me a lot,” Sabrina, 11, said about her little sister’s game.

The family plays chess both on a board and online at Yahoo! Games.

Chess in the family’s genes?

Rommel and Sheila Torres both came to the United States from the Philippines. They met in Long Beach while Rommel, a U.S. Navy veteran, was stationed at Long Beach Naval Station before it was closed down in 1997, he said.

That year, they and elder daughter Sabrina moved to Bakersfield, where Arissa later was born.

Sheila Torres has an older sister in the Philippines, Maria Marasigan, who was a champion chess player in her high school, she said.
Rommel Torres has a younger brother, Rowell, who is also a good chess player.

Besides her coach, Aunt Maria and Uncle Rommel are the only adults Arissa has not been able to beat, her parents said — and all the other adults in her family are constantly wanting to play against her since learning of her prowess.

Winning vs. fun: Fun wins

Last month, with Marble’s help, Arissa took first place in the under-8 girls category of the Susan Polgar World Open Chess Championship in Las Vegas.

Polgar, a Hungarian, is a grand master in chess, which is unusual for a woman, Marble said.

“She invites only the best girls at each age limit to compete,” he said, “in an attempt to encourage chess for women in the United States.”
This includes Arissa.

“She had to play against the Texas state champion in her age group,” Marble said.

“I’m so shy,” Arissa said in her little, little voice, but, “I was very happy and my family was happy and I got up there and I felt very excited.”

Here is the full story.

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Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Susan Polgar July 13, 2007 General News, USA Chess, Women's Chess 9 Comments
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