On Friday June 29, 2007, the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric will feature a segment on Fernando Spada and Fernando Mendez. The segment will be the last one on the news and should air shortly before 6 p.m. central time.
This story was inspired by the Texas Monthly Magazine article written by Katy Vine last February.Here is a letter State Representative Rene Oliveira wrote the Brownsville Herald on Feb. 16, 2007. He addresses Katy Vine’s story “Check Mates”.
Letter to the Editor, February 16, 2007
Area chess success draws attention
February 17, 2007 – 2:32AM
Editor: A look at the February edition of Texas Monthly magazine offers an exciting glimpse into why Brownsville has become a hot spot on the world’s chess map. Instead of examining Brownsville’s border problems, the magazine takes a positive look at the game that is making Brownsville famous.
Katy Vine’s story “Check Mates” tells the tale of Fernando Spada and Fernando Mendez, two Brownsville fourth-graders who have taken the chess world by storm, ranking among the top young talent on the planet. The article exposes the deep vein of chess talent that has developed in Brownsville through hard work and cooperation. “Unlike fortuitous sports victories that leave a community believing that the gods happen to be smiling on its citizens, all of this success made some residents think about what these hard-earned achievements really meant,” Vine writes, “There is never just talent in the water; something had happened in Brownsville.”
That something was the recognition of local success, and a community working to continue it in a non-traditional Texas extracurricular pursuit: chess. Against the odds, Brownsville is consistently producing some of the nation’s top talent, routinely competing with, and beating, students from the nation’s most elite private schools.
It was Russell Elementary’s J.J. Guajardo’s initial foray into teaching chess to some pranksters that began to move the pieces all across town: “The principal was so impressed when she poked her head in the classroom and witnessed the once-unruly youths hunched over their boards that she asked Guajardo to work with them every school morning. He did. Guajardo wasn’t an expert, but he believed that if he taught them the fundamentals, their natural abilities would take over,” the story reads.
On the heels of Guajardo’s success and a growing chess movement, the Brownsville Independent School District funded the development of chess programs. The success model has been replicated at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, where a chess program is thriving under the direction of Russell Harwood and Gilberto Hernandez.
Canada, Iceland, Russia, Venezuela and other nations have incorporated chess into parts of their school curriculums, acknowledging the game’s value in problem solving, pattern recognition and teaching the concept of consequences of action as well as inaction.
In Brownsville’s case, as Texas Monthly shows, chess success is a blueprint for achievement in academic and professional endeavors, teaching students a great game along the way. The blueprint reads: Our kids are as smart and capable as any in the world. They can do anything they set their minds to.
State Rep.
Rene Oliveira
Austin
Source: The Brownsville Herald
Special thanks to Victor Flores for sharing this story with us. This is one of the many things that the USCF should be involved with, at least in promoting it, through grassroots movement, across the country.
Unfortunately, the success of Brownsville, Arizona, Illinois, the Northwest, just to name a few, happened in spite of the lack of support from the USCF. I am not sure that even a single current board member of the USCF has ever been to Brownsville or work with anyone in Brownsville to help chess. They are too busy playing politics instead of doing things in the best interest of chess or fulfilling the USCF mission.
Congratulations to the two Fernando as well as the entire city of Brownsville! This is how chess should be! Well done everyone!
Susan, don’t expect anything from Goichberg or Schultz. These guys have run chess in this country for decades and they have no new ideas. All they do it sit there in power for their own ego while blocking progress. As many people in scholastic chess including Mr. Erik Anderson, the USCF is now irrelevant to the grow of chess in this country. All Goichberg cares about is his own pocket through CCA.
Well done Brownsville! BTW, I’m not sure if any board member knows where Brownsville is 🙂
What do you expect? Schultz and Goichberg are two of the most corrupt chess politicians in history. Bill Goichberg is responsible for Sam Sloan being on the board. They have no problem using their power to destroy their opponents. Schultz is known to feed Sloan trash so he can attack his opponents for him. Everyone knows this. Susan, it’s not worth it. They’ll do everything possible to destroy you.
Goichberg and Schultz is like Makropolous and Azmaipairashvili of FIDE.
Please don’t insult Mr. Goichberg or Mr. Schultz. Let’s not behave like some of the people on the USCF forums. If you do not like them, fine. But let’s not resort to insults and rudeness.
Thank you!
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
Guys, Susan is right. Let’s not behave like thugs. We already too many Lafferty, Payne, Mottorshead and Sloan. We can do better than them.
I apologize. I won’t call Goichberg and Schultz crooks and criminals. They’re very nice. They just don’t give a damn about the USCF unless it benefits them or CCA. Is that better?
For more on information on Brownsville chess and its grass roots please see:
http://www.thepaperofsouthtexas.com/page.php?kei=233
It was J.J. Guajardo who initiated the chess movement in Brownsville, and it was the kids who placed Brownsville on the map.
For those who don’t know, Brownsville is located on the southern most tip of Texas. The city slogan is “Brownsville – On the border…by the sea.”
Susan and Paul have been to Brownsville on more than one occasion. It has been their passion and devotion to help our teachers properly train the kids in the royal game.
Jerry Nash, scholastic director, has also been to Brownsville on more than one occasion in the last three months. He is currently working with UTB/TSC, and they will be launching a pilot program (first of it’s kind) where the University’s Education Department will require each student-teacher to obtain chess training. A curriculum is in the works, and the teachers will have chess lesson plans accompanied with behavioral objectives. The rationale is for EACH and EVERY beginning first year teacher to go in with confidence when they interview with a campus principal, and state that they know how to play and coach chess. Most schools in southern Texas now have a chess program in place.
It’s important that we get key people like Susan, Paul, Randy, and Mikhail who endorse all areas of chess into the executive board. I believe they can help adult membership increase by the means of promoting college chess.
If they can increase the number of universities to offer scholarships, and increase the number of scholarships for each of the said universities, this will increase the number of chess programs in the college level. If we have an increase in the number of college players, then high school students will take note and continue playing chess into their college years. A domino effect sort of speak.
It’s really an equation if you think about it. We just need to set up the dominoes.
Also if you think about it most universities offer tennis and golf programs which are lifetime sports. There are alot of adults who play tennis and golf. Why not make chess a lifetime sport by promoting it in the universities.
Kind regards…