Paredes players on their game
Chess team returns victorious from national competition
By VICTORIA MANNING
THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
May 28, 2007 – 11:58PM
Lupita Arguelles and Gerardo Hernandez say they are not chess wizards, they just get the pizza for some.
The pair sponsors the chess team at Americo Paredes Elementary.
Recently, the fourth- and fifth-grade students were named co-champions at the National Elementary Chess Championship in Knoxville, Tenn. The competition was held May 11-13.
The City Commission will recognize the team members in a special 9 a.m. ceremony today at Paredes.
Most of the team has been playing together since kindergarten.
They’ve grown to be close friends and good at analyzing each other’s games.
“Kyle, James, and Ian always know where each other are at,” Hernandez said of team members Kyle Valdez, James Ukoli and Ian Santos.
The team practices every morning and in their spare time, with limited tutoring. “There is nothing special we do,” Hernandez said of the sponsors’ roles.
Arguelles and Hernandez say the students’ parents are extremely instrumental in their success.
“They (parents) have grown close with each other and it makes our job easier,” Hernandez said.
He and Arguelles are chess parents themselves. Arguelles’ sons, Cristian and Daniel, play. Cristian, a fifth grader, is part of the national championship team and Daniel is in first grade. Hernandez’s son Andres is in kindergarten.
In the 2006-07 school year, Hernandez said the team competed in two tournaments a month, on average. At regionals in Sharyland, the team took first.
At the state competition in Dallas, they won second place. At the national competition, Fernando Spada won 11th place.
Here is the full article.
Congratulations to the Brownsville kids for their great results in recent events!
Texas is such a strong chess state that it is not suprising at all to see these results.
Congratulations to the Paredes Chess Team. Thanks Susan for publishing this article. I am tickled pink, that I will be afforded the opportunity to work with Ian, Kyle, James and some of the other graduating 5th graders beginning in September.