Chess contest hones kids’ skills
By Alexander Parker
February 17, 2008
Tap. Silence. Tap. Silence. Tap.
For more than 200 chess players, ranging from kindergartners to high school seniors, the sound of bishops, kings and queens moving across chessboards replaced any need for conversation at Saturday’s Cordley Elementary Chess Tournament at Kansas University’s Kansas Union.
Students from Lawrence, Kansas City and as far as Galesburg played in the tournament, which is in its third year. The union’s banquet rooms were lined with tables, but the players were silent as they contemplated their next move; speaking was barred by tournament rules.
Phil Wedge, a KU English professor and chess club sponsor at Cordley School, said chess is a popular game for students in Lawrence, with chess clubs at most schools.
“It’s a sport that’s different from most scholastic competitions,” Wedge said, comparing chess to athletic events where older, bigger students have an advantage. “The smaller person can be the better chess player because it’s a game of the mind.”
He also said that chess has been shown to improve the math and logic scores of students, and it’s a way for players to build confidence and improve concentration.
For 11-year-old Tom Frager, a Cordley student, confidence was not a problem.
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Does the chess center in Lindsborg still open? I heard so much about it before but not lately.