Gilbert High chess team aiming for another title
by Emily Gersema – Feb. 24, 2009
Arizona Republic, AZ
Becoming a top chess player is not about luck. It’s about how much you know.
That’s what East Valley chess master Michael Reading has been telling his team at Gilbert High School for years since he founded the group with government teacher John Thiele in the late 1980s.
Under the pair’s coaching, their latest team has become one of the best in the country.
In April, the Gilbert High team will head to Nashville to compete in the National High School Chess tournament. The group is aiming to bring home several national trophies for the second year in a row.
Reading and Thiele are proud: The team members have routinely pushed their way into top spots at the contests run by the non-profit U.S. Chess Federation, which oversees competitions nationwide.
The federation rates players’ skill level by tracking the points accumulated, or subtracted, through their wins, losses and draws. It also keeps tabs on every official U.S. tournament win by individuals and teams.
The Gilbert High team and its individual members appear frequently on those lists.
“Your results are based on how much more you know than everybody else,” Reading said.
The Gilbert High team knows a lot more about the game than several other competitors at their level.
Here is the full article.
Gilbert will rule!