It’s her move

It’s her move: Roanoke’s chess program helps students learn

The rare scholastic chess program guides students who want to learn the ancient game. But few girls continue to compete through the middle school years.

By Courtney Cutright

Joy Taylor coaches chess teams at Highland Park Elementary and James Madison Middle schools in Roanoke.

Her son Aiden, 11, started playing chess in first grade. Taylor’s 14-year-old daughter Elizabeth — like many other girls — gave up chess in middle school.

Taylor, who has no middle school girls playing on this year’s team, talked to her daughter about why more girls don’t play. Taylor said Elizabeth quit chess to focus on running and swimming, but the teenager also pointed out the perceived unpopularity of the strategic game.

Elizabeth likened the chess club to “social suicide” for teenagers.

Roanoke’s scholastic chess program, now in its 27th year, mirrors trends reported in nationwide studies about gender and the game. More girls begin playing young but fewer continue into middle and high school. Unlike the ebony and ivory pieces on the checkered chess board, there is no black or white explanation as to why girls abandon the game.

“Around middle school, they start being young ladies and just like in mathematics, it’s not cool to be smart,” explained Tina Weiner, a retired math coordinator who oversees the city schools chess program.

Roughly one-third of the chess players in Grandin Court Elementary’s after-school program are girls.

“The number of girls participating has never been as great as the number of boys, and the number varies from year to year. However, we have had girls who competed at state and nationals,” said Vella Wright, the city school division’s assistant superintendent for instruction.

Julia Chogjinjalav, a Grandin Court fourth-grader, said she began playing chess this school year. She practices at home by playing on a computer or iPod. Julia plays once a week after school, and she has ranked as high as fourth on the club’s ladder.

The top three players are boys, whom Julia is unafraid to take on.

“But they always beat me,” she said.

Julia, 9, is all business when she sits down at the chess board. She easily won two games against boys ranked lower than her in a recent afternoon matchup — and she corrected the boys more than once.

“No. You can’t do that. Only one,” Julia said, moving one boy’s pawn back a space.

Her second opponent placed the king and queen pieces on the wrong squares. Julia reached over to switch the pieces before the first move of the game.

“I just like to play for fun. It’s really fun for me,” Julia said.

Another fourth-grader, Kameron Washington-Brown, who was ranked seventh on the ladder, challenged Julia to a match. Several players gathered around the board to watch the girls play.

Izaak Sutherland, the club’s top-ranked player, eyes the game anxiously. He fidgets and sighs and fights the urge to help the girls.

“You both are so close to checkmate,” Izaak said excitedly.

Kameron wins and moves up to the coveted fourth-place rung. Kameron, 10, said her older sister taught her to play chess about two years ago.

Cultural messages

Will Julia and Kameron buck the trend and continue to play chess into adolescence?

Grandin Court chess club sponsor Scot Sutherland, the father of a 10-year-old daughter who played chess for about a year, said puberty plays a role in whether girls stick with the game.

“It is something about that time when they transition from a girl to a woman, their interests totally change,” explained Sutherland, who also is Izaak’s father.

Sutherland, who has been affiliated with the team for six years, said he uses chess to teach his players focus, confidence and perseverance.

“They might not go on to be grandmasters, but it helps them succeed in other things,” Sutherland said.

Grandmaster, a lifelong title bestowed by the World Chess Federation, is awarded to players with a minimum performance rating that exceeds 2,500 in internationally rated tournaments, according to the federation handbook. Of about 1,000 grandmasters worldwide, one, Susan Polgar, is a female and one, Maurice Ashley, is black, according to a January story on WBUR, Boston’s National Public Radio station.

Russell Potter is a national master from Roanoke who brought the chess program to the city’s schools in the late 1980s. He also earned the title of life master by holding a 2,200-point rating for more than 300 games.

Potter said there are no grandmasters living in Southwest Virginia.

“To get to GM land, you have to go to D.C., Memphis, Lexington, Ky., or occasionally Charlotte, N.C.,” he wrote in an email.

Potter said he has taught chess professionally for 35 years. He no longer gives many lessons to youth because he said they are not focused or committed completely to the game. He gives lessons over the phone using screen sharing software to about 30 clients, most of whom live in different time zones. The average age of his students is 40 years old, and their professions include a retired ambassador, a doctor, a janitor and an assembly line worker.

Potter, 63, said interest in chess has declined among children and teens because of the slew of other extracurricular activities available. But technology actually has made the game more accessible.

“There are tons of places online to play at home with a cup of joe or a cold one at night. You can play someone from Ohio, Russia, Britain or wherever,” Potter said.

He estimates that most elementary school programs are composed of about 60 percent males and 40 percent females. Taylor’s boy-to-girl ratio at Highland Park this year is about 3 to 1.

About the time children head to middle school, Potter said the cultural messages begin to surface.

According to Potter, girls hear: “You don’t want to compete against boys if you want them to like you,” and boys hear: “Chess is a sissy game. You’ve got to do sports if you are a real man.”

By middle school, participation is about 80 percent male and by high school it is not uncommon to have all-male teams, Potter said.

“If you have two girls in a high school chess club, that’s good. That’s above average,” he said.

A unique program

Hannah Graves, a 17-year-old junior at Patrick Henry High School, has played chess off and on since second grade. She and freshman Emily Holdren, 14, regularly attend the school’s 7:30 a.m. Tuesday chess club meetings.

“I like how it makes you think. You have to do certain stuff to make other stuff happen,” Emily said.

The teenage girls start a game as they munch on doughnuts provided by the sponsor.

“She likes getting me here or here,” Emily said, pointing to the corners of the board.

So, who usually wins?

“That depends,” Emily said.

On what?

“Who’s more awake,” Hannah answered.

Hannah was one of the two female competitors in the open class of the regional tournament held Feb. 25 at Fallon Park Elementary School. Emily did not attend the competition because of a conflicting recreation league basketball practice.

Kristen Shelor, the Patrick Henry chess sponsor and a quadrant instructor, said she and her colleagues have theorized about the decline of girls participating as they age. She said she wonders if there really are more choices for after-school activities, or do guys feel intimidated by smart girls?

“My gals laugh and expect nothing less than smart boys to compete against,” Shelor said.

The next regional tournament is slated for April 28 at Fallon Park Elementary.

“It’s important to me that we have that activity that isn’t dependent on your physical ability,” said Weiner, the retired administered who’s been with the chess program since 1996.

The academic benefits of chess are impressive. The game teaches logic, thinking ahead and multistep problem solving — in a fun atmosphere, Weiner said.

“It is quiet, except for the slam of the timer,” she said, describing the tournaments.

Roanoke’s students may play weekly with the school club, attend a weeknight lesson and compete in regional competitions or travel to tournaments. Weiner said she does not know of any other school divisions in Southwest Virginia with chess programs comparable to Roanoke’s. Every elementary, middle and high school has a chess program that meets weekly, and students from half the city’s schools compete in local tournaments, Weiner said.

Eleven Roanoke students in mid-March traveled to Northern Virginia to compete in the Virginia Scholastic Chess Tournament — 10 boys and one girl.

Queen changed the game

“The computer always wants me to take its queen. I don’t know why,” said Julia Chogjinjalav, one of the girls from Grandin Court.

Julia’s favorite chess piece is the queen because she said the queen is the most powerful.

Julia’s choice is interesting because the queen is the only female piece among knights, rooks, bishops, pawns and, of course, the king. Chess, which Potter said dates to A.D. 500, originally contained no queen. Sometime before the 1400s when European men were at war while ladies, duchesses, princesses and queens were running cities, a queen was added to the game.

“They finally invented a female piece, but she had no power,” Potter recounted.

It wasn’t until later that the queen piece was given the power of both rooks and bishops, which Potter said was a game changer. The queen piece can move horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Unlike the king, which can only move one square at a time, the queen can move any number of spaces as long as her path is clear.

“Chess would have been a really sleepy game. If it weren’t for that change, we wouldn’t be here,” he said in an interview.

Source: http://www.roanoke.com