Lincoln Elementary School creates chess club
By Joshua Palmer
Times-News writer
Twin Falls Times-News, ID
TWIN FALLS – Cooper Elam and Emily Bell, two third-graders at Lincoln Elementary School, had some unfinished business to take care of during recess.
After all, this was serious business – this was chess.
Last month, Lincoln Elementary School organized the Noon Chess Club for students with special needs as well as for those who are considered gifted and talented. The idea was to encourage both groups to build self-confidence by challenging themselves.
“With some of our struggling students, it gives them the feeling that they are really good at something,” said Beth Olmstead, principal of Lincoln Elementary School. “
But the flip side is that some of my GT (gifted and talented) students are also getting involved.”The chess board proves to be a level playing field.
“I try to think ahead before I make a move, but sometimes I don’t and I lose,” said sixth-grader Makayla Lee. “But I don’t lose a lot.”
Here is the full article.
Idaho? I always thought Twin Falls had more falls than chessplayers. (Yuck, yuck). But seriously, folks…
Dear GM Polgar,
Discouraged chess teacher in need of guidance….
I assume virtually every GM has either Rybka, Shredder, Fritz or all of them.
Does it really, I mean really, improve your play at the GM level?
Only a GM can answer this question. I’m interested in artificial intelligence and computer science. Thus, (and you don’t have to give away any special training methods) just:
Can computer chess software really improve a GM’s play with the end goal of defeating other human GM’s? Or, in you opinion, does there still exist too much of a difference between computer play vs human GM play to make a qualitative comparison?
The reason I ask is that super-GM’s (and I include you in this group due to your outstaning achievements) have chess software…be it Rybka, Fritz, or “all of the above.”
I have had some students say that they are going to “give up chess” due to the inability of even the best humans to beat computers.
I sense a lot of cynicissm in their words…or,rather, disappointment even though they might own the very programs that defeat super GM’s.
I argue that the top GM’s are always learning and improving by playing chess computers. But, to the young, they know of no other period of history in which a computer chess progrsm did NOT exist!
This meas we have to explain to them that how, despite the WCC being defeated bby Fritz,one shouldn’t “give up” just because a computer can defeat the WCC.
Technology progesses. We all knew that someday computers would defeat the WCC. It’s only going to get more difficult for human GM”s.
But, I ask you, how do you explain this to a young person interested in chess (but unlike us who grew up in a non-Internet age) that they should keep trying, keep competing, keep “going for the gold” even if they lose to Fritz?
I’ve had severasl students a talk as if they were giving up chess due to computers.
I know there is a lot to learn from computers…hence, my question of the role of computer chess in your training, but college ( and I must emphasize 1st and 2nd year college students) often give up because there is a computer out there that beat the world champion!
I’ve tried.. But I know you’ve encountered this question before…how do you explain this to students? How can you, at the very least, try to keep them from giving up on chess due to the strength of computers?
I’m very sad because I’ve seen TWO very talented chess players state that they’d never play in tournaments because of the idea tha computers have already “made them inferior.”
What shall I say to them? These are people that are young enough and gifted enough to one day be, at least, an IM!
But, when one lives in a very small town (village) few are concerned with chess ability.
Is there hope? What would you say to them?
You read every post and this is an important one for me because I see it as future chess masters giving up just because there exists a Rybka, a Shredder, or a Fritz that can beat so many GM’s.
I’m not a GM. So, I can’t speak from a GM’s perspective. But, how would you answer a teenager with obvious chess skill but so willing to throw it away because of computers and their inability to defeat a super-chess program?
For the future…please answer.
Resspectfully,
Tim Harris