Skill levels of all ages

Chess tournament checks skill levels of all ages
By Michael Malik
Journal and Courier – Lafayette, IN, USA
• March 9, 2009

Lafayette resident Wendy Kincaid and her son, 8-year-old Hayden Kincaid, like to play board games with other family members.

So when Hayden became interested in chess, Wendy bought him a set, despite not knowing how to play. However, that didn’t last long.

“He taught his father and I to play chess after he learned in school,” Wendy said. “I think it was something to mesh his intellectual ability and still fill his need to play games.”

Hayden was among the 53 chess players who got to show their skills Sunday afternoon as part of the Cumberland Chess Club’s West Lafayette Scholastic Chess Championship. The chess players varied in age from elementary school students to adults.

When the participants were playing, the room at the West Lafayette Public Library was silent as the players were in intense concentration trying to plot their next move.

However, the atmosphere was completely different in a nearby room where the players waited for other games to finish. In the waiting room, the kids would discuss strategies while they played practice games with each other.

Bernard Parham, chess master and tournament director, said the tournament, which pitted kids against adults at times, provided the players with important hands-on experience.

“We’re having our first tournament to separate and help give experience to all the players because learning chess in the classroom is different than learning in a tournament,” Parham said.

Jang Soo Lee, a 9-year-old Klondike Elementary School student, said he likes playing chess because he learned it quickly.

“I started to beat everybody,” Lee said.

Here is the full article.