10/25/2009 11:00:00 AM
Teaching more than chess

100 youngsters gather for tournament in Long Beach

Deborah Sederberg

The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY – Wyatt Henry Steinhiser and Keara Best looked seriously at their chess boards, pondering their next moves.

A short consultation with Wyatt’s dad, Alan Steinhiser, a judge at the chess tournament Saturday morning at the Long Beach Community Center, solved a pressing question, but Dad couldn’t stay too long with Wyatt and Keara because he was needed elsewhere.

Hosted by Renaissance Academy Charter Montessori School, the event drew 100 participants from preschool through eighth grade. Most came from Renaissance and Notre Dame schools, Michigan City, and St. Mary of the Lake, New Buffalo and New Buffalo Elementary School.

Wyatt is a preschooler and Keara is a kindergartner.

Vicki McHugh, assistant director of the Renaissance Academy, gave Wyatt Henry and Keara a small hint. “Wyatt is in what?” she asked.

“Check!” Both children answered simultaneously and even enthusiastically.

Renaissance has been teaching chess as part of its curriculum for 10 years now, said McHugh, whose sister, Kieran McHugh, serves as the school’s director.

How do the children learn the game?”I always think it’s best to have kids teaching kids,” Vicki McHugh said.

Here is the full article.

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