When do we play chess?

Chess tournament challenges students
By David DeKunder
Seguin Gazette – Enterprise – Seguin,TX,USA
Published November 23, 2006

SEGUIN — Besides reading, writing and arithmetic, students at Koennecke Elementary School have another skill they have to learn — playing chess.

For the past five years, third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at Koennecke Elementary School have competed in a chess tournament, which had 300 kids participating this year.

The chess tournament was the idea of the school’s Gifted and Talented Coordinator Dawn Krause, who realized that many of her students were expert chess players.

Curious about the board game, Krause did some research and wanted to share her newfound knowledge of chess with the rest of the student body.

“I taught myself so I could teach everybody,” Krause said.

Beginning in the third grade, Krause teaches the finer points, moves and strategies of chess to the elementary students.

“Every third-, fourth- and fifth-grader knows how to play chess. It is sort of a rite of passage,” Krause said.

“The anticipation builds for it every year. The kids stop me in the hall and ask me, ‘When do we play chess?'”

The chess tournament started in October with 300 kids competing. In the first round, students competed in homerooms.

The full story can be read here.