YOUR MOVE!
1,200 attend upstate NY’s largest-ever chess tourney
There’s no telling where the next Bobby Fischer or Garry Kasparov might come from.
There’s a good chance a future grandmaster was in the Spa City this weekend, as more than 1,200 kids in kindergarten through high school gathered for the 51st Annual New York State Scholastic Chess Championship, the largest tourney ever held in upstate New York.
The two-day competition, which concluded Sunday, was held at three venues — Courtyard by Marriott, the Saratoga Hilton and adjacent City Center, where 260 games took place simultaneously in the main conference room alone.
“I played a little as a kid and picked it back up when my son, Daniel, started playing so I could play with him,” said Scott Mero of New York City.
Some parents follow their children far and wide for youth hockey or youth baseball tournaments. In addition to Saratoga Springs, Mero has accompanied 11-year-old Daniel to national events in Orlando, Fla. and Nashville, Tenn.
“He started playing at Columbia Grammar prep school,” Mero said. “It was a required course in kindergarten and first grade. He took to it, stuck with it and started playing in
“It’s growing and it’s fascinating and fun and also helps your brain work and develop.” — Jesse Hoffman, 13-year-old chess player from Manhattan
their tournaments. He went undefeated in one of the city tournaments in Brooklyn a couple of years ago. It’s great for strategic, critical thinking. It’s certainly helped him in a lot of different ways, such as sportsmanship.”
Chess also encourages kids to pursue activities apart from smart phones, iPads and video games, although Mero joked that this has its limits, too.
“I’m not so sure about that,” he said. “My son is passionate about chess, but he’s also passionate about his PlayStation 4 as well.”
The games could last up to two hours, or a bit more if both players took all their time. As a rule, the older and more experienced the players are, the longer games take.
Chess is a way of life for Harold Stenzel of Sayville, Long Island, the event’s chief floor director for games in several different age brackets from kindergarten to eighth grade. He has the U.S. Chess Federation’s highest directing credentials, which fewer than 100 other people also possess. “I started out as a hobby,” he said. “I learned as a kid just like this. But I can’t live on this alone. Tournaments are usually just on weekends.”
So he also teaches classes, gives private lessons and runs a chess club.
Handsome trophies were awarded to the top 10 scorers in each section, ranging from K-1 Reserve all the way up to High School Championship, with others such as Elementary and Middle School Intermediate in between.
Especially skilled children may compete against older students at higher levels.
“Everyone wants to have the bragging right of winning this huge tournament,” said 13-year-old Jesse Hoffman, of Manhattan.
She’s been playing since she was 5 and has won multiple tournaments elsewhere.
Hoffman didn’t take home any hardware from this weekend’s event, but left with a big smile and lots of valuable experience after triumphing in two of her six matches.
“Everyone in the city plays,” she said. “It just seems that everyone wants to get in on it. It’s growing and it’s fascinating and fun and also helps your brain work and develop.”