Knight moves
Blackstone Valley students do battle at ChessFest
MCUMBERLAND atheo Arteaga was completely motionless as he stared at the array of chess pieces on the board in front of him with studious concentration.
Then, after a few moments, there it was – a slight shift in posture. He was about to make his move.
“It’s fun,” the soft-spoken 10th grader from Central Falls High School says about his favorite extracurricular activity. “I like how there could be strategies in it. It’s not something you can pick up quickly.”
Arteaga, 15, was one of about two dozen youths from all over the region who gathered at Blackstone Valley Prep Saturday for Chess Fest – the fall chess tournament sponsored by the Southeast New England Chess Association (SENECA). The Rhode Island affiliate of the United States Chess Association holds regular tournaments for children of all ages, with various levels of skill, according to SENECA Chairman Bob Salvas of Central Falls.
Chess may not get much attention as a school-based extracurricular activity – but it’s alive and well, says Salvas. In the next month alone,
S(1(CA is running four chess tournaments in the region, including two in Massachusetts.
Such events can draw anywhere from 2 -5 students from school-based clubs, but often the top championship tournaments draw many more.
(very time I think it’s dying, it comes back,” said Salvas. I think it’s digital overload. There’s so much digital in their lives they’re actually fascinated to move a physical piece.”
Chess is often pigeonholed as a nerdy game for math brains, but Salvas says playing the game competently requires multiple skills
that everybody possesses to one extent or another. 2ne thing is for certain, there’s no such thing as luck in chess. ractice may not make perfect, but it helps, and so does study, he says.
Three things,” says S(1(CA board member and tournament director (duardo aragua of Barrington. Capacity not necessarily in math, but in identifying spatial relationships pattern recognition, and memory.”
It draws on a lot of different mental skills,” he adds. (verybody’s good at something.”
Age isn’t necessarily required to be a good player or even a great one, says Salvas, a marketing consultant who’s been teaching chess for about 2 years, many of them through Cumberland’s municipal office of Children, outh and Learning. 1ot long ago, Salvas encountered a five-year-old who began showing up at tournaments with skills that blew him away. The last child he’d seen playing at that skill level who was as young went on to become a national champion.
Some kids fall into chess
by chance and others, like Arteaga, get some help.
He’s one of many students in the Central Falls public school district who were introduced to the game when they were enrolled at (lla 5isk (lementary by School sychologist ina Dufresne.
A board member of S(1(CA for about 5 years, Dufresne says she always keeps an eye out for kids who are smart, good at math and interested” around the time they’re in the fourth grade. That’s how she came to mentor Arteaga.
ou don’t see Central Falls getting a lot of attention, but we used to be like the dynasty of chess,” Dufresne said.
As a school psychologist, Dufresne sees many benefits for the social and intellectual development of young minds from the discipline or chess. She says chess builds attention span because it requires steady concentration. It also fosters something she calls frustration tolerance” because the game tends to unravel slowly and it requires planning. And because it’s a competitive activity, Du
fresne says, chess helps kids comport themselves in a respectful, sportsmanlike manner.
Some of her charges, like Arteaga, have evolved into extremely talented players. As Dufresne sat across from him at a cafeteria table at the 2 Broad St. charter school, she said Arteaga has won over trophies for his performance in chess tournaments since he was nine years old. He’s made it to the state championships three times and is rated” player.
5ated players win points that are used to handicap them so so they can be properly seeded in the most competitive situations, according to Salvas. Saturday’s Chess Fest also welcomed unrated players and novices.
Arteaga says he’s made a lot of friends by becoming active in chess, including some who no longer play much.
They think it’s cool,” says Arteaga.
Many of the players facing off in Chess Fest weren’t just competing against each other. They were playing against time.
In addition to their fold
able, rubber chess boards, many players were equipped with special clocks that limit the time of actual play to 25 minutes, with five-second spacers for each player to make a move, according to aragua. At the scholastic level, not all players have clocks, so some games could, theoretically, last close to an hour.
Adult tournaments, yeah, everybody would have clock,” says aragua. A scholastic tournament, we’re a little more flexible.”
Anybody who takes on Blackstone 9alley rep seventh-grade :illiam Collins of Lincoln had better keep an eye on his knights. He’s always looking for creative ways to kill off one of his opponents’ soldiers with the horse-faced pieces his favorite in the whole panoply of king and queen, rooks, bishops and pawns.
I like playing strategy games,” he says. My favorite piece is the knight, because they can jump multiple pieces.”