Amazing! Kids Actually Using Their Brains.

Youths try to put a check on rivals
Chess players from schools in 40 states seeking a win in Houston

By LANA BERKOWITZ
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Dec. 3, 2005, 2:07AM

The kids come ready to play.

Instead of carrying video games and iPods, they have floppy chess boards rolled up in their bags and chess clocks. The colorful team shirts sport images of chess pieces and school logos.

This is the United States Chess Federation National K-12/Collegiate Championships, and even 5-year-olds are talking about sweeping the seven rounds in the no-elimination tournament.

Chess is booming at the scholastic level, said chief tournament director Robert Tanner, of Mesa, Ariz., as more schools use chess to enhance academics.

"Parents see it as an opportunity to promote critical thinking and social skills without some of the costs involved in physical athletics," Tanner said.

Player Jeff Sneden, 20, a University of Texas student who has been playing chess for 10 years, says the size of Texas' state tournament has doubled in the past five years.

The kids from the Valley are the ones to beat, according to parents and teens studying the matchup boards. Most schools in the Rio Grande Valley have chess programs that are turning out winners.

Lupita Martinez, 10, who lives in Los Fresnos, began playing chess so she could travel to different tournaments, but then she found that she liked the game itself.

"It's fun even if you don't win, you learn," she said.

But chess still is a male-dominated game. At the elementary level, 20 percent of the players are girls, for junior high, it's 10 percent and at the high school level 5 percent, Tanner said, although the numbers are changing slowly.

"When these kids get to travel around and then bring home trophies and ribbons, it gets others interested," Tanner said.

About 1,600 players representing 40 states met their first opponents Friday in the USCF competition that runs through Sunday afternoon.

I am all for this. Let's get behind this movement. It is time we make heroes out of those who excel by using their minds rather than those who excel at using the bodies. Education is the surest protection against tyranny and Lord knows our current education system is in need of a boost. If parents would spend as much time watching and following politics, history, and science as the do watching their favorite pornographic drama or sitcom, or their alma mater's football team or the Astros, then this nation might have hope of returning to the glory of its past. Brain power in combination with faith are the hope for this nation. Sports events are great, but in the end, it is just entertainment. It's time for parents to take a little more responsibility for their kids education and growth. YOU GO KIDS!!!

Full Story: The Glory of the Mind Game

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