A rainy Monday was the perfect setting for an elementary school chess tournament at the community centre.
The District School Board of Niagara tournament, designed for students in Grades 3 to 8, allowed entry to four students from each grade, per school. All students were guaranteed four rounds of games.
Debbie Peters, who teaches intermediate French at Crossroads Public School, was coaching Grade 7 student Jackson Dodridge through a final game of the day.
“This is our first chess tournament for the DSBN since COVID finished,” said Peters. “We are pretty excited to be back at it again. There are about 250 students here today, and I brought 22 from Crossroads.”
Madelyn Josiak, a Grade 4 student at Crossroads who learned the game in Grade 2, said she “got to know quite a few people from different schools.” As for her games on Monday, “I would say I did okay-ish. I lost twice, won once and got one draw,” she said.
Matthew Cater, a Grade 4 student at St. Davids Public School, started learning the basics when he was five years old. “Chess is a hard game. It’s complicated,” he said. But he went on to win all four of his games for first place in the Grade 4 division.
“I went four for four here,” said Cater. “I did my best. I accomplished my goal and I think I am going to do well. I was the only kid who won all four of the games in Grade 4 today.”
Josh Bateson, organizer of the tournament and teacher at St. Davids, and St. Davids principal, Carl Glauser, were on hand to make sure everything ran smoothly.
Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa presented opening remarks and handed out awards at the end of the day.
“It was a very good day,” said Bateson as the competition wrapped up. “It marked a return to pre-pandemic customs, with 274 students engaging each other across tabletops.”
“The community centre bent over backwards to make our day a success,” he added. The “successful partnership between the town and school board celebrated students with sharp minds, in a brief phase of life that seems to award all its attention to muscles.”
The Niagara-on-the-Lake Invitational Chess Tournament, said Bateson, involved students from 12 schools, from NOTL, Niagara Falls, St Catharines and as far away as Stevensville.
Bateson also noted the exploding interest in chess among young people in recent years.
A search of the internet shows the popularity of chess increasing for players of all ages. Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has over one million Instagram followers. The website Chess.com, one of the largest chess platforms in the world, had 100 million users on Dec. 16, 2022. In January 2023, due to an influx of traffic, chess databases crashed.
Local students are also showing an interest in the game, and becoming skilled at it. James Froese, from St. Davids Public School, came in third place in the Grade 4 division.
In the Grade 5 division, first place was earned by Kian Rahbar from St Davids. Zuzanna Bator, from Crossroads, won third place.
St. Davids students in the Grade 6 division were Hanlin Guo, in first place, and Aleksandr Keda in second place.
