National chess champion
Boy checkmates the competition
By NICOLE SERVICE
Staff Writer – Daytona Beach News Journal

DELAND — For years the dusty, wooden chess set of Silas Campbell’s childhood had been hidden in dark closets.

Then one day on a whim, Campbell, 51, decided to take it out, dust it off and show it to his son, Colin.

“I thought maybe he would think the wooden carved chess pieces were cool,” Campbell said.
However it was the game itself that intrigued Colin, so much so that instead of going to soccer camp last summer, Colin chose chess camp.

All that effort paid off two weeks ago when he won first place in a national chess competition. He is only 7, and he outlasted 88 other first-graders in the United States Chess Federation’s National Scholastic K-12/Collegiate Championship to become recognized as one of the best in the nation. It was his first competition and Colin competed in the unrated category.

About 1,540 students from around the country, some as far away as Hawaii, participated in the tournament.

It was good showing overall for the St. Barnabas Episcopal School elementary chess team with Colin’s classmate Chip Powell winning third place. They were among six students from the private school to participate in the three-day competition at Lake Buena Vista.

A team sponsored by the Port Orange Public Library also performed well at the competition. Diego Vargas, a kindergartner, placed seventh overall in his grade level, while three members of the Raevsky family each took one of the three top positions in their respective skill levels.

….Port Orange library team coach Steve Lampkin said he formed his team four years ago because “chess is a great way to improve your cognitive skills.

“It’s been shown to help with all areas of the curriculum,” Lampkin said. “Chess basically makes kids smarter.”

In Colin’s own words, he likes chess because “it’s fun.”

The full article can be read here.