Challenging and fun

Reality checks

Saturday, February 3, 2007
By Mark Bliss ~ Southeast Missourian

Kaylen Martin intently focused on the chess pieces, contemplating her next move.

“You have to be quiet and you have to concentrate,” she explained.

The sixth-grader at Cape Girardeau Central Middle School isn’t alone. More than 50 fifth- and sixth-graders stay after school to play chess for about an hour each Wednesday, starting in October and ending in late February.

Sitting across the cafeteria table from Kaylen, fifth-grader Bryce Greer studiously considered his next move. “I think it is really challenging and fun,” he said. “Sometimes it can be really hard.”

Volunteer Jonathan Budil records the wins on his laptop computer using software that keeps track of the points earned by students.

Budil, a member of a local club of chess players in Cape Girardeau, has helped out with the middle school’s chess program for the past three years.

“I love chess. It is something I could share,” he said.

Chess, he said, encourages students to be more analytical and use logic. Every move in the game has a consequence. “It gives them the ability to think more clearly,” Budil said.

Here is the full article.