By Lori Rose | 5:55am
Whiz Kid: Second Grader Shines in Chess
This week, Patch introduces you to Emily Hartfelder, a second grader at Westchester Elementary in Kirkwood, who beat out a table of third graders in the annual district chess tournament.
She’s 8 and a half, loves to play kickball and tag at recess and, oh yes, she’s pretty darn good at chess.
Emily Hartfelder, a second grader at Westchester Elementary in Kirkwood, beat three third-graders to win her table at the annual Kirkwood School District chess tournament on Monday afternoon. She was one of only two second-graders to play “up” in the tournament of third-, fourth- and fifth-graders.
“I’m just happy that I got to skip math,” Emily said. “I do not like math.”
What she does enjoy is figuring out a strategy to beat her opponents at chess, a game she has been playing for only about a year. She joined the Westchester Elementary chess club, which meets every Tuesday before school, in first grade.
“When you’re just starting out it gets kind of confusing,” Emily said. “I still call the knight a horse.”
Emily, who lives in Kirkwood, comes from a family of game players. Her older brother and sister and her parents play chess, too. They also like to play UNO, Monopoly and Life, she said.
“Sometimes when there’s nothing to do we just play chess for no reason,” Emily said.
Emily said she wasn’t scared to play the older kids at the tournament because she regularly plays her brother, who is in fifth grade.
More here.
What planet is she from and from which hatchery?
She doesn’t look like an 8 year old…. more like 18
the 11 year old i coach called perpetual check repetative check i know which i prefer