Kids learn game strategy and how to play chess at Bogota Library

Kids learn game strategy and how to play chess at Bogota Library
Friday, April 6, 2012
BY KARTHIK AGGARWAL
STAFF WRITER
Bogota Bulletin

BOGOTA – For children looking to learn or play chess, the Bogota Public Library offers a weekly chess program 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursdays. Although adults may also join, the program is largely comprised of children between the ages of 6 and 10.

“There’s been a chess program for kids off and on for several years. The new teacher has volunteered his time starting last summer, and he’s continued through the year,” said Nikki Spiegel, children’s coordinator at the library.

“People have asked for it. It’s been popular and pretty steady over the years,” she added.

Spiegel noted that chess is a “very good” game for kids to learn.

“You learn to think. You learn to abide by rules and to work within the parameters of those rules. You also to interact with another person, which I think we need a lot of,” she said. “I really think if the kids are interested, then that means they have the patience. The skills for thinking strategically are things that they can use in life.”

Teaneck resident Jonathan Schwartz, 20, has been leading the library chess program. After starting in summer 2011 and taking a brief break in the fall, he said it resumed last December. At the March 29 session, Schwartz assisted around a dozen children as they played against one another.

“When we have a big class like this, we mostly just play a lot and I help them out because everyone’s at a different level,” he said. “We have some who are more beginner level and some more advanced, so it’s hard for me to teach as one because they are different levels.”

Schwartz noted he also has given the participants more formal instruction on the game.

“If I just teach something arbitrary, that’s one thing. But if I actually see them playing and see that they have problems with something, I help them in that way,” he said. “This is really a practice game. You only get better by practicing.”

The children said Schwartz taught them the rules, what each chess piece means, how and where to move them and general strategy.

“I like to see them improve and get better. It’s not overnight,” he said.

The kids on March 29 were playing as many games against one another as they felt like. The games were untimed.

“In the tournaments, it’s timed, but you don’t really get better. The focus of coming here is to get better and to have fun, not to really see who wins,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz himself has played chess for years. He said he learned the game at a “young age” playing with his family and had also participated in a chess club in Dumont when he was in middle school. Though he said he tried his skills at tournament playing, he noted he prefers casual playing.

Full article here.