Local Indiana girl makes chess tourney history

Local girl makes state chess tourney history
Frost Illustrated – Fort Wayne, IN, USA
February 10, 2009

ANDERSON, Ind.—At only 14- years-old, Cynthia Grieser of Fort Wayne already has a sense of what it means to make history. She should. After all, she’s already made a bit a history as a rare breed of youth.

Grieser, an eighth grade honor student at Bethlehem Lutheran School, recently became the first African American girl to be ranked in the top 10 in the ninth grade and under division of the Scholastic Chess Indiana State Finals, held at East Middle School in Anderson, Jan. 31.

Grieser was among 280 students in grades K-12 from around the state who competed in the tournament. Each student had to qualify in a regional round before being eligible for the state finals. Grieser initially was selected as an alternate but ended up competing and placing eighth in her division.

While she’s well aware of the significance of her achievement— achieving a state top-10 ranking in a competition that traditionally fields very few African Americans and few young girls, Grieser, though proud of her achievement, takes it all in stride. Perhaps it’s because chess is a familiar pastime in her home.

“All my siblings played chess,” she explained, adding that when she was young, she had to go to tournaments with them because she couldn’t stay at home alone. Grieser herself started playing at age four-and-a-half and started competing in tournaments by the time she was in kindergarten. It also didn’t hurt that she had a competent chess instructor and coach close at hand in her mother Gail Grieser.

Mother Grieser taught all of her children to play, including Cynthia who, in addition to being the first African American girl to place in the top 10 in the ninth grade and under division is the second African American girl in the state to rank in the top 10 in any division. The honor of being the first went to her older sister Victoria, now a sophomore at South Side, who place in the top 10 in the old eighth grade and under division.

While Gail Grieser already has trained at least two chess greats, she said her students at home already have exceeded her in competition.

“I’m a teacher,” she said. “All of my children can beat me now.”

That hasn’t diminished her passion for the game. In fact, Gail Grieser said she loves training young people to play chess and seeing them compete. She’s currently the coach of Bethlehem’s chess team and is proud to see such a competitive group at a school she says is about 80 percent African American.

“African American children don’t generally participate in chess although that’s changing,” she said.

Here is the full article.