Polishing academic skills through chess

Posted on Thu, Nov. 15, 2007
Teacher polishes students’ chess skills
BY DAVID RODRIGUEZ

Math teacher Silvio Lores can write, without hesitation, the names of all 42 students who have attended his chess club at José Martí Middle School.

”That’s what chess does to you,” Lores said. “It improves your memory, it expands your mental skills.”

Lores started the club in 2001 and around 20 students currently attend meetings from 3:45 to 5:45 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays after class. They not only sit down and play; they also discuss games played by famous players such as grandmasters Garry Kasparov and Hikaru Nakamura.

”We at the club study their plays from chess magazines and documents — not to try and copy their strategies but for children to see them and come up with their very own,” Lores said.

The long list of trophies which the club has won attests to how well the best players have indeed developed their skills.

In the last year, the club has won trophies at competitions such as the Miami International Chess Academy Grand Prix, the Professional Chess Services Grand Prix (both in the K-8, or middle school, division), the National Junior High Championship organized by the United States Chess Federation and the Florida State Scholastic Championship or ”Superstate IV” organized by the Florida Scholastic Chess League.

Some of the 40 or so trophies won since 2002 stand on file cabinets and a few are on display in the main office of the school, at 7501 W. 24th Ave., Hialeah. But most are kept in a hallway almost exclusively filled with them.

”And this is not counting the individual trophies each participant gets,” Lores said. “If we counted those in, no one would be able to remember everything the club has won.”

Lores himself has received accolades in recent years. In 2006, he was named Chess Coach of the Year and presented an award by Elizabeth Tejada, coordinator for Title 1 programs in middle schools. The Title I Chess Program authorizes school principals to use federal Title I money to pay teachers to teach chess, for materials and transportation to tournaments.

This September, Lores was named Chess Coach of the Year for middle schools by the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Chess Education Program.

”It’s not only something I do as a chess coach, I do it as a teacher, too,” Lores said. “The game improves logical and critical thinking, concentration, and it has connections with math concepts.”

Andy Ramos, school district chess coordinator, is a strong supporter of the program at José Martí Middle and in other schools for similar reasons.

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