Chess Center Making Moves in Brewster
Posted by Rebecca Porath (Editor), June 25, 2013 at 10:27 pm
Two years ago, Grace Urvantsev and her son began to run a chess-training program out of the Brewster Public Library.
Today, Urvantsev has her own facility for not only chess, but also math Regents preparation, math competitions like Olympiad, and computer programming training.
To her surprise, chess—a game classically known to attract older players—has caught on with the children of Brewster.
Urvantsev had been coaching her son Viktor years before she ever thought of training other children.
However, she found that her son began to grow weary of the game after a while. No one else in school was playing chess, and even though he was winning in many tournaments, Viktor didn’t mention it to his peers.
“He was scared they would think he was a nerd,” Urvantsev said.
To solve this problem, Urvantsev decided to run a chess program in the library in the summer of 2011. Urvantsev and her son were expecting a modest turnout.
“To our amazement, the turnout was overwhelming,” Urvantsev said. “The kids didn’t know how to play but the parents wanted them to learn.”
In fact, it was so popular that the room didn’t have enough space for the kids, forcing Urvantsev to run a double session. Furthermore, the success of the program led the library to ask Urvantsev to do another program in the fall.
The children in her program began to show true promise, leading Urvantsev to invite many of her students to the tournaments that her son was attending.
“The kids became strong fast, and at the tournaments they were winning,” Urvantsev said. Due to the growing number of tournament players, Urvanstev began extra training in her own basement. After realizing both the potential of her students, and the need for more space, Urvantsev was motivated to open a center.
Through almost complete self-funding, Urvantsev managed to open her open space, calling it, “a beautiful scholastic center.”
Recently, 30 kids participated in an Olympiad competition at the center—something Urvantsev is truly proud of, she said.
This summer, the center, located on Mount Ebo Road South, will run a three-hour-a-day camp for eight weeks that features flexible sessions. Urvantsev estimates that between 22 and 30 children will enroll in the camp.
Urvantsev admitted that her son and other students are beginning to best her at chess, and therefore, she has had to employ others—including a grand master who lectures the upper kids.
Urvantsev is particularly proud of that Joshua Colas will be volunteering at the center for a week this summer. Colas, a fourteen year old from White Plains, is one of the youngest chess masters in the United States.
“When I go to tournaments with him, you’ll have so many cameras flashing on him,” Urvantsev said. “It’s like he’s a celebrity.”
Since its opening, the children who attend the center have had some serious accomplishments.
“The kids, even new ones can aggressively compete against people who’ve played much longer than them,” Urvantsev said.
One student of the center won first place in his category at a world competition. Also, the center came in second place in the junior open at a US Chess Federation Competition.
But for Urvantsev, it matters less about the number of awards and trophies won, and more about the beneficial effects that both chess and her center alike can have on a child in the real world.
“We want kids to know that it’s okay to be a nerd and pursue the sciences,” Urvantsev said. “The US is 22nd in the word in science—we need nerds.”
She also believes that computer programming is essential to children of this generation.
“If we train them young, they won’t be intimidated by it,” Urvantsev said. “We need the kids to learn programming.”
Urvanstev has also seen the great impacts that the game can have on a child in the classroom, she said.
“Chess helps children focus, and develop spatial reasoning, analytic, science and reading skills,” she said. “The game has also been shown to advance a child’s attention span and makes them think before they act.“
The coach also affirms that when kids come to the program, they do better academically, noting that her students are the top scorers in math in their class. This includes those who were struggling before they came to the program.
“If every school had a chess program,” said Urvantsev, “It would solve most of the problems our children are facing behaviorally and academically.”
Urvantsev is overjoyed with the success she has achieved in each of her students, but is not done growing yet. In the coming years, she hopes to have a larger space with a huge technology center. Also, right now her focus is on the youth, but Urvantsev says adult competitions may be in the future.
Urvantsev’s motto has become, “Chess can be a child’s driving fore, helping in virtually every aspect of critical thinking development,” a quote from famed chess player Garry Kasparov.
The center has proved time and time again to Urvantsev that, “chess is not just a game.” It is and does so much more.
NCI Chess and Scholastic Center is located in Suite 5 at 16 Mt Ebo Road South.
Source: http://southeast.patch.com
Good luck!