Smart Moves: Despite tough competition, spirits remain high at district chess meet

“We got a crier,” Carmen Ruiz informed another moderator of the Pre-K division at the state district chess tournament on Saturday.

Ruiz escorted two 5-year-old chess competitors into the corridor of the Homer Hanna High School library and told them to take deep breaths.

The girls hadn’t lost the round, they hadn’t won. They were just scared to begin playing alongside the rows of fidgeting 5-year-olds, paired according to rank.

“You know, sometimes one of your schoolmates might be able to run faster than you or throw a ball farther,” Ruiz said, crouching down to meet the girls at eye level, “everyone is different. It’s O.K., you just do your best.”

After a few more minutes of consolidated life lessons from Ruiz, the girls slowed their hiccuping sobs. They kissed her on the cheek and went to the bathroom to splash water on their faces.

For the thousands who turn out to participate or support the tournament each year, it’s this kind of non-competitive support that creates a community of chess champions.

When asked what they like about chess, why 1,346 players turned out for the two-day tournament, most kids responded like 7-year-old first-grader Fahtima Avila:

“You get to play and it’s fun,” she said, and added with a grin that she routinely beats her uncle.

The children know that they get to be part of a group if they play, that they might win medals or trophies, and may even get to go to Houston for the state tournament.

To parents and teachers, the benefits are a bit more complex.

Chess is famous for helping youngsters develop analytical skills. Teachers say that taking stock of their opponent’s potential moves, hypothesizing about the repercussions of their knight’s L-shaped trot across the board or the slanted path of a bishop, can help them to begin to make more careful decisions in their lives as they contemplate the consequences of their actions.

But to Rita Hernandez, the principle of Hubert R. Hudson Elementary, the greatest reason to support chess lies in the nature of that support itself.

“There’s no way that the educational system alone can give kids all they need,” Hernandez said. “Parents come and support their kids. It’s not just a chess team, it’s a chess family.”

Watching the teachers and parents wait with bated breath outside of the doors of the gymnasium and cafeteria, or seeing the reticence with which parents of young children say goodbye after they sit them down in the library, it might seem like there’s a big prize at stake or a fierce competitor to vanquish.

Rather, as parents lovingly intercept their kids when they drift out of the rounds, it’s clear that more than anything, this is a way for the whole community to show children that they are loved and supported — win or lose.

“When the little ones come out you never know whether they’ve won, they’ve just got smiles on their faces because they like to play,” said Philis Cook, the technology teacher and chess coach at Bruce Aiken Elementary.

Stephen Shull, the BISD coordinator of the event, beamed as he listened to student’s request a missing teacher or recount a victory as he walked through the corridors of Hanna.

Shull comes to the tournaments nearly every weekend. He doesn’t play chess, but it pleases him to no end that the community can’t get enough and that so many teachers go above and beyond to help kids achieve as much as they can.

“All of the students can go to state level if they participate here,” Shull said. “BISD will pay for them to go to nationals if they place first, second or third.”

At the end of the day, one of the criers lost her match, but her eyes were dry. Next to her sat her mother, holding her hand.