The state's first "Granite Gambit Chess Festival" is a checkmate
May 5—School cafeterias are often echo chambers of laughter and mayhem.
But the cafeteria at Manchester Memorial High School on Saturday, site of the state's first Granite Gambit Chess Festival, was pin-drop silent — transformed into a learning and playing arena for an activity that is high-stakes, strategic, engrossing and fun.
"I like that it's a fun game," said 8-year-old Lillian Granieri, of Manchester, who started playing two years ago. "Once you put the effort into it, it makes you happy because you can move the pieces wherever you want, and you need a smart brain to do it. You might think it's an easy game, but it actually takes talent."
In a tense 15-minute match, a third-grader faced off against a fifth-grader.
"Checkmate!" the younger boy shouted.
"I know what I should have done," the older boy muttered.
Roughly 38 students from the Seacoast, central and southern New Hampshire came to test their mettle against fellow chess lovers at what may become an annual children's event.
Face-to-face interaction. Social skills. Patience. Forethought. Pattern recognition. Critical thinking. Making choices. The benefits to children are innumerable, teachers say.
In a competitive, screen- and team-based school world, it's an individual sport, an age-inclusive pastime, a club activity and an educational tool, even for the youngest learners, said Vince Bradley, the New Hampshire Chess Association's scholastic coordinator.
Basically, it's about thinking.
"The best move isn't always to capture your opponent," Bradley said. "It's not about strength. It's about your position. After someone makes a counter move, you have to edit your plan and re-evaluate."
The six-hour festival buzzed with chatter between sessions. Most games were a flurry of fast advances and pieces suddenly grabbed or swiped.
Across the hall, in the school library, Emma Roy and Rowan Huynh, students at Winnacunnet High School, reviewed the game they'd just played.
"I like it when everything comes together, when you're moving pieces to accomplish a goal," said Roy, an 11th-grader who enjoys board games.
"I really like the satisfaction of winning," said Huynh, a 10th-grader and president of Winnacunnet's chess club. "Even if I lose, seeing how everything flows together is really nice."
Both championed the value of playing with friends, and having a tight-knit friend group based on chess.
Maria Easton, a social worker at Seabrook Elementary and Middle School, set up a huge chess board on the library floor with help from Maddux Durrell, a freshman at Memorial High School.
"There are sports available for kids. If you're not motivated or competitive in that, it was important for me to make a smart activity for kids to participate in," Easton said. "We have third- to eighth-graders playing together in Seabrook. There are very few things that multi-age kids can do. I tell my kids, either you win or you learn."
"Students are attracted to chess. They're in control. Their decisions matter. So much of their life is controlled by others," said Jerry Nash, a national consultant for Chess in Education, who teaches kindergartners to play — first with a giant tic-tac-toe-like graph that introduces them to the places on the chess board, and how to think about where their pieces will end up after a series of moves.
"You're focusing on what you're doing and weighing the pros and cons," said Jeanine Petriel, adviser to the chess club at Memorial High School. "It gets them to stop and think through situations."
Jack Glasser, 14, of Derry, a student at Latitude Learning, began playing chess at age 4 or 5. "I believe it's a skill everybody should learn. It's very strategy based. A well-played game of chess is a sign of a strong mind."
Helpful, too, is the social interaction.
"We've had so much time looking at screens, now they're looking at someone eye-to-eye. They're with their cohort of kids," said Paul Roberts, regional coordinator for Chess in Education-U.S.
Interest in chess skyrocketed during COVID as people looked for ways to pass the time at home, and partly because it can be played online and on mobile devices, according to Chess in Education-U.S. "The Queen's Gambit" series on Netflix boosted and broadened the appeal.
