Story Photos
 Clatskanie first-grade Zad Mallonee, 7, gears up for this weekend's state chess tournament at practice Wednesday. Bill Wagner / The Daily News
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Chess takes hold in Clatskanie
Sunday, April 13, 2008 1:06 AM PDT
By Stephanie Mathieu
Printable version
E-mail this articleCLATSKANIE, Ore. - Forget Guitar Hero or MySpace. There's something unexpectedly old-school gripping the attention of kids in this small town: Chess.
The Clatskanie Chess Club is one of the largest in Oregon, its members estimate. The highly strategic board game is taught to second- and third-graders in the city's public schools, and club leader Kate Taylor said roughly 600 out of Clatskanie's 1,000 students now play chess.
Taylor and her son Michael, whom she home schooled, have organized funding, brought the game into the schools, staged clever tournaments and engaged the whole town in a classic, mentally challenging activity.
In fact, 22 of the 200 finalists for the Oregon Scholastic Chess Federation State Championship in Seaside on Saturday - more than 10 percent of all the players who squared off - are students from Clatskanie. And one of those competitors is 7 years old.
"This is one of the best things that has happened to Clatskanie," said Melody Skirvin, mother of two children in the club.
Learning the game helps students' math skills, teaches them how to be good sports and is a inexpensive hobby that children of all ages and income levels can play, Skirvin said. "It builds up their self-esteem and their confidence."
'It takes focus'
On Wednesday afternoon, club founder Michael Taylor, 17, stood in the large sunlit room of Clatskanie's old middle school drilling players about strategy. He showed how to protect a king with three pawns, and the best position for a knight.
The students whipped up their hands at his questions as he pointed to his chess-board poster.
In an interview that afternoon, Michael Taylor said his pupils get so wrapped up in the game, "they don't know they're learning."
One of them, 7-year-old Zad Mallonee, was coerced into joining the club by his parents, but now he plays for the glory.
"The first day I came here, I was interested in winning trophies," said the first-grader, who competed against opponents with similar skills. In the last year, Zad secured one trophy, a couple medals and competed in about five tournaments.
"I had good sportsmanship," Zad said, reflecting on the trophy he won for how he treated his opponent. "I shook hands with him and said 'better luck next time.' "
Zad has other hobbies, including playing the occasional video game, but "I mostly rest for tournaments," he said. Playing chess makes him feel smarter. "It takes focus. You've got to think about your moves. It takes a lot of time."
Celina Vidos, 11, who has played chess for the last couple of years, said she's met a lot of friends through the activity and hopes even more kids join.
"It's a really fun hobby and they might like it too," she said.
Celina practices at least three times a week, either at club meetings or at home with her sister, who also belongs to the club.
Why so popular?
Michael Taylor started the club when he was just 9, at the suggestion of his parents. He had been driving them crazy all summer by asking them to play chess game after chess game.
The manager of a local bank gave him $25 to buy a chess board and pieces, and Michael started advertising for his club meetings in the Clatskanie library. "I put ads in the newspaper and fliers around town," he said.
Soon the organization grew from two players to too many to fit in the library. Now there are more than 200 members of all ages, most of them students.
About three years ago, Michael's mother, Kate Taylor, secured a $3,000 grant from America's Foundation for Chess to place chess equipment in Clatskanie classrooms and to teach educators how to weave the game into curriculum at the elementary school.
"It's just been really, really amazing," she said. Teachers "learned right along with the students."
Studies show shuffling pawns, rooks and queens in pursuit of check-mating the opponent's king improves students' math skills and teaches pattern recognition, Kate Taylor said.
The game also is incredibly addicting -- "in a good way," she said. Students who learn in class will go to club meetings to play more and get their friends and siblings hooked on the game, too.
"I'm like the chess pusher," Kate Taylor joked.
The club organizes about six tournaments a year and has drawn people from other states with quirky ideas such as encouraging players to show up in costume.
Bridging gaps
Kate Taylor said parents enjoy the club because chess is a game they can play with their kids. The club has also brought children from different backgrounds and interests together.
Skirvin said her 8-year-old son, Allen, got into chess in third grade. He started going to chess club and soon got his older brother involved.
"Just a couple weeks ago, they talked me into playing a game and they crushed me," Skirvin said. "I had fun and everybody teased me."
Michael Taylor said the appeal of the games carries beyond stereotypical geeks. High school athletes play the game during the hour between school and practice, and special education students are in the club.
"There's something about it they can grasp," Michael Taylor said of the special education students.
"They're the ones who have shown the most growth in the classroom," his mother added.
Club members meet several times a week and even play each other online. Kate Taylor also will teach beginners' chess class at Lower Columbia College this spring.
The mother-son coaching team has much to do with the club's success, parents say.
"Kate and Michael have definitely done it," Skirvin said. "They're pretty amazing."
checkmate wrote on Apr 13, 2008 7:58 AM:
Grandma wrote on Apr 13, 2008 9:50 AM:
Tex from Cougar wrote on Apr 13, 2008 10:06 AM:
To Gramma wrote on Apr 13, 2008 10:15 AM:
to tex wrote on Apr 13, 2008 10:32 AM:
Louie wrote on Apr 13, 2008 11:12 AM:
I imagine NO ONE ELSE except you, Tex, thought of this wonderful happening as a bad thing.
This is a wonderful, thought provoking, time consuming game. So much better than noses to a computer screen or TV hour after hour. Clatskanie should be very proud of these kids. Maybe some of the Clatskanie kids could invite Longview kids to come learn and play the game of Chess with them? Who knows?, could save another young person from alcohol related death. That would be a good thing.
When I was about 18 I tried to learn the game and did play, hours on end. I enjoyed it in spite of hardly ever winning but I didn't know many other people who played so didn't pursue it. Maybe I'll check out the offering of classes in Chess playing at LCC. "
Zad's Grandma wrote on Apr 13, 2008 12:12 PM:
Good for the minds! wrote on Apr 13, 2008 12:47 PM:
To Tex wrote on Apr 13, 2008 12:53 PM:
Scooby wrote on Apr 13, 2008 12:58 PM:
Where have all of you been? "
Louie wrote on Apr 13, 2008 4:24 PM:
momofchessgirls wrote on Apr 13, 2008 5:42 PM:
"
Mr. Pragmatist wrote on Apr 13, 2008 6:42 PM:
Mom of one chess girl wrote on Apr 13, 2008 6:45 PM:
vargas65 wrote on Apr 13, 2008 7:14 PM:
Zad's Grandma wrote on Apr 13, 2008 8:15 PM:
Busted wrote on Apr 13, 2008 9:28 PM:
to Tex wrote on Apr 13, 2008 9:38 PM:
Not from Texas and proud of it wrote on Apr 13, 2008 9:40 PM:
Somewhere in Texas a Village is Missing its Id__t! "
Kate Taylor wrote on Apr 14, 2008 8:39 AM:
Wow! What a roller coaster ride. The story brought tears to my eyes and many of the reader comments made me laugh!
The success of the Clatskanie Chess Club is due, in large part, to the support of the parents, teachers and the community. Without that, we'd still be playing chess in the local library with 5 or 6 kids.
For those who would like a chess club or chess class at their school, I'd be glad to help. Please do get in touch. Or visit our website for lots of information, including a wonderful article written by Benjamin Franklin on the "Morals of chess".
There's something about chess, I'm not sure what it is. But every once in a while, I'll stop and close my eyes and listen to the sounds of kids being smart... it's like magic.
Kate "
Jackal wrote on Apr 14, 2008 11:03 AM:
don't worry about Tex wrote on Apr 14, 2008 11:17 AM:
London wrote on Apr 14, 2008 11:20 AM:
With all due respect, lighten-up
Of course, you have a right to voice your opinion on these pages even if it is uninformed.
Should we ban all competitions and dismantle capitalism?
Need I say:
Winning and losing are a natural part of life; chess, in part, can prepare our youngsters for such a reality.
Life presents itself to us as a mutual eating society, where some beings live at the expense of others. That would include battles in the garden between lettuce and slugs as well as the entire animal world. Even bacteria feed on each other. Perhaps we should all stop eating. No?
Competition for resources is fundamental to all existence. However, the processes of symbiosis, charity and altruism exist simultaneously. Could we have one without the other? I don't think so; if so, how would you know the difference were it not for contrast?
In a day and age where children exercise their primeval lower brain stems to destroy images of monsters and people through video, isn’t it refreshing to know that some exercise the use of their higher cortical functions to think rationally about actions and their consequences on a board game?
London
"
to Tex wrote on Apr 14, 2008 12:07 PM:
Kate Taylor wrote on Apr 14, 2008 1:36 PM:
Kate Taylor wrote on Apr 14, 2008 2:10 PM:
Chessnuts wrote on Apr 14, 2008 8:09 PM:
Scooby wrote on Apr 14, 2008 8:17 PM:
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