Spring Scholastic Chess Tournament at Mississippi Children’s Museum-Meridian on Saturday

MERIDIAN, Miss. (WTOK) - Players from all over the East Mississippi area competed at the Scholastic Spring Chess Tournament at the Mississippi Children’s Museum of Meridian on Saturday morning.

The 1500 year old game was turned into a multi-level tournament in swiss-format with K-8 unrated and rated players, and K-12 rated players. There were a total of 5 rounds for the entire game.

“We have a lot of rated players, which means we have a lot of serious players showing up,” said Daniel Roberts, Northwest Middle School Chess Team’s Coach. “We also have a lot of unrated players, especially in the K-3 K-8 area, which means we have a lot of new players who are starting to get interested in chess and that’s what we need for the growth, to get people into it and started.”

Chess is a way to get children involved while also sharpening their brain skills on many different levels.

“Chess has a direct impact on math, reading, problem solving, even behavioral skills,” said Roberts. “They get so much more out of it by learning how to play chess, and it’s just a great development skill all around.”

Some of the players were trained by their parents, and others are on actual chess teams at their schools.

“It has really become such a thing; a lot of schools are teaching chess and have chess clubs now,” said Hope Vollm, who is the Assistant Director of Education and Programs at MCM. “I know they were just saying, like Kemper County has just like really started out in their schools and they brought a whole bus today. Meridian does it as well, and Lamar has a chess team.”

There were more than 70 children who played in the chess tournament. Not only were there several participants, but their parents stayed and supported them through their game.

“Also what I’m excited about is we have a lot of parents showing up and the parent involvement is so important with these kids getting them in something as productive as chess,” said Roberts.

Trophies were awarded to the top three players in each division.

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