Columbus Day Chess Tournament Is Huge Hit

While October 10th, Columbus Day, was a much appreciated day off for New York students, hundreds of them spent their free time in a productive fashion.

On Columbus Day, over 650 New York students participated in the annual Columbus Day Chess Challenge at PS 11 Elementary School in Chelsea. The challenge is organized every year by the non-profit New York-based organization Chess in the Schools. Chess in the Schools was founded 30 years ago as a program trying to “find the next Bobby Fischer,” as president and CEO Debbie Eastburn said.

The founders “started this program to teach kids chess,” Eastburn continued. And, what they realized is that chess is even more valuable to the kids who aren’t going to be the next Bobby Fischer.” Eastburn said that chess was an invaluable tool for teaching kids other life skills, not just for teaching chess proficiency.

Chess in the Schools has a wide-reaching impact in the New York metro area. They have partnered with 44 different schools across the boroughs for chess classroom instruction, which reaches around 11,500 students. Over 100 schools received invites to the Columbus Day challenge. Eastburn says that one of the major factors that leads to the heavy interest in the challenge is the fact that Chess in the Schools does not charge an entry fee.

“Other chess tournaments in the city, you have to pay to enter,” Eastburn elaborated. “But we are a non-profit, and we want to make chess accessible to anyone who wants to play. We don’t want an entry fee to be a barrier for a kid to participate.”

Chess in the Schools’ charitable nature . The children they serve, aged anywhere from six to eighteen, often come from low-income backgrounds. Eastburn commented, “Many of our kids come from Title 1 schools, which are the lowest-income schools.” The organization hosts 30 tournaments a year, but one reason that the Columbus Day tournament is so popular is because it takes place on a holiday, as opposed to their many other tournaments, which usually occur on Saturdays. Plus the 11,500 students reached regularly through classroom instruction, free tournaments like the Columbus ay challenge can attract another 5,000 children.

The impact of Chess in the Schools is certainly deep. Many of the participants enter the program as young students aged six or seven, and continue with the program as they get older. One of these students, sophomore Devin Castillo of the Manhattan Early College of Advertising, started with Chess in the Schools as an elementary student. “Chess in the Schools was in my elementary school, which is how I got connected,” Castillo explained. “It was like a class in elementary school. We would meet once or twice a week.” Castillo is an avid chess player today; he participates in “three or four tournaments a month”, all of them sponsored by Chess in the Schools.

While students may not have been at school this Columbus Day, many of them still were sharpening their minds playing chess, while learning valuable life lessons along the way, like “problem solving, creative thinking, patience, and concentration.” Who knew a day off could be so educational.