Battling for Glory and Trophies at a Student Chess Tournament
Trophy News From New York & Tennessee
Saturday morning was tough for the Alvarez kids, chess players from the Bronx. After two victories each on Friday, both of them, 7-year-old Evan, and his older sister, Jillian, 12, lost their third-round games at the Super National Scholastic Chess Championships here. And though both had faced higher-rated opponents, the losses were avoidable.
Evan and Jillian made the two-day trip to Knoxville with their mother, Mary, and three busloads of other Bronx children and their families.
What they all came to be a part of was the largest chess tournament in the history of the United States. Some 4,300 children, 4 through 18, from 45 states, came to play seven games each during three days in a single vast hall in the Knoxville Convention/Exhibition Center.
Why is it so popular? One theory is that chess is the intellectual activity with the clearest objective: winning.
”For some inexplicable reason, people get real pleasure out of winning chess games,” Mr. Pandolfini said. ”They feel like they’ve really done something. You are, after all, totally responsible for your own survival.”
One parent put it differently, saying, ”Never underestimate the power of a trophy.”
Evan, who won his morning game, won again, defeating an opponent, Anthony Walker of Phoenix, whose rating was 130 points higher than his own. With 5 1/2 points of 7, Evan finished 21st out of 287, good enough to win a trophy. His team finished fourth.
Jillian lost, to finish with 4 points. But she was satisfied.
”I’m happy I got 4 points for my team,” she said. ”But I’m mad I didn’t get a chess trophy.”
Then the two of them tore off to play each other in speed chess.
Originally written by Bruce Weber in the New York Times
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