Winning wasn’t the only thing on the minds of the nearly 2,000 young players hunkered over chessboards in Rosemont Saturday afternoon.
After all, for every win, there also was a loss during the 2003 National Scholastic K-12/Collegiate Championship.
“The most important part about it is your attitude,” said Justin Goldsmith, 12, a 7th grader at Franklin Fine Arts Center in Chicago. “If you win, you’re happy. If you lose, you learn the most.”
The competition, for preschoolers to college students up to 26 years old, began Friday and culminates Sunday evening with the distribution of hundreds of trophies, each topped by a gold eagle and a king chess piece. The U.S. Chess Federation holds the event in a different city each year.
The championship is unique in the scholastic chess world, organizers said, because it pits players against peers in their own school grade, rather than clustering them by age or rank.
“There are only so many tournaments a year where kids can play kids who are better than they are,” said Ben Linder, who flew from San Francisco with his son Canaan, 9, for the seven-round tournament.
Even defeat can be a winning experience, Linder said.
“It’s better to say you learn from your mistakes than to say you learn from losing,” he said. Linder speaks from experience: He no longer can beat his son at chess.
Teddy Katz, 6, of New York City took time off from kindergarten to attend the competition with his father, Rich.
“He’s really into it,” said the elder Katz, who categorizes his own chess skills as “seriously bad.”
Win or lose, chess boosts brains and self-esteem, said teacher Jason Mayhorn, who brought his team of seven 5th graders from Franklinton Alternative Elementary School in Columbus, Ohio.
“It gives them an opportunity to be successful with peers from different socioeconomic groups,” Mayhorn said.
For most of the players, the time between rounds simply was a chance for more chess. Children draped over tables and sprawled on the floor with roll-up boards, intently focused on five-minute rounds.
“The game itself is formal,” said Richard Lung, parent sponsor for the District 64 Chessmaster Club at Emerson Middle School in Niles. “But the camaraderie between rounds is what they really enjoy.”
