In 2019 when our library was renovated and reopened in the NorthEast I signed up to volunteer with the City of El Paso at the Richard Burges Branch. I found out the previous chess educators were not returning and our librarian Ellen asked if Coach Plasencia and I would be interested in facilitating chess activity. I loved the library’s new look and our librarian was enthusiastic about chess activities continuing in the new program space. We started hosting chess club at Richard Burges Library after club activities at school and on weekends. At this time, I also thought about ways to incorporate the online scholastic platform called Chess Kid. I started by registering as an educator and had our school nurse Queen Calijya register as well. We also connected with King Rey from Eastwood Knolls who’s been active in the chess community for quite some time. I’ve always been interested in utilizing Chess Kid as a teaching tool or simply to promote chess through the online platform but found it challenging to get our participants and their parents registered as well. It was difficult to set up a club students could actually join and connect through. Early on any registrations we were able to set up were temporary as youth became disinterested trying to trouble shoot issues and opted to focus on over the board chess activity.
We hosted our first Back to School chess tournament and a series of other chess events to close 2019 and start the new 2020 decade. There was a lot going on! This included our school’s first ever chess tournament and preparation to celebrate Segundo Barrio’s La Fe Chess team as they prepared for State competition. La Fe’s Coach Plasencia has been coaching chess in the city for years and had raised thousands of dollars to take a very talented crew of elementary/middle schoolers from the South Side of El Paso to Houston. Around this time, our Cobra Chess Club also participated in the Regional chess championship tournament securing 1st place and defending our title from the year prior. Having started just a few years back as a chess club, we started thinking about the possibility of competing in State tournament play too. Watching La Fe turn a dream into reality taught us a lot about fundraising and the work that goes into developing the kind of chess culture that builds enthusiasm amongst its participants. Also there’s a lot to learn about understanding how to advocate for chess to convince school leadership to support its educational benefits and the opportunity for youth to build community through the game.
The last time we got together over the boards in person was on March 9th, 2020. This was the day we invited La Fe to the Nolan Richardson Recreation Center for chess, chips, and juice to celebrate their upcoming flight to Houston. This was just a few days before it was confirmed that COVID-19 arrived in Texas. Little did we know, all of our lives would soon change. By the time we met on March 9th there was already messages being exchanged that the tournament would either be postponed or cancelled indefinitely. We were hearing about how grave the pandemic got in other parts of the world and would soon realize our worst fears as the virus made its way throughout El Paso households in all zip codes. The reality of this deadly pandemic became clearer once schools decided that it would no longer be safe for us to return for in person instruction. Everything in the city closed. Things like going to the grocery store became strange ordeals requiring us to mask up and wait in lines for toilet paper. Public libraries closed too as did favorite places to eat and access to public parks. Masks became enforced and family gatherings were discouraged once the body count started to mount on the local news. Being in the same room for chess came to an end for the foreseeable future. It was time to start thinking of another way to stay connected as a chess club.
I reached out to Chess Kid to discuss some of the problems I had signing students into the online platform and to learn how I could help facilitate that process for our students at Canyon Hills. Since we were in quarantine I figured there would be no better time to figure this out than now. Special thanks to Michelle of Chess Kid for teaching me how to navigate the platform as an educator and how to guide students on setting up accounts so that they could connect with classmates and learn more about chess.
Early on, we started slow. Our first registered member was our Queen Cobra, Queen Abalea aka The Nightfall. Upon arriving from an extended Spring Break and getting over the pressures of preparing for online school, we were uncertain what our after school activities would like during remote learning. I decided to keep our after school schedule going for Chess and modified the hours to support our new virtual situation. This would prove to be easier said than done once we realized how tiring it was to be logged in all day for school. To ask students to sign back on the computer again after school for chess would be a challenge. However, we did have a few Queen and King Cobras embrace the idea of reconnecting in a space that allowed them to socialize with their classmates. This gave students more time to talk and catch up since time was limited during instruction. Early on Queen Abalea was one of few that would sign in consistently. She even came up with other times such as our Cobra Chess Break session during lunch and Weekend Chess Kids to open up times for students to check in when they’d had a break from school. She’d create fliers and chalk art to promote. While our intentions were good, things got complicated when we realized that some students weren’t able to access Chess Kid or other online chess platforms from their district issued MacBooks. Many of the online chess platforms were blocked or would continuously show errors when students tried to connect and play.
With Queen Abalea’s help we learned how to walk our students through these issues signing on instead through alternate devices if available such as mobile phones, IPADs, and their parent’s devices. Within two months we managed to sign up at least 30 Queen and King Cobras. In the meantime, I submitted tickets to our technology department with hopes to resolve the connection issues we were experiencing. Around the same time, Coach Steve and Coach Plasencia also kick started weekly chess challenges on another platform called Li Chess by encouraging youth city wide to register, login and compete twice a week. For students that were able to connect they played chess throughout the entire summer competing with clubs from other towns including the chess community of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
When I found out about the upcoming Texas Chess Association tournament with Chess Kid, I was very excited. Watching our chess family on the South Side not have the chance to compete on a State level, I felt this could be a way for us all to have a chance to be a part of something we missed out on. Reviewing how much this would cost discouraged me to pitch the opportunity especially not knowing how much families had been effected by the changing economy due to pandemic. To avoid the stress of wondering if this would turn families off to chess altogether, I decided I’d select a small group of students from our Cobra Chess Club that had some experience playing online and pay the fees myself. I shared a tweet where I mentioned coming out of pocket for this upcoming opportunity and a teacher and New Tech colleague responded by encouraging me to find another way to reach out. After speaking with Ms. Aguirre, she persuaded me that there was a community of people out there that if they knew what we were trying to do, would be more than willing to support. Long story short, that’s exactly what happened. Over a dozen of our students had the chance to participate in the Texas Chess State Chesskid Online Scholastic Championship.
We joined over 700 other youth players in Texas and logged in during the second week of November to make sure we’d be able to access the platform on November 15th. Just like tournaments that we use to prepare for in the city, we all got up early feeling the butterflies, nervous, and checked in with each other to confirm students were able to login for the long afternoon ahead.
Thirteen of our middle schoolers from Canyon Hills Middle School and one high schooler from Chapin were able to participate in the event. While I hoped to track their progress it proved a bit more difficult than I thought. On district computers six months later students still couldn’t access the features on Chess Kid to compete online. Prior to the event students found alternate ways to login in using mobile devices, IPADS, or their parent’s laptop/computer. A tech even dropped off a laptop at our campus for one of our students to pick up so that he could login and participate. With students tuned in from different locations we’d have to wait until things moved along to see how they were doing in the tournament.
In our region there are very few opportunities for youth to participate in rated play or develop in a space where there are enough players to determine their true rating. For the tournament, all participants regardless if they were a beginner or intermediate were placed in the Championship section. Despite being outmatched, it felt good to see our students be a part of something that was happening for the first time in the history of our game in Texas. Aside from our participation and success in local regional events, this would be the first time that we’d feel seen or part of our State chess community. We’re a long way from Dallas and Houston so it was nice to see our school’s name documented alongside a listing of other clubs in the State that were participating in this first of a kind online chess event.
This was only possible because of Ms. Aguirre’s encouragement to reach out to a community that was willing to help. This also included a few of my peers and members of our Cobra Chess family that prior to the pandemic never hesitated to provide transportation to and from events, to pay for food, to start a concession at our first school tournament, and to allow their children to spend time with us during club and on weekends to prepare ourselves for local tournament play.
Already closing in on February 2021, it doesn’t look like there will be any regional Texas Chess Association activities in our community. It has been pretty quiet since the online State tournament and though there have been more opportunities for virtual mass online chess events, I’m afraid the costs associated with these opportunities are going to be tough to keep up with as we watch from the virtual sidelines. Thankfully, we have a couple of coaches locally who continue to host club activities and set up spaces for students to log in, check in, and test their skills. After sharing a few ideas, we do have a plan moving ahead to open up opportunities for students to participate in a manner that doesn’t involve costly fees, that allows students the opportunity to safely participate more often during this pandemic while also educating students on fair play. 2020 created a lot of challenges that in many ways continue to haunt us in 2021…but I’m optimistic about ideas to create spaces for Chess Kids to connect, learn and challenge one another on the 64 squares of strategy.
Til’ the next update, check!
This one’s for everybody that made it possible for us to participate in the Texas State Chesskid Online Scholastic event. Results from the chess event can be found at the following link: 2020 TX State ChessKid Online Scholastic Results
Thank you,
Mr. Lee aka mrKingCobra
