Life lessons: Students develop skills through chess
Damien Willis, Las Cruces Sun-News
LAS CRUCES – Students at Loma Heights Elementary are learning valuable lessons and life skills at the chessboard.
Loma Heights now has one of the largest chess clubs in the Las Cruces Public Schools district. Thirty-two students showed up Friday afternoon to the club’s final meeting of the school year. Many students play every chance they get — on the playground at lunchtime, after school and at home with their parents.
“I started playing chess with the students last year,” said Yvette Colmant, a counselor and social worker at the school. “I found it helpful in connecting with at-risk youth. Many kids saw the chessboard in my office and naturally gravitated toward the game.”
As interest grew, Colmant applied for and received a $3,000 grant from First Move, an organization working to integrate chess into second- and third-grade classrooms. Studies suggest teaching kids to play chess improves science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills, teaches critical and creative thinking, and improves cognitive thinking skills.
“I teach chess to all second- and third-graders, and found the use of chess helpful to both the advanced and struggling learner in promoting psychosocial development,” Colmant said.
This year, close to 200 second- and third-grade students at Loma Heights learned the game through hour-long lessons every other week. Loma Heights students recently won first, second and third place at a chess tournament the club participated in, and interest among the students has been growing exponentially, Colmant said.
“I have been fortunate to enlist the help of local chess teacher Jesse Vick, who has been volunteering his time to work with the kids in learning the art of the game,” she said. “He currently works as one of our lunch monitors and takes a few chessboards out on the recess playground. He has found that it helps with social interaction and good sportsmanship.”
Parents see results
While the chess club only began a few months ago, parents have already begun to notice a change in their students. Vanessa Herrera, the mother of Loma Heights third-grader Michael Hignight, 9, said he has been playing for about five weeks.
“Michael has a short attention span, but learning chess has helped with that,” Herrera said. “He’s able to sit there and play for quite a while, and he’s actually pretty good at it, which is nice. It helps him with his problem solving, and to look ahead and really think about what he’s going to do next. I’ve noticed a huge difference. It’s crazy.”
Herrera said the game has helped with Michael’s memory, too.
“He played a game against a seventh-grader, and the seventh-grader won within six moves,” she said Friday. “Last night, we went to play chess at the church, which they have every Thursday. He beat another kid with the same moves.”
A local chess group meets Thursday afternoons at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Las Cruces, 2000 S. Solano Drive. Vick plays with the group, and several Loma Heights students have begun playing there as well.
Herrera said she bought Michael a chessboard to play at home, and that she has started learning the game and playing with him.
Leah Plaatje is the mother of Zachary Plaatje, 8, a third-grader at Loma Heights. She has also seen a change in her son in the two months he has been playing.
“He has ADHD, so being in chess club has helped him learn how to focus,” Plaatje said. “He’s doing better in classes, and he feels so much better about himself. Because chess is a game, he’s able to focus because he wants to win. Kids with ADHD, their minds just run a little bit faster — so he’s able to process his opponents’ moves way before they do it.”
Plaatje said Zachary has begun playing in United States Chess Federation tournaments, and the family also plays chess with him at home.
“This is one of the best things that we could have done for him, to help him with all of his problems,” Plaatje said. “His grades have gone up. His behavior has improved in class and on the playground. He’s learning how to slow down, and he’s learning impulse control.”
Eight at a time
At Friday’s meeting of the Loma Heights Chess Club, the group was visited by Sophia Moore, 11, a sixth-grader from Camino Real Middle School. Last month, Sophia was crowned New Mexico Girls State Chess Champion, K-12. She is the first girls champion from Las Cruces.
She began playing chess three years ago, while attending Desert Hills Elementary. On Friday, she won more than 20 games against Loma Heights students — playing eight games at a time. No one beat her.
“I like chess because it’s just very interesting,” she said afterward. “You can’t move just based on instinct, you have to think it through.”
Sophia said she is usually thinking two or three moves ahead. She said that playing eight games at once presents a unique set of challenges.
“Your mind just has to be able to shift from one game to the other,” she said. “I like doing that, because I like to multitask.”
This summer, Sophia will represent New Mexico in the national girls Tournament of Champions in Indianapolis. She said she is grateful to her teachers, including at the End Game Chess Club and a group of senior citizens she plays with each week at the Munson Center.
Strategies and sportsmanship
“Chess teaches me to make better decisions,” said Jonathan Carrillo, 11, a fifth-grader at Loma Heights. “It’s like (Stephen Covey’s) Seven Habits. One of them is ‘begin with the end in mind.’ And it teaches you to make a plan before you start. You need to know what you’re going to do before you do it.”
Jonathan said that Vick has taught the club some common chess strategies and the importance of good sportsmanship.
“It’s a huge sense of accomplishment, seeing them grow in their abilities from week to week,” said Vick, who is one of the highest-ranked chess players in Las Cruces. “It’s great to see the excitement on their faces when I take them to tournaments, and seeing how passionate they are about the game.”
Vick said he has seen students develop a greater attention span, respect for authority and improved patience.
“A lot of these kids have disabilities and problems,” Vick said. “I have Tourette’s Syndrome, and chess has helped me so much. And I see these kids who can’t focus on anything else, but when they’re at the board, nothing else bothers them. Nothing else matters.”
As a social worker, Colmant said she has seen chess help students develop better social dynamics and communication skills.
“On Friday, two children who were playing chess in the corner waved their hands and asked for help,” Colmant said. “When I went to their table, one student let me know the other may have been cheating. Their solution was to annotate their moves so there would be no question about cheating. These were two second-graders. They didn't lose their tempers or yell at each other, they solved the problem. That was a clear, real-life example of what chess brings to our school.”
Damien Willis may be reached at 575-541-5468, dawillis@lcsun-news.com or @damienwillis on Twitter.
