Clark Elementary Eagles Play Chess

By Alex Vergilesov

The eagles have landed … on the chess board! Forty-six students at Clark Elementary School in Webster Groves have joined the CCSCSL’s scholastic program. The group was split into three classes, by grade level, and three instructors give lessons simultaneously at the facility on Tuesdays. It is one of the biggest individual programs in the CCSCSL scholastic chess program.

I coordinated the effort for the first class and trained a new instructor, Brian Jerauld, at the school’s first day of class on October 25. I was surprised to find that most of the students at the school had previous experience playing chess. Initially, a three-class chess club was piloted at the school in February to see if there was interest from the student body. With overwhelming interest, 18 students signed up for the class! The number has almost tripled this Fall.

Instructors assigned to Clark are Brian Jerauld, Patrick Burkhardt and Ken West. Students in the 1st-2nd grade class are quickly learning piece movement, while students in grades 3, 4, and 5 are taking their first lessons in tactics and opening theory. The class is scheduled to go until the end of the Fall semester, but I am confident that the school will continue to offer our programming past 2011.

Big thanks for making this possible goes out to Carol Anthony, and Principal Bill Schiller at Clark!

Go EAGLES!