National Chess News

A new strategy for school improvement
District chief makes move to create chess clubs citywide

By Susan Snyder
Philadelphia Inquirer
November 4, 2003

To turn around Philadelphia's schools, district Chief Executive Officer Paul Vallas has overhauled the curriculum, launched an unprecedented building program, and inaugurated a zero-tolerance program for violence.

Yesterday, he announced the latest step toward academic greatness: chess.

Believing that the game builds critical thinking skills, Vallas and his staff said they hoped to establish chess clubs and teams at all 264 district schools over the next four years.

Chess isn't new to some city schools. Masterman High School - one of the district's prestigious academic magnets - has boasted national champions five of the last eight years.

Vaux Middle School also has yielded national champions, and its success under former pioneering principal Salome Thomas-El is likely to become the subject of a Walt Disney Pictures movie.

"Chess is a game that forces children to think critically and be problem solvers," Thomas-El said. "That is the key - students have to be problem solvers. Their lives depend on making good decisions. Chess is the perfect game to learn how to make decisions and deal with the consequences that come with those decisions."

Said Vallas: "Philadelphia has a long history of excellence in chess competitions. We want to spread that excellence to every school in the district. It stimulates intellectual development and teaches discipline. It helps develop the mind."

And it is cost-effective, Vallas said in making the announcement at a meeting of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission. It's only a matter of the stipend for coaches and the cost of the game and some training.

"For us, this is a no-brainer," he said. "Our goal is to... really make Philadelphia the chess capital of the world."

The After School Activities Partnerships, a nonprofit headed by veteran education advocate Marciene Mattleman, joined Vallas to pledge to raise funds to nurture the development of chess teams and sponsor tournaments. The effort already has the support of the Eagles Youth Partnership, which has provided a $10,000 grant.

More than 50 district schools have expressed interest in developing teams this year, she said.

"We're hoping to do a big citywide tournament at the end of the school year," she said.

Nationwide, chess in schools is gaining momentum, said Glenn Petersen, publications consultant for the U.S. Chess Federation. In New Jersey, he added, legislation was passed more than a decade ago that recommended chess be taught in the elementary schools.

About 1,400 schools nationwide have teams that are affiliated with the federation, he said. That figure is up from about 800 a decade ago, he estimated. Chess has become especially popular in New York City, where about 125 schools have clubs and teams.

"We now have over 50,000 youths involved" nationwide, Petersen said.

In Philadelphia, the movement was once popular. Nearly 40 schools ran teams 15 to 20 years ago, educators say, but now that number has dwindled to fewer than 10.

Steve Shutt, a teacher at Masterman High who has coached and promoted chess teams in city schools since 1971, said that budget cuts led to the drop, and that until now there had never been a push from the central district office to build teams at all the schools.

"There was no real funding for it, and gradually people started doing less and less," said Shutt, who has had teams in the national championships since 1977. "Things sort of withered away."

Larry Weiss, of Hippographics Inc. in Pennsauken, has helped fund some district programs over the last seven years, Shutt noted. He has provided about $40,000 a year, Shutt estimated.

"I'm excited about this," Shutt said of the district's new effort. "I would love to see it keep expanding."

Shutt originally built the program at Vaux, which was revived by Thomas-El in the early 1990s.

Thomas-El said he was working on a deal with Disney to have the story of chess at Vaux made into a movie and filmed at the school.

"We're working out the finances right now. They would shoot some time next fall," he said. "It would tell the story of how these kids in the inner city have taken to playing chess."

Thomas-El said he would help Vallas achieve the goal of spreading chess throughout the district by asking his former players - some of them now college students and successful businessmen - to help.

Reynolds Elementary, where Thomas-El is now principal; Houston and Jackson Schools; and Woodrow Wilson Middle School are among district schools that have chess teams.

Thomas-El said about 100 students - roughly a fourth of the student body - play chess at Reynolds.

His students over the years have traveled around the country to play in tournaments, he said. They have been on college campuses.

"We now have students talking about going to Penn State rather than the state pen," he said.

Copyright 2003 Knight Ridder, Inc.