It was a couple of weeks before the OSCF team championships. I was just minding my business when suddenly a unique idea popped up in my head: What if my little brother Neev and I hosted practice and game analysis sessions to help our 2 favorite schools, Jacob Wismer and Stoller Middle? Both school teams already had a very successful history in the Portland Chess community. And I wanted to continue the legacy. So, I proposed this to my dad and he agreed to help me immediately. He made a very organized google spreadsheet so that parents/students could pick their preferred times and share their chess.com IDs to get games analyzed. I don’t know what we would have done without this!
Portland Chess and Local Schools FTW!
I knew a lot of kids, because they were on my brother’s FLL team. They all either went to Stoller or JW, which was pretty cool. His entire FLL team came to at least two of the sessions which was crazy amazing! There were also many other kids who I got to know as well. Since they were beginner players, Neev & I couldn’t teach many advanced tips to them. Instead we adapted and gave very basic tips such as opening principles, simple tactics, or just other beginner-friendly ideas. It was very funny to see them make silly moves and then tell me that they didn’t know why they made them. Everyone had lots of fun during the sessions, and many returned for more because they loved this concept of learning from mistakes. I could easily tell that everyone was improving after returning to a second session of practice.
I was extremely proud when it was time for the awards ceremony. My favorite elementary school, Jacob Wismer, won 1st place! Almost a dozen kids won board awards (meaning they were the best on their board #) And my favorite middle school Stoller became co-champion. I was secretly sad & disappointed when we stopped doing the analysis sessions; I would’ve really liked to spend more time with the little chess champs and help them grow more at their game. The sense of fulfillment when helping teams is really great, and I will continue doing these analysis sessions in high school, and maybe even when I’m off to college!
Next up: What other ways can we elevate Portland Chess for the youth?
