By Mary Owen
Checkmate! Not a word a 9-year-old often utters, but to Jackson Christian, the chess term is old hat.
“I really got interested in the game about a year ago,” said Christian, a third-grader at Aumsville Elementary School who recently went undefeated at the Chess for Success Regional Tournament.
When he was 4 years old, Christian moved his first pawn. He went on to learn the game, thriving on the strategy. Today, he loves playing chess, going to tournaments, meeting new friends and feeling he is doing something “big” with his life, he said.
“After beating my dad a lot, my parents thought I should join the chess club,” said Christian, who is the youngest member of his team. “I was really excited about winning the tournament. Competition makes me work harder.”
Chess also helped Aumsville Chess Club founder Jeff Risher improve his concentration in the classroom as a student.
“It made me a better student,” said Risher, who teaches physical education at Aumsville Elementary.
In 2007, after coming to Aumsville Elementary, Risher started the chess club to get involved in other areas of education. Today, he mentors 10 chess players, including Christian, all third- and fourth-graders. The students meet after school every Wednesday to learn the strategies and basic tactics of the game, Risher said.
“I feel that my players will learn best from understanding the foundation of the game,” he said. “I try to give them different puzzles to figure out, and we really practice taking our time to make a move so that we can focus on all the possibilities.”
Risher’s team took first in the Chess for Success Regional Tournament in February. Players were Sean-Michael Riesterer, Davin Finn, Isaac Marquez, Jon Holly and Christian. Other members are: McKenzie Farden, Owen Hatfield, Joshua Osuna-Sola and Alejandra Osuna-Sola.
Risher said his club fared well at the state competition following the regionals, “only winning one out of five matches as a team, but we learned a lot.”
“The students have made great success during the year,” Risher said. “The Regional Tournament was the first time the players played against other schools in a tournament.”
Future goals for the Aumsville players include participating in more tournaments, hosting a tournament of their own and holding fund-raisers.
“Supplies are limited and the tournaments cost money, which is part of the reason only five of our players were able to attend regionals,” Fisher said.
