Archer Glen Chess Team

I'm past due for some postings, so expect to see a bunch over the coming week. Work and travel have been exceptionally heavy recently so there hasn't been much gaming activity.

From October through spring break I run the chess program at Jacob and Matthew's elementary school, Archer Glen. This year I taught two classes before school, a beginner class with 1-3 graders and an advanced class with 2-5 graders. Jacob and Matthew are both in the advanced class and helped me with the beginner class when they could manage to wake up early enough. Julie was kind enough to cover for me when travel kept me from teaching.

This year we only entered the team in a single tournament, the Chess for Success regional tournament. This is a great program in the state of Oregon that fosters chess at all levels. This was going to be a rebuilding year for the team (no strong 5th graders and only three 4th graders that I thought were competitive) so I mixed the team up a bit to give some strong 2-3 graders the opportunity to play.

The 2004-2005 Archer Glen chess team.

The kids had a great time; unfortunately Jacob was sick so the team was left without one of its top 3 players. They finished near the bottom of the region but I'm confident we'll have a much stronger showing next year.