Two years ago, Abdul Rahim Khatri couldn’t tell you how to play chess.
All he knew was his school had a club and it was the one organization that drew his interest. So, he taught himself and has since introduced the game to his younger brother.
“Chess makes you smart,” said Khatri, now an eighth-grade student at Academic and Behavior School (ABS) West. “At the beginning, I just knew about moving the pieces, but I didn’t know how to play.”
Khatri has come a long way in chess, as have many students in the four Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) special schools. Twenty-six middle and high school students from ABS East, ABS West Highpoint School and Fortis Academy came together on March 7 to compete in HCDE’s Seventh Annual Chess Tournament.
Chess has proven to be an activity for students to build a number of skills, ranging from critical thinking and time management to social engagement with others and attention to detail. HCDE partnered with Coach James Hudson and Perfect TeamPlay, Inc., an instructional nonprofit organization that uses chess to motivate students and teach math through the game.
Schools earned points based on each win throughout the tournament, while the three levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced) also finished with top three finishers. ABS East won the team trophy with 13 total points, finishing just ahead of Highpoint (10 points).
“It felt good to win,” said Khatri, who won the advance competition and also played Superintendent James Colbert Jr. to a stalemate. “It felt like I achieved something really good.”
Most students enter the program with little to no knowledge of the game but can quickly pick it up through coaching by Hudson and their peers.
“You’re going to have some students where you see an immediate change, and then you’re going to have some students where you may not see any change at all,” Hudson said. “What we believe in is the statement that chess is a marathon. So, once we put it in them, whether they gravitate to it or pick up the concept early or may it be late, we believe by faith they will pick it up.”
In addition to building math skills and critical thinking, chess can improve cognitive skills including memory, concentration and spatial reasoning. It can also help build self-confidence, discipline and the relationship between cause and consequence.
“The goal is not for them to know how to play chess,” said Colbert, who was taught the game 30 years ago by his former students. “It’s to understand how life is just like a game of chess where you have to be thinking five moves ahead, you need to have a plan and sometimes it involves sacrifice and patience. So that’s what we’re trying to teach them without them even knowing it.”
That’s the case for Carson Denham, an eighth-grade student at ABS East who wore a chess-themed shirt for the tournament. It featured the seven games pieces and two sentences: “I never lose. Either I win or I learn.”
Denham learned chess before coming to ABS East but through Hudson and the opportunity to participate on a regular basis, became more engaged in the game and even competes in outside tournaments. His grandmother, Abby Stanley, attended the tournament and said the benefits of chess have shown in Denham.
“He plays baseball but now he sits at a table and has to think strategically about what he’s doing,” Stanley said. “He even plays on his phone all the time.”
Said Denham: “I really see it as more of a life skill than a game.”
The competition was intense, resulting in joyous cheers for the winning individuals and team. The overall outcome of having students from all four HCDE special schools come together for friendly competition was resounding. It adds a building block to helping students grow.
“The joy from that is unspeakable,” Hudson said. “I’ll have kids come up to me that I don’t even remember, and they’ll remind that I taught them how to play chess. It’s a beautiful thing because you know what’s being said. That these kids can’t learn or have disabilities. But we’re showing that they can focus, they can pay attention, they can follow instructions when asked to, they can behave. It’s the best feeling in the world.”