Learn and play at free fest
Celebrating chess
By Valerie Vinyard
vvinyard@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.08.2008
Jean Hoffman hopes to show that chess is more.
The 27-year-old Tucsonan has put together a free event Saturday to do just that.
Chess Fest 2008 will celebrate the launch of 9 Queens, a nonprofit organization formed last year by Hoffman and Jennifer Shahade, 27, a Women's Grandmaster.
If you stop by Hotel Congress at 2 p.m. Saturday, you'll notice a chess master playing blindfolded. Anyone is welcome to challenge the master.
At 3 p.m., Mayor Bob Walkup will officiate the speed-chess tournament, which will take place until about 5 p.m. The tournament will be outside, workshops inside.
Some of the tourney games will be mirrored on demo board screens, which Hoffman described as poster chess boards that allow more people to see.
Two-time American Women's Chess Champion Shahade and back-to-back national chess champions from Catalina Foothills High School will provide workshops and mentoring. The workshops, for all skill levels, will include rules and puzzle contests.
Robby Adamson has been the chess coach at Catalina Foothills for five years. Adamson, a local attorney, has been playing chess since he was about 8. He said a half-dozen members of previous Catalina chess teams would be at the Chess Fest.
"I like the impact chess has on kids — I know the impact it had on me," said Adamson, 37.
"It teaches you how to lose; it teaches you humility; it teaches you that if you want to be good at something you have to work at it. It's the kind of thing that should be taught at the lower grades."
At about 5 p.m., 32 people will create a human chessboard in the parking lot for the event's finale. Shahade and the tournament winner that day will play a game using the human "pieces."
Hoffman, who has taught chess in New York City public schools through the nonprofit Chess in the Schools, said that chess improves concentration, self-esteem and thinking skills.
Hoffman moved back to Tucson in June 2007 after earning a master's of education at Harvard. Shahade lives in Philadelphia, where she is the online editor for U.S. Chess Life.
To register for the tournament, go to 9queens.org. Prizes will be awarded to the top eight players in the tournament.
In the fall, 9 Queens will offer its first 16-week chess program at Roskruge Bilingual Elementary and Middle School. Hoffman will teach an hour-long lesson each week in five classrooms during the school day.
"It will be an enrichment class for them," said Norma Otero, the school's chess coordinator. "The biggest thing is just introducing children to the world of chess, so they can get those higher-order thinking skills."
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