While some children may play chess for a year or less, others stick with the game. It’s fun to see them grow, both taller and as chess players. In this article, I highlight two chess-playing children and their mom.
In 2014, I presented about chess at two public library branches in El Paso, Texas. Attending the presentations were Renate Garcia and her two children, Anneliese and Klaus. I also met Renate’s husband Igor. Igor serves in the US Army National Guard. When Igor is away on active duty, Renate is in charge of the home front, which includes chess. At first, in 2012, Renate just brought Klaus to tournaments. When his younger sister also started to play in tournaments, Renate began coaching chess at branches of the El Paso Public Library. As she told me, her running the library chess clubs (and monthly tournaments during the school year) allows children who don’t have chess at their schools to still be part of an organized chess group. Renate named the group Crusader Chess Club. Check it out on Facebook to learn more about this club, which does not charge any money for club meetings or for tournaments. Renate found a sponsor, The Dental Ark, to provide medals for the tournaments. Renate also coaches chess at her daughter’s school, Vista Hills Elementary School.
Since El Paso is a nine-hour drive from Dallas, I do not see the Garcia family often. So I make sure to get a photo each time with Klaus and Anneliese. For the first photo, in October of 2014, eleven-year-old Klaus was shorter than me. For the second photo (in March of 2017), Klaus was already taller than me. In our last photo, taken September 1, 2018, 10-year-old Anneliese is now up to my shoulder.
Her chess also shows growth. Check out the way she finished her first-round game in the K-12 Scholastic (under 1000 section) of the 84th annual Southwest Open. You may want to solve the position first (White to move) before looking at what Anneliese played.
You can also download Garcia-Horng and replay it in SparkChess.
