Scott County showed up strong for National Chess Day as youth and children participated in the first Randy Richardson Memorial Chess Camp last month. The one-day camp was designed to introduce them to chess and offer a chance to play in a mock tournament to exercise their skills.
The camp was held on October 14 at the Forest Public Library and featured three age groups based on school grades 2-4, 5-8, and 9-12, and included 15 players after 21 initially pre-registered. The camp coincided with National Chess Day, celebrated annually on the second Saturday of October.
The camp, co-hosted by the library and the Scott County Chess Club, was free to the participants and fully funded through a $1,000 donation. Forest native Michael Hawkins made the donation in Richardson’s memory in appreciation for Richardson having taught Hawkins and others how to play chess while they were seniors in 1960 at Forest High School.
Chris Allen Baker, who directed the camp and provided instructions to the players, said he was pleased with the turnout for the first camp that paves the way to more teaching of chess to area children.
“We had a great turnout for our first time out and all the players were receptive to a lot of information that I threw at them in a small amount of time. Judging by their reactions, they seemed to have a great time and asked good questions,” Baker said. “This camp is an example of the growth and success we have enjoyed in bringing the opportunity of chess to Scott County in a big way. We hope to make this camp an annual activity.”
The players received an hour of initial lessons and took a small break to play on new boards provided by the library through the donation. Players came back in for a little more instruction before taking a lunch break that included witnessing a partial solar eclipse. The afternoon included a tournament simulation where players matched according to grade level and winners received trophies and medals in addition to souvenirs.
“We had a great mix of girls and boys as well as diverse ethnic backgrounds and age levels. We had some students who already had chess experience and others who were first time chess players. It was a good cross section of the community,” Baker said. “The players can take what they learned and build on that. We welcome them to our future club meetings at the library.”
Dianne McLaurin, library branch manager, said she was excited to see the turnout for the event and a culmination of several months of planning.
“We were so excited to bring a new event for our community’s children in partnership with the chess club that meets here. We could not have done it without all our loyal supporters in the community and hopefully the camp is the start of a new tradition,” McLaurin said.
In addition to the chess camp, the $1,000 donation funded five new chess board sets to join the initial five boards contributed by the Friends of the Forest Library when the chess club started in 2018. About half of the donation funded the purchase of a diverse range of chess books to join the library’s inventory and are available for patrons to check out and learn the game.
The Scott County Chess Club usually meets on the first Saturday of each month, but the next meeting will be December 2 due to a chess tournament on November 4 at Roosevelt State Park that the club hosted.
For more information, visit scottcountychessclub.org.
