April 2, 2007 — It has been said that chess, like mathematics and music, is a nursery for child prodigies, and the Virgin Islands is proving a worthy incubator.
Thirteen V.I. junior chess players will travel to Greece later this month to compete in the prestigious third annual World Chess Youth Olympics in Halkidiki, Greece. It is a unique opportunity for the Virgin Islands youngsters — aged from five to 16 — to show their stuff to an international audience.
The players qualified in a territory-wide scholastic championship on St. Croix in February sponsored by the V.I. Chess Federation, sponsors of the trip to Greece.
The federation is not for profit, and President Margaret Murphy has issued a call for the community to help with funding. The trip is expensive: Costs for each child are about $2,400, including airfare of about $1,500 and hotel rooms.
The organization comprises about 200 youngsters, Murphy says, and around 50 adults. It has several coaches throughout schools on both islands. "There are four chess clubs on St. Thomas," she says, "and five on St. Croix."
Chess is Murphy's passion. She is on the Women's Olympic Chess Team, has been president of the local federation since 1995, and is a member of the World Chess Federation, the international chess governing body. She teaches science at Manor School on St. Croix, but is on the brink of retiring, when she will devote herself full time to furthering chess in the territory's schools.
"I am working on actually implementing chess in the public schools as part of the curriculum," she says. "I have written a manual with lesson plans to teachers."
Murphy teaches two chess classes at Manor School on Saturdays, and she has some unusual proteges. "I have one four-year-old and a five-year-old," she says. "It's amazing. The four-year-old gets a little bit more antsy than the five-year-old; that shows the one-year difference."
Murphy is determined. With an eye toward funding a chess program, she says, "I took a year off and studied grant writing at Harvard."
"The benefits of chess on young people are well documented," Murphy says. "Like focusing, peer-conflict resolution, time management. If you touch a piece, you have to move it, which teaches foresight. You have to think ahead, planning.
"It's the same type of analytical thinking you use in math or geometry. Math teachers say after playing chess for a couple years the students' math and reading improve dramatically."
Dr. Adam Shapiro of St. Thomas would certainly agree. His six-year-old son, Benjamin, is one of the competitors going to Greece.
"It's a great thing for young children," Shapiro says. "It teaches concepts of sportsmanship, how to think, how to learn, how to visualize strategy. And it also teaches camaraderie. At the competitions, they end each game with a handshake, and a 'good game.'"
Benjamin Shapiro began his chess career inauspiciously a short five months ago when his father asked him if he'd like to come with him to an evening chess group that met at the hospital.
"He's always been interested in games," Shapiro says, "and he has a good facility for picturing things in his head. He became fascinated watching the people play."
Shapiro hopes his son will continue to play for as long as he enjoys it. "I taught him to play," he says. "He really took to it. It's really his passion. We don't want to push him into anything; if it's just a fleeting interest, that would be fine, but if he wants to pursue it, we'd certainly foster that, too."
It looks like more than a fleeting interest. "The first thing he wants on Sundays is the New York Times chess page," Shapiro says. "And for bedtime stories, he wants to listen to the moves in the Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky match."
Benjamin, a first-grader at Antilles School, is teaching his three-year-old sister, Zara, to play as well."She is learning, but she hasn't beat me yet," Shapiro says. "I imagine that's in the future."
Benjamin will have a lot of company in Greece. His mother, Pam Berkowsky, and father are going, along with his New York grandparents.
Shapiro emphasizes the need for further funding of the 2007 USVI National Scholastic Chess Team. "That's the issue," he says. "It is pretty expensive, and there's lots of kids who need help. We've had a good response — we've gotten some funding from the Community Foundation of the V.I., but they still need to get some more."
Donations can be made by contacting Dee Baecher-Brown at CFVI, 774-6031, or Margaret Murphy at 332-6440, or sent by mail to the V.I. Chess Federation, Youth Chess Olympics, P.O. Box 1116, Kingshill, St. Croix, V.I. 00851.
The chess event is part of the Games Festival, a mass event that includes a series of tournaments in chess, billiards, bridge, darts, street basketball and Scrabble. The event runs from April 27 to May 6.
The territory's delegates include four from St. Thomas and nine from St. Croix, with four from Ricardo Richards Elementary School on St. Croix. They are Catherine Bishop, under 15, Good Hope, St. Croix; Ramon Camacho, under 13, Gladys Abraham, St. Thomas; Mahalia Edwards, under 9, Ricardo Richards; Kristian Fennessy, under 15, Good Hope School, St. Croix; Precious Flaherty (alternate), under 15, Bertha C. Boschulet, St. Thomas; Diamond Marc, under seven, Ricardo Richards; Briana Kuntz Rhymer, under 11, Gladys Abraham, St. Thomas; Zyad Saleem, under 17, St. Croix Complex High School; Bertrand Sands, under 9, Ricardo Richards; Benjamin Shapiro, under 7, Antilles School, St. Thomas; Krislen Tison, under 13, Gladys Abraham, St. Thomas; William Tutein (alternate), under 15, Manor School, St. Croix; and Jamari Vensen, under 11, Ricardo Richards.
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