The Ypsilanti District Library's (YDL) Youth Chess Club is gearing up for rated tournaments and bolstering support for young female chess players, thanks to a new $2,000 grant from the U.S. Chess Federation (USCF).

The club, which meets from 4:30-5:30 p.m. each Wednesday at YDL's Whittaker branch in Ypsilanti Township, is now in its third year. Around 20 participants from age 5 to young teens attend the chess club every week, and the club sees a total of about 80 children over the course of a year. With the grant funds, YDL purchased clocks for timing rounds and a limited number of USCF memberships for regular club attendees. The club's year-end tournament on April 12 will be rated, with pins for participants and trophies for winners. 

Jennifer Skidmore Smith, who serves as a mentor for the club, says she's excited that the USCF memberships will allow students to compete for ratings both at the YDL club and beyond. For instance, four students at Bishop Elementary in the Lincoln Consolidated School District, who are also regular YDL chess club members, recently attended the Michigan Primary and Elementary Team tournament Feb. 8 and finished in eighth place, winning the first-ever chess trophy for their school district. 
Doug CoombeYDL Youth Chess Club mentor Jennifer Skidmore Smith.
The club is also making sure that all children who attend, but especially girls, can see themselves in the chess role models around them. The club already has a female mentor in Skidmore Smith. With the USCF grant funds, the club was also able to hire 14-year-old Alexis Buse as a stipend-earning intern. 

"When we offer something at the library, it's always open for everybody, but we wanted to make sure this year we had role models who were women. We wanted to make sure they had someone to look up to, and feel that this is their space too," says YDL Youth Librarian Jodi Krahnke. 

Buse attended the club for about two years before she got the internship. When a teacher began a chess club at her school, South Arbor Charter Academy, she got hooked. She began taking part in tournaments just a month or two after she began playing the game. 
Doug CoombeAlexis Buse.
Now, Buse has a chess rating of around 1055 and hopes to reach 1600 before she finishes high school. International Grandmasters typically have a rating of around 2500 or 2600, but Buse says 1200 to 1600 is a good rating for an intermediate player.

Buse's job as an intern is to set up and tear down after the club, welcome new players, and answer questions. Krahnke says about a third of the children who attend have never played chess before, and Buse can help them as well.

"Volunteers or Alexis will sit down with them and give them the basic moves," Krahnke says. "Or if there's ever an odd number of players, Alexis or one of the other teens will sit down and play with them to make sure everyone feels welcome and is as engaged as they want to be."
Doug CoombeSkylar Smith.
The chess club is a family affair for Skylar Smith, age 12. Her father was her first chess teacher, and her grandmother often brings her to the Wednesday evening meetings. Smith has been attending the club for only a few months, and she says she's come to enjoy the game. She says meeting new people and learning their play styles is fun for her.

"It's nice that, after I lose or I win, I get to figure out what I did and how to do better," Smith says.

In addition to playing against other young players weekly, participants receive sheets of homework with classic chess moves and logic problems to help them become better at the game. The USCF grant has also funded members' access to a chess learning tool called ChessBase. 
Doug CoombeOlivia Lee.
Club members are also invited to research top chess players and write about those who inspire them. Skidmore Smith says they'll publish the results in a binder, which they'll gift to the library. Olivia Lee, 7, says she picked International Master and Woman Grandmaster Alice Lee as the chess player she wanted to research and write about in part because they had the same last name.

Skidmore Smith helped YDL start the club, and now mentors its members, in part because she's a lifelong player who learned from following her dad around to chess tournaments. She wanted to get her two elementary school-aged sons involved in playing the game. Her youngest, Sebastian, began attending when he was just 5.

"I had so much fun doing it when I was a child. I basically wanted to offer them the same thing," Skidmore Smith says.

Find more about the YDL Youth Chess Club here.

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township and the project manager of On the Ground Ypsilanti. She joined Concentrate as a news writer in early 2017 and is an occasional contributor to other Issue Media Group publications. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.

Photos by Doug Coombe.