Neal Anderson, Chris Autera-Polzin, Zac Dvorak, and Ben White are four of the most successful elementary scholastic chess players to play as a team in the last decade in Michigan. Their team from Montessori Children’s House in Lansing won consecutive Scholastic team championships, the K-6 in 2003, where they compiled a perfect 20-0 score, and the K-5 in 2002. They capped their elementary career with a 5th place team trophy at the 2003 National Elementary Tournament in Nashville, TN in the K-6 Open Section.

This article, however, is not meant to emphasize their accomplishments. This is a story about four individuals who stayed together for four academic years and worked for the good of their team. It is also a story about how the success of a team can energize a whole school to learn chess.

There are no superstars on this team, although all of them have won many trophies, only four hard-working students who are motivated to do their best as individuals and as a team. As Ben stated, “We stayed together because we did not want to let each other down, and because it was fun.” Zac added, “We all have interests and activities other than chess like music lessons, soccer, baseball, tae kwon do, boy scouts, and tennis, but our team has always been important to us so we stick together.”

It is very unusual for four players to stick together for four academic years, with all the choices for extra-curricular activities. When asked why they stayed together as a team for four years, Chris stated, “We were very good friends, and our parents played a big role in supporting our learning and playing.” The other three boys agreed that being good friends and having good parental support were important keys to their success.

I asked the students what they thought are the necessary ingredients to keep a team together for more than 1-2 years. “You have to be friends and you have to be committed to the team,” said Zac. “You sometimes have to be willing to place the good of the team over your own personal gain. You really have to support each other--win or lose”. Chris added, “You need to support each other’s triumphs and comfort each other when they lose.” Neal stated, “Teammates need to encourage each other.” And Ben added, “You have to work together. It really helps if your teammates are also your friends.”

I further asked the students if it improved their skills to have three teammates to bounce around ideas. “It’s good to be able to go over your games with the team, and they can help you see what you might have done to improve”, said Zac. “It really helped when we studied together, which we did at school,” added Ben. The team’s first chess experience together was as part of a twice a month Sunday class in Fall, 1999 that I taught for students from both Montessori Children‘s House and the East Lansing Montessori School. They formed a team for the State K-3 Team Tournament with only three months of training, when three of them were in 3rd grade and one was in 2nd grade, and finished seventh in the state.

After seeing their success, students at Montessori became excited about learning chess. These four students became the role models for their school. The large interest in chess prompted Montessori to hire Ray Garrison to teach chess to over 80 students during the 2000-2001 school year. Chess has become so popular at Montessori that over 50 percent of the students study chess during their school day once a week. Kevin Carl was the teacher during the 2001-2002 school year, and during 2002-2003 Tom Fraser was the teacher. I have also continued my twice a month classes for these four students. In addition, as part of their preparation for the 2003 tournaments, the students studied with Fred Lindsay, one of Michigan’s top chess players. Fred came to Lansing once a month to give individual lessons to these students.

One might think that with the large number of teachers, the students would become confused. On the contrary, they told me that because of the different teaching styles, they learn something different from each teacher. Ben, Chris and Zac all stated that one of the primary reasons for improving their chess skills was taking lessons from many different teachers. Ray Garrison agreed, stating, “The Montessori team has had several good teachers. The variety of strong teaching styles is probably very important.”

I asked the students what strategies or learning methods they use to improve their skills, other than studying with their teachers. All four students emphasized that a key strategy to improve their game is to play opponents better than them. “I think the best way for beginning chess teams to improve is to play, “ said Neal. “Against their teammates and against their parents. And to look over their games to see where they made mistakes.” “After a while, I became aware of chess books, and those helped too.” Chris also stated that he studied from many books. Zac added, “When I’m going to be in a tournament, I do puzzles and try to play games every day.” Ben stated, “I practice tactics, look at games, and look at openings.”

Finally, I asked the students why they continued to play chess. They stated that it’s challenging, it improves your mental skills, they like competition, and they want to see how good they can get. Their unanimous answer to this question, however, was “Because it’s fun!”

Editor’s Note: Here is a game from one of the Lansing Montessori players in the last round of this year’s K-6 Team Championship. It’s not perfect and we should not expect that at this level. It does illustrate a very effective way for young players to win; taking advantage of opponents mistakes:

Chris Autera-Polzin (1170)
Sarah Morley (740)
Michigan Elementary Team K-6 Championship, Round 5
Spring Lake, MI
February 2003

Two Knights, C57

Notes by Tim McGrew

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6

C.J.S. Purdy used to recommend 3...Be7 as a way for Black to avoid all Ng5 tricks and traps in the opening. It is a bit passive, but it certainly would have spared Black some unpleasantness.

4.Ng5

“A duffer's move,” Tarrasch scoffed, but in junior tournaments it is one of the most successful ideas for White since almost no one knows how to deal with it.

4...Qe7?

Since Black cannot afford to capture on f7 with the queen, this simply gums up Black's position. But where are the better moves? Here are three:

• 4...d5! This is the most popular move and probably the strongest one. After 5.exd5 Na5! Black's knight looks odd on the edge but White's minor pieces get beaten back, e.g. 6.Bb5+ c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Be2 h6 9.Nf3 e4 and Black's space and development offer excellent compensation for the pawn.
• 4...Bc5!? The Traxler/Wilkes-Barre Variation is an absolute labyrinth. One of my favorite variations runs 5.Nxf7 (probably not best) 5...Bxf2+! 6.Kxf2 Nxe4+ 7.Ke3 Qh4 and Black has a raging attack. 8.Nxh8 loses immediately to 8...Qf4+ 9.Ke2 Qf2+ 10.Kd3 Nb4+ 11.Kxe4 Qf4#.
• 4...Nxe4!? is a crazy line that Tim Harding has written about on the chesscafe.com website. It is insufficient against best play (I think!) but it can yield amazing counterplay against inaccurate defense, e.g. 5.Nxf7 Qh4 6.0–0 Bc5 7.Nxh8 Bxf2+ and White must give up the exchange since 8.Kh1?? is met by 8...Ng3#.

5.Bxf7+ Kd8 6.Bc4 Ke8 7.0–0 h6 8.Nf7 Rh7!

This is pretty canny, however. The knight is in some trouble and cannot easily be extracted. Black's next goal must be to distract the bishop from the defense of the knight.

9.f4?

Oops! This exposes White's king.

9...b5?

Black's undefended piece scanner isn't tuned in. 9...Qc5+! 10.Kh1 Qxc4 turns the tables, and now White is the one who has to find justification for some missing material.

10.Bb3 Nxe4 11.Qh5 Nf6 12.Qg6!

Staying on target for the discovered check is the best way to handle the position. Now Black is out of resources.

12...d5 13.Nxe5+! Kd8 14.Nxc6+

Oh dear!

14...Kd7 15.Nxe7 Kxe7 16.Re1+ Be6 17.Bxd5 Rd8 18.Rxe6+ Kd7 19.Qf7+ Be7 20.Rxe7+ Kc8 21.Rxc7+ Kb8 22.Rc8+!

A nice flourish at the end.

22...Rxc8 23.Qb7# 1–0