Del Valle ISD Hosts System-Wide Chess Tournaments

Del Valle Independent School District (DVISD) is located southeast of Austin, Texas with 86 percent of the student population on free or reduced lunch. The population of Del Valle is just under 30,000 residents and 84 percent of the student population is Hispanic.

DVISD won a 2020 ChessKid Grant for their elementary students that provides more than 1400 students free gold accounts and unlimited access to the ChessKid program.

Creedmoor Elementary School

Nabor Tellez, LEAD Afterschool Specialist at Creedmoor Elementary, said, “We got ChessKid at the best time.”

Creedmoor had been without a chess program the past two years and did not have a chess coach. Then the pandemic hit. According to Nabor, the benefit of the ChessKid program is that it “teaches chess at an individualized level,” so students can learn the fundamentals of the game without a chess coach.

  

ChessKid Lessons are self-guided, beginning at the Pawn level teaching how pieces move; introducing the concepts of check, checkmate and stalemate at the Knight level; checkmating patterns at the Bishop level; special moves and opening moves at the Rook level; and advancing to tactics and strategy at the Queen and King levels.

New in 2021 are advanced lessons at the SuperKing level!

To gain excitement, Creedmoor hosts photo contests as well as “caption this” contests via Twitter. And the students are playing in practice tournaments helping them prepare for system-wide contests this spring.

Del Valle Elementary School

Del Valle Elementary students are very active chess players and enjoy a history of hosting chess tournaments.

The school used their free gold ChessKid accounts in a unique way this year. They sponsored one of their fifth grade students, Kenneth Hunt, in the online ChessKid FIDE Challenge. This allowed Kenneth to play chess with more than 1900 students from across the globe in this online international chess tournament.

 

 

Del Valle ISD Hosts Virtual Chess Tournament President's Weekend

Del Valle ISD is gearing up for the ChessKid Spring Hour of Chess Week by hosting a system-wide chess tournament on President’s weekend.

Kids gain access to ChessKid easily at Del Valle ISD through their single sign-on system for students via ClassLink. We are so proud to see how Del Valle ISD students are learning chess and using their gold accounts to the fullest.

 

Want to Learn More?

 

If your organization is interested in learning more about the benefits of chess or if you have a great story about how chess has had a positive impact on your kids, please contact Ranae Bartlett, ChessKid Education Director at [email protected]. If you want to set up a chess program with 100+ kids, we have tools and resources to help you!