No pawns here: New chess group invites young people to join

Montgomery — The Hudson Valley Chess Association ran its first in a series of chess tournaments that aim to involved kids in fundraising for local cancer charities in the Hudson Valley. “It is not enough to talk about social justice and community involvement,” said Eric Raphael, a father of three, and the representative for the organization. “We must empower the next generation to take responsibility in there communities, and we must teach are children to care for the impoverished, the sick and the needy. As our society cannot afford to look away from the Dr. King’s dream, we must move closer to a time and place where it becomes self-evident that we as brothers and sister are equal.” Raphael went on to say that chess is much like life: one can sit down with an opponent that one may not know and then shake hands. Then chess players work through their strategies in order to solve problems, he said. Historically, chess players have always scored above the national average in standardized testing. Studies have shown this since chess players and chess tournaments offer comparable situations that a student would face in a standard testing situation. For tournament results, visit www.hudsonvalleychess.org.