Twenty chess players, aged eight to thirteen, are working with members of the Maggie Walker Governor’s School chess team this week in an intensive summer camp to learn new openings, understand subtleties of position – and just have fun.
“Each day students will take classes as well as compete against each other,” says chess team captain and camp director Isaac Steincamp, a rising junior at Maggie Walker. “The culmination will be a Swiss-System tournament on Saturday.”
The camp is run entirely by six members of the Maggie Walker Chess Team, who will be using the proceeds to attend the National High School Chess Championships in San Diego this coming spring.
Camp attendees are coming from all over the greater Richmond area, and from as far away as Newport News. In addition to the instruction they receive during the week, attendees will receive a dossier that is personalized with their own chess strengths and weaknesses, in addition to recommendations for future study.
“Our hope is that the camp will inspire the students to continue competing regularly and to expand their own understanding of the sixty-four squares,” said Steincamp.
ABOUT THE MAGGIE L. WALKER GOVERNOR’S SCHOOL
The Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies is a highly-selective, regional public school that serves students throughout the metropolitan Richmond area. The participating school divisions are Charles City, Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, Hopewell, King and Queen, New Kent, Petersburg, Powhatan, Prince George, and Richmond.
