More than 220 students from over 30 schools across Ottawa participated in a chess championship Friday. The second annual Ottawa Scholastic Chess Team Championship took place at Confederation Education Centre, bringing children out to compete for the chance to take a big trophy back to their school. “Usually, our tournaments are by individuals but this is the only one where each school sends in a team of 4 to 5 and it competes for the school. So even if you lose individually, if your other teammates win, then your team can move on as well,” says Mike Sun, found of the Ottawa Cavaliers Chess Academy. Sun says it has always been a dream of his to create a chess tournament and he’s really happy to host one for students. The event was sixth grader Nathaniel Falana’s first championship. He started playing chess at the age of five and says he loves everything that chess has to offer. “I really like chess because the way you have to think and strategize your moves and I just like doing everything - how the moves, how the pieces go, how they do it. I have to be strategic,” Nathaniel says. “I just love it. This world of chess is like my calling.” “I hope to learn how other people play so I can counter if anybody else plays the same way,” he adds. Ankita Jain, founder of The Kanata Chess Academy, says the aim is to create a big chess community in Ottawa and to bring more kids and schools together. Jain encourages schools to involve chess in their clubs and afterschool programs. Dennis Li, a grade five student, started playing chess two years ago. “I started playing chess when my friend just randomly taught me chess and I got pretty interested in chess. Then my mom helped me find a chess tournament,” says Li. Li says he wasn’t that good in his first tournament but has since improved after getting coached. He says chess now means a lot to him. “I’m playing pretty competitively and I’m just here to win and get better and improve and beat the players who were better than me before,” says Li. He says he doesn’t like to play sports much because he doesn’t like to get sweaty but still wanted to take up a competitive hobby. “Chess is kind of like a video game too because each piece has its own function and there’s multiple titles you can get once you get higher and higher,” says Li. Li says improving step by step is what’s most important to him but at the championship he’s here to win. “My goal is probably just to take advantage of this tournament and get better against the opponent. I have one particular opponent that I would like to go against because I lost to her before, I drew her once and now I would like to beat her in this tournament,” says Li. It’s also a charitable event; each participant is asked to bring a non-perishable food item for the Ottawa Food Bank. “We had over 500 food items. It’s great that we get to support the community in general through this cause as well,” says Sun.
