It's after school on a Wednesday but still, almost every seat in Kyle Cooke's classroom at Arleta School in Southeast Portland is full. Over 30 kids, ranging from first-graders to eighth-graders, sit attentively, watching Cooke. Downstairs, in another room, are 40 more kids, doing almost the same thing but with different adults. And they are all here to play chess.

Cooke tells the students to focus on "coordinating your attacks and developing your pieces," and then he sets them free, to grab large game boards, chess clocks and pieces. The kids scatter around the room, at desks, on bookshelves, in corners, and start playing chess.

Arleta's program is one of 87 Chess for Success programs in Oregon and Washington. So far this year, 4,814 kids have participated in the programs.

Chess for Success started as a pilot program in 1992. That year, it was funded by a four-year grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust and served 200 students in nine of Portland Public's worst-performing schools.

Now it has an annual budget of $625,000, 46 percent of which comes from donations, 34 percent from grants and 20 percent from the local government. Chess for Success has 10 paid employees and 132 volunteers. It's one of 10 nonprofits selected for The Oregonian/OregonLive's annual Season of Sharing holiday fundraising campaign; this year's campaign focuses on literacy and education.

The nonprofit's goal is to close "the achievement gap for economically disadvantaged and minority youth."



At Arleta School, 51 percent of the student body qualifies as "economically disadvantaged," and 41 percent are not white.

The kids in Cooke's classroom, all of whom are in the advanced section of the chess club, represent a cross-section of the K-8 school.

Dryver Curtis, 8, wants to be an online gamer with his own YouTube channel when he grows up, or an FBI agent if gamer falls through. He started playing chess last year, as a first-grader.

"This year," he said, "I just moved up into advanced."

Curtis' opponent, Asher Augustine, is also 8, and a third grader. He too wants to be a gamer.

The two boys might not consider chess their favorite game -- that distinction goes to the video game Fortnite, "the best game ever created," according to Curtis, and tetherball, which they both agree is the best outdoor game -- but in this classroom, for an hour once or twice a week, they are laser-focused on chess.

According to Cooke, this focus is one of the biggest benefits kids get from Chess for Success.

"I've seen some incredible changes in behavior," he said, while the kids around him practiced strategy with their peers. "Some kids can't sit still in class."

On the carpet, Josephine Martinez, 7, and Kira Bradshaw, 12, played a timed game. Even as they answered questions, their eyes rarely left the board.

Bradshaw, 12, said chess helps her "look at things in a different way."

"I like the strategy," she said. "I think it's fun seeing what other people come up with."

Martinez, one of the youngest people in the advanced room, said she likes learning about chess. She wants to be a scientist who studies plants and animals and she thinks chess will help her achieve that goal.

"It will help me fill my brain with new ideas," she said.

Across the room, Martinez's older sister, Antonia Martinez, 11, played a game with Ezra Hedrick, 12. The two talked about how much fun they had going to the state competition last year.

The older Martinez wants to be an engineer and Hedrick wants to be a professor of zoology. For them, the club is a fun intellectual outlet, but it's social too.

"It's an activity I can do at school to be more connected," Martinez said.

Hedrick agreed, saying part of what he loves about the club is "being with my friends."

While the students mostly play one another, volunteer Paul Kirschner, 31, an engineer, manages to make time in his schedule to play chess with them every week.

According to Cooke, it's the older kids in this program who have made it such a success. They were there when it started, six or seven years ago. Now, Cooke said, "we go to the state competition every year."

While the program has long-term, wide-reaching aims, the kids at Arleta seem to be benefiting in an immediate way.

"It really makes me have to think hard," Dash Hampson, 11, said, from his spot on the floor.

"And it's fun," added his opponent, Brandon Tanaka, 10.

Then the two got back to what they were doing: playing chess.

What your donation can do

$10: Provides a club T-shirt for one child.

$25: Provides a chess set for a child to keep.

$50: Provides two months of chess lessons for a child.





How to donate

Send checks to:

Season of Sharing

Oregonians Credit Union

336 N.E. 20th Ave.

Portland, OR 97232