Spring Branch ISD students find success in chess club

Communities in Schools, along with the the Spring Oaks Middle School chess club, held a chess tournament at the end of April. The Spring Oaks team came in third place overall. Communities in Schools, along with the the Spring Oaks Middle School chess club, held a chess tournament at the end of April. The Spring Oaks team came in third place overall. Photo: Spring Oaks Chess Club Photo: Spring Oaks Chess Club Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Spring Branch ISD students find success in chess club 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

There is an afterschool club at Spring Oaks Middle School, but you might not know it is there unless you stumbled upon it. Besides the occasional chatter, it is fairly quiet in the classroom except for the sound of moving pieces on the boards.

The chess club is headed by John Vargas, the Communities in Schools student support specialist at Spring Oaks in Spring Branch Independent School District, and has been going strong for nine years.

Right now the club has about 20 members who gather after school, but Vargas says that when the students play at lunch time, that number can easily grow to 200.

Last month, Spring Oaks and Communities in Schools together hosted a chess tournament.

"A lot of the students want to play in tournaments. However, what keeps us from going to many tournaments is money," Vargas said. "The main reason why we did this tournament is because a lot of the students are leaving to go to high school, and they wanted to compete because they haven't competed against anybody yet. Everyone was asking steadily."

Vargas noted that a lot of people helped put the tournament on and it was a community effort. Some people supplied water and food, and others supplied small gifts for winners.

The Spring Oak chess club came in third overall.

"We did real well considering there were other teams who had played in tournaments quite a bit," Vargas said.

Parent Claudia Presas has all three of her children in the chess club, including seventh-grade son Matthew Pardo.

"Matthew played in the tournament and played three games and lost two. He beat a high schooler. He could have lost all of the other games, but he was so excited he beat a high schooler. He kept talking about it," Presas said. "It builds up his confidence and makes him think outside the box."

Presas thinks that chess should be considered a sport because, after seeing her children play, she thinks it looks harder than playing football.

"Sometimes my kids come home and say their heads hurt from thinking too hard about where to move a piece," Presas said.

"I am trying to get better than my brother! I have not gotten there yet but I want to keep trying. I like learning new things," said her son, Matthew.

The game has instilled friendly competition in the players. Vargas says each player shakes hands before and after each game.

They all hope to win the coveted purple set of chess pieces that goes to the current best player. If the player wins four games in a row with the purple pieces, Vargas says, the player will get their own chess board to keep.

"Everyone wants to stop you from getting the chess board. We came up with this idea a few years ago, and everyone really likes it; everyone is really competitive," Vargas said. "I tell the kids it is like anything else you do in life. You have to do it over and over to get good at it."

The game has taught the students social skills, as well as even math problems by doing fractions on the boards. The chess club has also provided a place for students to fit in, find friends and helps them do better overall in their classes.

"I moved here last year. I didn't know anybody. In lunch, a kid asked me to play. It helps me with my math. My grades have improved a lot. I have learned that I have to have a lot of patience," eighth grader Jose Ramirez said.

Eighth grader Abraham Sanchez said, "My one friend at lunch would always beat me, so I joined the chess club to get better."

"He used to struggle in the sixth grade," Vargas said of Sanchez. "But in seventh grade he got better, and now his teachers are really proud of him for the grades he's gotten this year."

Parent Lauro Gayton said his seventh-grade son, Caleb, has ADHD and used to be fidgety and shy. He thinks the chess club has changed Caleb in multiple ways for the better.

"Caleb is always reminding me, 'Dad, don't forget, tomorrow is chess after school.' He enjoys the game. It makes him sit down and think. He is a real shy kid, so the chess club was a way for him to make friends. Caleb was one of those kids where, he has ADHD, and doing this helps him out. And I want to thank Mr. Vargas for that," Gayton said.

"I wanted to get my brain up and running and learn new strategies. I have a lot of fun even though I lose sometimes," Caleb said.

"I have been with Communities in Schools for about 20 years. It's not part of what we do, it is an extra thing that we do. Some people think that chess is all I do, but there are a lot of benefits to playing chess. We will do anything that will get kids together," Vargas said.