What happens when you teach an elementary or middle school student to play chess? Well, sometimes a kid who has struggled academically discovers that he or she is actually pretty smart and begins to do better in school.

“You really see benefits in how well kids focus and concentrate,” says Tony Frank, who started a chess club for sixth-grade middle school students in Northwest Denver earlier this year. “Learning chess helps them learn in class and in life. In learning chess, they learn a concept and apply it quickly, which builds confidence, and that relates to then beginning to define themselves as smart. They begin to realize they are smart because they can learn chess.”

And once they begin to define themselves as smart, maybe for the first time in their life, they also tend to do better in school.

“I absolutely think that for kids that struggle with academics, chess can be an academic self-esteem builder,” says Nadine Ritchotte, assistant principal at Lake International School.  “If a student can think through the strategies of chess, it makes sense that chess should also build their problem-solving stamina.”

Frank is not a chess whiz. He is not an education professional. He is an energy analyst and a parent of elementary school-age children who didn’t begin playing chess until his mid 20s. As a graduate student who was working part time at a Denver recreation center, he was exposed to a chess club, where he learned to play from a group of third graders.

“I did not know what I was doing, but I was learning chess from kids. From that experience, I have known chess is a positive and fun thing that kids want to be part of,” he recalls.

Frank started a chess program at Lake this past spring, beginning with a 10-week program for 20 sixth graders. “I told the principal I thought I could handle 10 kids, so she gave me 20,” he laughs.

Ritchotte is thrilled to have the chess program available at the school and now serves on the seven-member Northwest Denver Chess Advisory Group.

“I believe that there are multiple reasons why Tony’s building the chess program is so important to schools and the students they serve,” she says.  “Chess teaches kids so many things–executive thinking skills and strategic thinking, organization, responsibility and thinking ahead.  Plus, the look on the faces of kids–who have never completed or won anything before–as they hold their trophies is priceless.”

The first year of the program, which was launched in February, included 20 kids enrolled in a 10-week lunch program, which culminated in a five-school tournament in May, which attracted 21 chess players. With the formation of the Advisory Group, the work of running the program is now spread around. Frank is also quick to point out that some of the schools already had chess programs, including Colfax Elementary. There are now people teaching chess at Colfax, Lake and Cheltenham elementary schools. He says each school or club is free to organize its own programs, but coordinating them through the Advisory Group ensures high quality resources are being shared and reduces scheduling conflicts in planning tournaments. Frank says there were a number of “great players” at the first tournament, especially from Colfax.

“It is growing and we are developing a network with other schools. North High School and Skinner Middle School are now getting involved, and my two kids go to Brown Elementary,” Frank says. He says he would like to move beyond the pilot stage and get schools from all over the metro area involved. “I just want to get more kids playing chess.”

He says that when you start a chess club at a school, it can serve to activate the PTA, and it can be a catalyst for fundraising and getting the business community involved in the school.

Ritchotte agrees that the chess program is more than a way to help kids develop thinking skills, and that it also builds community.

“One last benefit of Tony’s chess program is the community-building that he is helping us to accomplish,” she says. “This program is bringing Northwest Denver’s schools together in a new way. Students are able to visit other schools and see what their future holds.  Kids are meeting kids who live a neighborhood over and attend a different school and are building relationships that may last into high school and beyond.  Staff from different schools are meeting each other and planning for future events.  I think it’s a great way to continue to strengthen the Northwest Denver school community.”

Northwest Denver activist Janine Vanderburg says it is amazing what even one or two people can accomplish when they start getting actively involved in schools. “Good things always start small,” she says. “One parent with a goal and the commitment to work for it can turn a school around. Pretty soon that one parent gets other people involved and good things really start to happen, as we can see in this case.” Vanderburg is the founder and CEO of JVA Consulting.

Frank says he is looking into forming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to organize and support chess clubs throughout area schools. He notes that a similar nonprofit in New York City has an annual budget greater than $3 million. “Denver is a chess desert right now in terms of organized tournaments and events,” he says.

Frank has become a United States Chess Federation (USCF) certified club tournament director, which allows the group to run rated divisions at all the schools in the neighborhood.

The next tournament will be the Northwest Denver Chess Challenge on Nov. 15 at Colfax. Frank says it is open to all Northwest Denver students in grades K-12 and that he is hoping for a dozen or more schools to be represented. Lake will host an all-city USCF tournament open to all metro area schools on February 28, 2015. Students participating in the February tournament will be able to receive USCF ratings if they become members of the USCF. No date has been announced, but Cheltenham is planning to host a spring tournament.

Frank says he has lots of information resources available to help anyone who wants to start a youth chess program, both resources he has developed and things he has found through USCF and the Kasparov Chess Foundation. He says the group is focused on schools in Northwest Denver, but he would be very interested in sharing information with schools outside of Northwest Denver to get them started and help them get involved with chess.

Asked what he would do differently if he was starting the program today, Frank laughed.

“All kinds of things,” he says. “I wish I would have read the chess rulebook more closely. I wish I would have been in touch with the scholastic coordinator with USCF sooner. I wish I would have played more chess so I could teach it better. I wish I would have started playing in the third grade.”

 Do you know a community change maker who should be featured in JVA 411? Let us know by emailing  scot@jvaconsulting.com.