When Mercer Island parent and chess coach Chouchan Airapetian asked me about having a chess day at the library, I was skeptical that 65 children and teens would really come. Just in case, I thought, I’d better brush up on my chess. Chouchan rounded up chess sets from the schools and I sorted out the Library’s game board collection with a teen volunteer. Chouchan acquired donations of food and drink from local businesses. The Friends of the Mercer Island Library paid for pizza. The result was a fantastic day of family fun—and no need for my meager chess-teaching skills!
Teens played in the teen area, and the meeting room was packed with tweens, middle schoolers and their parents. Chouchan greeted everyone by name and asked, “Would you like to play chess?” Kids played each other, parents played each other, kids played with parents, and beginners always found a willing partner. A sixth grader, Elena, organized a game of tandem chess and showed everyone how it’s done. A fifth grader, Noah, looked at his dad and said, “I’m not very good, I think I’ll resign,” to which his father replied, “You will always improve if you play with someone who is better than you are. Play a little longer.” When the pizza arrived, we cleared a few tables……would everyone eat and run, I wondered? Nope. Everyone returned to their boards for nearly three more hours of fun! We set up a space on the white board for kids to put up comments on post-it notes. Here are a few samples:
- This is an awesome chess party!!!!!!!!!!!!
- CHESS rocks!
- I love it! It’s so cool!
- Great spirit
- Thanks – I love chess, chess is not just hard, it’s fun also
- Mrs. Chouchan rocks!
We hope to host more chess parties at the Library in 2018. Thank you, Chouchan, for such a great idea! Thank you, parents and students, for loving chess so much, and thank you, Friends of the Mercer Island Library, Starbucks, QFC, and New Seasons for keeping our energy up with pizza, coffee, snacks, and juice!
