All-girls' chess match held in Santa Rosa

Cassandra Wright, 6, pulled at her hair, clasped her hands, gripped her head, broke into countless expressions of pain and frustration and, finally, cried.

She did not expect her opponent to be so determined. "She did everything she could to make me lose," said Cassandra, shortly after her second game during an all-girls' chess tournament Saturday in Santa Rosa.

Competition can be brutal and some people do not win or play gracefully, harsh but important lessons for a 1st grader, though nothing a parent's arms couldn't soothe.

The chess tournament held at Ursuline High School was sponsored by Chess for Kids, a non-profit that organizes after-school chess programs in Sonoma County.

The event, billed as the county's first all girls' chess tournament, benefitted the Sutter North Bay Women's Health Center in Santa Rosa. Proceeds, primarily the $20 entry fee, were expected to be a little less than $1,000, said Jolie Cook, president of Chess for Kids.

It also was intended to attract more local girls to the game, which Cook said, "makes kids smart, teaches critical thinking, promotes patience and improves concentration."

Girls are often put off by the mind-bending competition of the game, she said, noting that girls comprise only about 20 percent of the kids who participate in Chess for Kids programs.

After being comforted by her mother's arms, Cassandra, a student at Penngrove Elementary School who has only been playing chess since mid-December, explained why she liked the game.

"I like how it's a little bit like checkers but every piece moves a different way," she said, her eyes still red and tearful. "Only one piece can jump - that's the knight."

Memo Zazueta of Ukiah accompanied his 9-year-old daughter, Ayled Alfaro, a student at Instilling Goodness Elementary School in Ukiah who started playing chess at the start of the school year last August. Zazueta, who manages a car dealership in Ukiah, said Ayled learned to play in her school chess club and really started to like the game once she got comfortable with the rules.

"She thinks about her decisions a little more now, and not just in the game," Zazueta said. He watched his daughter endure a game that would ultimately last more than an hour and would end up in a tie.

Ayled also shed tears after a grueling bout with an opponent who made it clear she didn't like waiting. Ayled's opponent cocked her head, furrowed her brow and rolled her eyes.

"It was upsetting that she kept talking," Ayled said after the game, her second.

Cook started Chess for Kids in 2007, and since then it has made its way into more than 60 schools in Sonoma County. It's a six-week program taught by 13 paid instructors. The cost to participate is $60 per student, although scholarships are available for those kids who cannot pay.

The program takes in about $50,000 a year, with the bulk of that going to paying instructors, liability insurance, postage, computer and office supplies and more. The operation is run out of Hayman and Cook's home "offices."

For more information about Chess for Kids, contact 527-6427 or visit www.chessclubforkids.com

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com