Three players win Rotary Club's annual chess tournament

Apr 29, 2018

For Diego Nieto, playing chess runs in the family. His dad taught his brother, and in turn, his brother taught him to play.

Nieto started playing more competitively, competing in a few other tournaments in the last year. Nieto was one of three winners at the 3rd Annual Dartmouth Rotary Scholastic Chess Tournament on April 28 at Dartmouth Middle School.

“I enjoy mind games,” Nieto said. “You get to think about things more strategically.”

The other two winners were Aiden King, a Dartmouth native, and Jessica Patel. All of the winners received trophies and chessboards.

For Janaye Silva, the tournament was about both winning and trying to get more people to recognize how fun chess is to play.

“No one my age really plays chess and I want to get more people playing,” Silva said.

At 10 a.m., the matches got underway inside the library. The setup for matches was determined via computer and everything was officiated by Bob Salvas from the South East New England Chess Association, otherwise known as SENECA.

It was a four-round tournament, where the winners were paired up with other winners after each round. The entire tournament isn’t based on elimination. A computer software program determines, based on how each player did, who the winner is of each section.

Salvas said chess is a great game to get kids playing.

“Any kind of activity that engages the brain I think is a positive thing for children,” Salvas said. “There’s been a lot of studies that have been done to show that by playing chess kids have more success in school and also in life because chess is about making decisions.”