Year 2 of ‘Paws on Pawns’ concludes with tournament Saturday

Press release

The second year of the Galion Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) “Paws on Pawns” chess club will conclude its year with a chess tournament starting at 9:00 a.m. at Galion Intermediate School Saturday, April 9. Approximately 36 fourth and fifth grade students are expected to participate in what is considered the greatest historical game of competition.

Students have been meeting weekly since January learning the game of chess. Each session began with a 15-minute lesson about the game, and then students played chess for the remainder of the scheduled time. The club’s advisors, Mr. Adam Lehman and Mr. Bryan Summer, worked with students to help them hone their skills.

“Chess requires students to use high level thinking skills for play strategy and defense,” Summer said. “We’ve been very fortunate to have members of the Galion High School National Honor Society and volunteers from the local Boys Scouts troop help students learn chess each week.”

The tournament will be a round robin style tournament, with students being guaranteed at least two games. The competition is expected to conclude around noon with the first ever “Paws on Pawns” champion being crowned.

“Although we have a lot of technology resources for chess, we use real game boards and chess pieces,” Summer said. “We want students to have the opportunity to move their chess pieces and be engaged in a real game with a peer.”

“Paws on Pawns” is a member of the United States Chess Foundation, and the club is planning to host a chess tournament at the end of March. The Galion Elementary PTO, in-kind donations from the Galion community and the National Chess Trust assisted the club in purchasing additional chess sets to accommodate the increase in student participation.

“We are excited for the students to compete in this special tournament,” Intermediate School Principal Alex Sharick said. “They have worked hard and spent a great deal of time learning the game, and we hope parents and community members will come to enjoy this fantastic event.”

For more information about the Galion Elementary PTO “Paws on Pawns” chess club, please contact Bryan Summer at summer.bryan@galionschools.org or Adam Lehman at lehman.adam@galionschools.org.