Eight Clear Lake and OMS Chess Club members participated in the 22nd Annual Utica Community Schools Chess Tournament on Saturday, May 6.

Clear Lake students Jenna Duong, Bailee Egbert, Keenan Egbert, Lydia Pavlock, and Owen Pavlock; along with OMS students Michael Duong, David Lee, and Dale Schmalenberg competed that day.

Michael Duong and Schmalenberg earned a bronze medal by winning three of their games. Jenna Duong earned a silver medal and a sixth-place trophy by winning four games.

This was the third year that students from Clear Lake competed in the tournament, which drew around 300 students from around Michigan.

In preparation for the competition, the teams have met once a week since March to hone their chess skills.

“For me, it is extremely gratifying to see the growth over the years of number of students that participate in the event and the improvement in their games against higher-rated opponents,” said Clear Lake Chess Coach Mark Lee. “Overall, we did well, as we are a small and relatively new club. Some of the teams we play against have programs that were established 20 years ago and have rosters between 50 and 100 students.”

Lee coaches the K-5 chess club alongside Debbie Duong and Kathy Schmalenberg. According to Lee and Debbie Duong, the game of chess provides many different educational benefits to students be enhancing their ability to focus and plan, think analytically and abstractly, and be patient.

　”I think, as a club, we did amazing,” added Debbie Duong. “We had some kids that played for the first　time, a kindergartner, and kids that have been playing for years. Winning a game isn’t easy and all of our kids won at least two games.”