Sibun Chess Kingdom 2007-2011

Summer camps at Sibun- July 2011

2011-06-26T17:20:00.000-07:00

PROBLEM SOLVING and much more fun at the camp!
Chess and art camps are taking place at the same time. The theme for these summer camps is Problem Solving, so in addition to chess and art instruction there are a lot of activities that require participants to solve various tasks together as a team.

Creating poster for the talk show about their favorite books that they read at the camp:
Our chess camp talk show: camp counselors are the hosts who interview all the participants on the books that they read during the camp:

Working on creating the second volume of the chess book at the art camp:

Playing various sports..

..including chess:
Working on egg-preservation device-with very limited resources, the teams need to create packaging device for an egg. On the last day of the competion, their devices will be tested.

On the last day of each camp teams compete in the adventure race: they have to go through the obstacle course, cross the river, tube down through the rapids and race back to the lodge. Through all that, the team captain carries an egg, that needs to be well preserved from being smashed and in the end tested for the 8 feet egg drop.

Team effort in action:

Egg drop: most of the teams managed to build such well thought through packaging that the eggs survived the 8 feet fall.
week 1 participants:
week 2: By the end of each week, each participant took home awards for participation,positive attitude, special efforts and sportsmanship and in addition, a chapter book of their choice to read at home. Thanks to the donation from the Lincoln Land Community College Child Development Center and the Memorial Child Care Center from the United States, 130 children enjoyed reading books at the camps and we still had enough books to send home with every single participant and junior coach.

SPECIAL GRATITUDE TO:

Belize Telemedia Ltd (BTL) and
Caves Branch Jungle Lodge

for their co-sponsorship of the 2011 summer national chess camps. Without their sponsorship many children would not have had the opportunity to participate.

SPECIAL THANKS :

Head camp directors: Micah Williams, David Coombs and Jose Teul

Head Chess Coach was Sonia Zepeda, International Chess Master.

Caves Branch Jungle Guides responsible for safety and adventure part:
Edgar Martinez and Pablo Garcia

Please remember the names of the coaches who assisted in running those camps- they used their vacation times to volunteer at those camps and make them so successful. So if you will see them in your community- shake their hands and say THANK you for all what they did for the kids:

Corozal - Omar Huitz and Elvia Huitz
Orange Walk - Kevin Frasure, Gabriel Campos and Eric Cal
Cayo - Abdul Lotiff
Stann Creek - Pedro Pixabaj and Allen Sanchez
Toledo - Policarpo and Aurora Coc

Additional thanks to the junior coaches- their job was not only to assist in teaching chess, but also to supervise the activities - from washing dishes to morning exercises. They were a real pleasure to work with - excellent attitude, energy and enthusiasm. Parents and coaches of those youngsters should feel exceptionally proud of them:

Cayo: Maricela Cocom and Akeem Jenkins
Stann Creek: Kris Sanchez, Rick Pascasio and Colleen Tate
Belize : Steve Flowers

Art Camp: was directed by Micah Williams and Ella Anderson.
Art coaches: Rebecca and John Shannon

Volume 2 of the Chess Mystic Quest will be published by the end of August.
The young artist who created all the illustrations to the book are:
East Cayo- Rasheed Palacio
West Cayo- Gozberto Coy and Roberto Maneur
Stann Creek- Ivan Pixabaj
Belize- Tiago Tonaco

2010 summer Sibun camps

2010-06-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

Adventure race on the last day of the camp. All teams were training for 5 days for that day and now it was time to put their skills to the test.

One of the weeks Grand Master Maurice Ashley was leading one of the teams through the race.

Since he is known in Belize not just for chess, but also for his great physical shape, he was a perfect motivator for our players.

First part of the race: tubing through the rapids to the next station.

During one of the weeks due to the flood we could not do tubing, so teams had to measure the distance from the lodge to the cliff- not an easy task to do, when you have to race but also have to be accurate with your measurements- good life skill.

After tubing: leg-lifts

and push-ups

After that : rappel 120 feet of the cliff at Sibun river and race to the next station...

Tying knots is not as easy as it was during the training sessions- by this time everybody is exhausted, and the pressure of time is adding to the difficulty. The good thing though is that it is all done as a team, so kids can guide each other through the difficult parts.

Then, the race continues, now as a team they have to run all the way up and down the hills 3/4 of a mile back to the lodge where they have one more station- obstacle course.

All participants and coaches were working together and bonding during the camp, it was a truly national event- making friends from all the districts. Cayo player, Gabriel Cocom, and Toledo coach,Policarpo Cus finishing the race with the spectacular results.

The main theme of this year camp was Leadership and Team Work. Emphasis was on learning the 7 major Chess Knights Skills:

Effective Communication

Intellectual Curiosity

Physical Fitness

Swimming and Tubing

Chess

Tying Knots

Sport Competence as a team

Effective Communication: Culminating event - Book Talk Show. See below our favorite hosts and the participants:

Close-up to one of the book posters for the Talk Show:
Sharing their impressions from the books with the visiting Team of Golden Kings and Queens:
From the library of almost 300 books that were donated to BNYCF by scouts group in US, each participant had a chance to pick a book for reading during the camp,
as well as a lot of participants were awarded books of their choice to take home.
Intellectual Curiosity: culminating event- geography game. Teams were studying hard for that game: population of different countries, making comparison graphs of density of populations,,

During the game, watching photos from different countries around the world about nature, adventure, natural phenomena, architecture, and as a team they had to take notes during the presentation and then answer 50 different questions by going thru their notes and discussing with each other.

Sport Competence as a team: helping each other to learn or to improve.

Swimming: always with life jackets, combination of water games and learning how to swim.

Chess:

Grand Master Ashley was working with 24 best and most active players from all the districts

We also had 2 wonderful Mexican Coaches working with us for 4 weeks at the camp:

We did a lot of team chess activities as well:

Helping each other during puzzles time:

Blitz tournament

And now,, as these kids go back home they are eager to teach their friends and parents to play chess as well as share all the other useful skills that they learned in the camp. Each week they met players and coaches from other districts and made new friends. Our chess family keeps growing!

Summer 2009

2009-07-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

Three weeks of chess camps are over and i hope to be able to share with you what it feels like to be in the Sibun chess camp... Each week between 20-30 kids from all districts of Belize come for 4 nights 5 days adventure chess camps.

Each year there a theme for the camp. This year : passing the 7 skills to become a Sibun Chess Knight.

Back in history, in the 12th century each knight had to pass the test of 7 skills: swimming, horse riding, poetry writing, hawking, archery, boxing and chess. So, our kids in order to become Sibun Kingdom Chess Knights had to pass the test of 7 skills as well: swimming, horse riding, poetry writing, badminton, ping-pong, pentathlon and chess. Each day's schedule included time for training of all those skills and on the last day of camp everybody was tested. Not everybody was able to pass, but Everybody did their absolutely best to learn those skills.

Being in the camp is an incredible experience and to illustrate it I am inviting you to look at the pictures below. With this view from Sibun Jungle Lodge

.... kids were starting their days at the camp with their pentathlon training:

We wrote poems and decorated them,, I wish you could see how many creative poets and illustrators we had in each group!

On the last night of camp each chess player had to present their poems- recite it in front of the whole group. It shocked all the coaches how confident all the presenters were, how much energy and creativity they put into their presentations. You all know how difficult it is to stand in front of the whole group and do a presentation. But after 4 days of camp, they all could do it with the smile on the face and a brave look. All the chess players developed the ability to overcome their fears and pass one more test of the chess knights!

Poems were not only about chess, they were about everything. Here is an example of one:

Happiness

Happiness feels like my little sister's hug

Happiness sounds like a singing bird

Happiness sounds my mom's laughter

Happiness looks like the smile of my sister

Happiness smells like a beautiful rose

Happiness feels like hugging a puppy...

.......

A lot of time was also spent reading..

And of course, geography! By the end of the camp, our chess players could not only name the most recent chess world champions or names of the grandmasters from all over the world, they could easily name and show the countries they are from.

They worked in groups and were excited about the world on the map!

It was not easy at first to locate all the 43 countries that we studied,,, but studying together helped a lot!

Final quiz - chess and geography Jeopardy!

Art, I wish that you could see all the intricate "stained glass" designs that the kids came up with . Here is just one of them!

And of course chess... playing chess everywhere..

There was a lot of one on one work with coaches:

Learn from your mistakes, simply means going over the game that they played and analyze it.

This year Junior Coaches(HS) did a great job of working with their peers.

To bring our game on the next level, we needed the expertize of the higher level instructors: watching at night CD with the commentary by Grand Master Maurice Ashley who goes over the most famous games in history and analyzes them with passion and excitiment that makes everybody to learn more and more !

At the beginning of the camp we introduced the concept of visualization,which helps not only with playing chess, but in any other subject and developes an incredible visual memory. We demonstrated it by having one of the most advanced players in the country, David Martinez, to play the frist few moves of the game while he was blindfolded. And after that we did a number of activities and lessons.

To our absoluteastonishments by the end of the camp, one of the players ( you see him getting a special award for that) was able to play 30 moves game against one of the coaches. He was playing blindfold and was able to remember the position of all the pieces and make the moves by calling out the moves in notation and hearing the response from the opponent. He played the whole game without looking at the board even once!

As you remember one of the 7 skill that kids had to learn to become a chess knight, was horse riding. This was a great gift for us from Banana Bank owner John Carr. He not only donated lesson and horses for all 3 camps, but also made a very memorable presentation on Trust

.. and to prove his points he got one of our players on the back of the horse and.....

proved that he can literally reach for the stars !

Before the trip, as you can see, kids were afraid of the horses, but

after 40 mins ride, they felt pretty confident!

It is always sad to say good buy,,, camp is a place where players and coaches come from all different district, where we learn from each ohter, about each other and hope to see each other again at the future events!

group 1

week 2 group
week 3 group

I have to tell you though, that those camps are not possible without our most dedicated volunteers: in addition to myself, Edgar and Darell(the most dedicated Caves Branch Guides), David Coombs, Micah Williams and Jose Teul, we had 3 coaches from Toledo( Adinaldo Requena, Policarpo Cus, Rodolfo Shal) who volunteered their time away from home and families for all 3 weeks of the camps, Coaches from Corozal( Humberto Juarez and Humberto Sanchez) for 2 weeks, coach from Belize city( David Martinez) who traveled every week to assist on the weekend when he had time off from work, Stann Creek coach( Ray Lawrence) and a number of Junior Coaches, as well as chaperones who came with kids and assisted in every single activity. I didn't mention all the coaches names, but believe me it was a truly national effort, coaches from all over the country working together as a team!

Without their time and energy these camps would not be possible, THANK YOU!!!

And here is one more poem for you to enjoy, written by one of the chess players in this camp. How can you not like chess after reading it?

Chess

Chess smells like a spooky battlefield

Chess sounds like joyful shouts

Chess feels like goodness

Chess looks like a battlefield before the battle

Chess tastes like the sweet taste of victory

Chess smells like a blossoming flower

Chess feels like you are the King of the Kings

Chess looks like the future

Chess tastes like a sour taste of a loss

Chess sounds like small laughter

Chess feels like you are Mighty

Chess looks over you!

Up-coming Summer camps preparations:

2009-06-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

A simple banner can be used as an excellent visual tool that includes a fun name for the camp, kids' names, chess vocabulary, and a lot of other useful info that can be attached to it during the camp, as well as pictures created by your kids.

August 2008 Camp

2008-09-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

August camp started with extremely bad weather and it took our Toledo team 2 days to reach the camp because of the floods and washed away bridge on the way to Sibun, but nothing could stop them! We were very proud of all other participants and by the end of the camp, we all agreed that in order to be a good chess player, it is not enough just to be good at chess, you must show all these other qualities and skills:

In the end of the camp, Colleen Tate from Stann Creek team , won the award of the Ultimate Chess Player, and received chess board that Irianie Pech brought from Cuba specailly for that title.These were all the particiapnts: all 20 of us from Cayo, Corozal, Belize, Stann Creek and toledo!
The camp was big success due to the efforts of all the coaches who assisted in it: Wayne Huang, Young Jin Gomez, HUmberto Juarez, Frank Tu, Ian Avilez, Virgilio Ruiz, David Martinez, Jose Teul, Micah Williams, Irianie Peach and David MacEnulty ( our special guest coach from US).

In addition, Caves Branch Guides: Esperanza Gaitan, Elmer Medrano and Edgar Martinez provided not only safe and secure environment, but they were also active participants in all our activties: from running mini tournaments to swimming, playing chess and teaching how to repell.
Coach from Corozal helps with teaching how to swim:
US coach David Macenulty provides special instruction for the coaches.....and instructing our players:
David Martinez, our strongest coach:
Virgilio Ruiz, Corozal coach:

We had a very challenging Chess Camp, and we HAD FUN! Special Thanks to all other Caves Branch guides and staff who assisted in the camp, and King Arnold!

Girls Camp 2008!

2008-09-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

19 girls from all over the country came to the girls only camp at Sibun Chess Kingdom. This was exceptionally special camp: in addition to the tremendous help of all the volunteers, we had Jennifer Shahade, US Women's Chess Champion working with them. Jennifer came specifically for that camp with the intention to boost their chess skills and confidence in themselves.
On the last night of the camp Jennifer played a simul against all the girls. THOSE girls actually made history! Nobody else in Belize had a chance to play Jennifer Shahade before!
We were very proud of their perseverence: Gabriela Ugarte from Corozal managed to have a draw, while Rajel Villafranco from Stann Creek played the longest game that night- 45 minutes of concentration and focus. Everybody else impressed Jennifer with their fighting spirit!

What else did the girls do in this 5 days camp? The theme of the camp was RESCUE THE KING! And they actually did! King Arnold was kidnapped on the last day of the camp, but since the girls learned a lot of useful skills in the previous days, they didn't hesitate to rush to rescue him: tubing down the river, hike and then repel down the 150 feet high cliff,,, and much more. See for yourself!

learning how to use compass.. and of course we had fun with sports, arts, map skills....

We used chess to learn how to read the coordinates on the map... Chess is always helpful!

Chess Adventure Camp for coaches!

2008-09-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

Coaches week: July 22-24th, 2008 had 17 participants (teachers, principals, Peace Corps and community volunteers), who worked on improving their chess skills, brainstormed ideas for the upcoming school year clubs, learned to run mini tournaments and participated in a real chess adventure! See for yourself:
Participants were from Corozal, Cayo, Stann Creek, Belize and Toledo : David Coombs, Micah Williams, Aaron Garbutt, Lorena Cruz, Edgar Martinez, Anelie May, Ricardo Bailey, Jose Teul, Glorycela Torrez, Frank Tu, Myron Median, Wayne Huang, Humberto Juarez, Rob Magee, Gilberto Gabriel Perez, Ian Avilez, Domingo Salam. If you have any questions about chess, now you know who to ask!

We bet you haven't heard of playing chess in the caves!

Chess players have to be brave- part of our training is in the extreme situations: jumping off the cliff...

Sibun Chess Kingdom

2007-09-11T19:44:00.001-07:00

Sibun Chess Kingdom welcomed 82 kids from 5 districts of Belize: Toledo, Belize, Stann Creek, Corozal and Cayo. Children were selected by the local district representatives and accompanied by local volunteers to the live-in camp at Sibun Jungle Lodge.

Chess King and Queen, accompanied by Noble Knight greeted the kids upon their arrival.

Five days of adventure at the beautiful castle ... chess adventure as we call it. Main goal of the camp was to create an environment where they will have a lot of attention from mentors, coaches, camp councelors and together with those adults they will have a chance to be creative, imaginative, will start believing in their own abilities. Self-esteem is a very important skill that needs to be developed, and in the regular classroom teachers do not have a chance to pay individual attention to every single student. Every single activity was designed to trigger their creativity, imagination, teach them how to work as a team, be patient, empathetic to other people and ... to have fun while learning a very complicated and demanding game of chess. The fairy tale of the Chess Castle, and the King, the Queen, the Knight gave this kids a chance to feel like King's and Queens. There is nothing wrong with recreating a dream and live in it, even if it is only for 5 days at a time!
All the parts of the lodge had the proper names as in a real castle, for example, on the picture below you see boys' bedroom: knight's room.
Grounds around the castle were helping to create the atmosphere of a very special place, where every kid is a winner.
Before every single meal, one of the coaches was congratulating kids on what they were able to accomplish so far, and was announcing which 7-8 kids would eat at a special Great Hall- separate tower shaped dining area. Selection was made based on the criteria of team work, showing responsible behavior, taking initiative, asking a lot of questions, being a good sport, showing excellent leadership skills. Selection was made through the day for every single meal, therefore almost every single kid had a chance to be selected.

In the end of each week, kids were imprinting their hands on the banners and their names were written on the shields becoming part of the history of Sibun Castle.
In the end of each week kids were receiving certificates of participation as well as awards for Sportsmasnhip, Attitude, Effort and various other positive skills that were displayed by the participants. Our coaches and camp councelors tried to catch the kids doing the "right things" during the camp and not let it go unnoticed.

Activities

We use chess as an educational tool, and we want our chess players to be well educated, well rounded, creative. We love chess, but our camp activities were very diverse and besides playing chess we incorporated Art....

.. physical activities... such as swimming and football..

..and learned and new game: badminton, that requires very serious body and mind coordination...Team building activities are very important in our camps. ON the first day kids do not know how to work as a team, they get angry with each other, frustrated and blame each other for not being able to win as a team. By the end of the camp, they know that team work makes everything better. On this picture: the whole team, 10 people have to stand on the tarp and flip it over from under their feet without stepping off the tarp. It is very challenging believe me. They must communicate with each other, help each other, use problem-solving skills. And at some point one of the kids learns to be a leader, who gives clear direction that will lead to the successful completion of the activity.
They learn how to be a team..Spelling and Math were incorporated in a lot of chess activities:

Math activity: Chess Sculpture competition. Kids had not only to come up with the best looking sculpture utilizing all their pieces, they had in the end to calculate the combined value of the structure, by adding the number of points that each chess piece has, utilizing different strategies to calculate it with their partner. That one activity requires: team work, patience, persistence, math, creativity, problem solving, anger management...and much more. Dancing competition allowed the kids not only to learn how the King moves, but also have incredible amount fun with it. Lyrics of the song "I am the King" described the new concept- chess Rules for the King- and had a very energizing music to it. All the worksheets were created by Nathan Goldberg, my friend from NY, who also send me the CD with the chess songs as well as many chess books that made our life soooo much more easier. Visualization is a very important skill for math and reading and a lot of other subjects, as well as for playing chess of course! Below you will see David Martinez modeling for kids how to play chess blindfolded. On the next picture, you can see doing the simplified version of it: moving the knight blindfolded. It is a very difficult task, try it yourself to appreciate the challenge!
How does it feel to be a King or a Queen? We played life size chess.... By the way, all the costumes were hand made by the camp councelor Irianie Pech and her family from Corozal!
Have you ever had a chance to be a King? Well, as the kids realized it is a tough job- the King is the one who makes the decisions for the next move...
If you got the impression that everything was easy to accomplish..well, it was quite the opposite. On the day of departure from the camp, all the kids had a chance to do horse riding. For kids, horses looked scary, big, intimidating and some of the kids were refusing to get themselves on the horse, adults who already gained kid's trust were able to convince them to try it, at least try it...... and of course after the trip,kids were galloping back proud of themselves, proud that they overcame their fears. They became winners again, what could be a better way to end the camp?
The horse back riding trip as well as the mount for the Noble Night was provided by John and Carolyne Carr from Banana Bank Resort. The horses were great, and the Banana Bank staff was extremely friendly and caring.

The most important thing is to understand that the process of learning and changing behavior of the kids is a long term project. Therefore, I want to emphasize one more time, that the goal of the foundation is not to have random events, but to continue working with those kids and organize all the volunteers into a network of support, that will be able to pay special attention to those kids through the years to come, develop clubs in all the districts with special attention to the remote villages, run local tournaments and mini camps. Since we cannot possibly be available for all those kids from different districts (After all, we only have a staff of 3 people...), we heavily depend on the volunteers, who will continue working with the kids in the communities.
Right now we are getting ready for the November camp again! Who will be attending? Kids who were selected by their local coaches based on the same criteria: sportsmanship, attitude, most improved and of course the best chess players.

Volunteers

These adults not only were with the kids 24 hours a day in the camp, they became an essential part of those kids' life there and after the camp. Almost all the volunteers who came, currently working with the kids in their communities:

David Coombs- club in Central Farm
Sgt Sho - club in PG at Fairweather BDF camp
Jose Teul- club at San Pedro Columbia, Toledo
Maria Cabral- Placencia
Micah Williams- Hope Creek and Dangriga
Irianie Pech - Belmopan
David Martinez - Belize city

Some volunteers who didn't attend the camp, helped us many other ways. For example, with creating all the props for the castle: Irianie's Pech family and friends spent weeks and weeks on sewing, drawing, printing banners and flags. All Caves branch staff who in addition to their regular job responsibilities of running the lodge were working on painting and decorating the castle and maintaining it through the humid and raining conditions of the summer.
Caves Branch guided, Carlos, Ching and Darrell, worked with me on many other projects. They are not only at the camp for providing safety and monitoring the kids. They are there actively involved in all the activities and councelling. They are the back bone of our camps.
There were many other volunteers, who we are very grateful to for their energy, time and support of the kids! Special thanks to:

Yajaira Coba, Jamal Andrewin, Elsa Cardinez - University of Belize students
Frank Tu- former BCS chess club member, currently UB student
Yadira Montejo- parent from Corozal
Yoshika- Japanese volunteer
Kenrick MArtinez- BDF
Mik Cabral - camp councelor, HS student, Placencia
Ellra Alvarez - Toledo community volunteer, HS student
Pech family and relatives, from Corozal
Col Lt Pulido, BDF for providing constant support and active participation of the BDF staff

See volunteers in action!

Press and TV coverage: Channel News 5

Jungle chess camp has kids motivated

During July and August this newscast was chock-a-block with our usual run of summer camp stories, covering activities ranging from art to football. That series of reports usually ends when students return to school in September... but with classes postponed for a week by Hurricane Felix we’re able to squeeze in just one more piece. It’s a story by our colleague Brent Toombs and involves perhaps the most unusual summer camp we’ve ever had the privilege to visit.

Brent Toombs, Reporting
Sixteen children in the Stann Creek District are setting out on a journey. One that will take them far away from their various towns and villages, to a strange new land, where noble nights roam on horseback and kings and queens hold court.

King Arnold
“It’s good to be the king”

King Arnold and Queen Gwendolyn rule over the Sibun kingdom, where for the next five days, these young Belizeans have come to learn all about the game of chess.

King Arnold
“My queen and I have long awaited your visit and now that you’re here, we’ll be watching you guys and just monitoring you to see if we can leave our kingdom in your hands.”

While Arnold the First may be the monarch, the real power behind the throne rests with Ella Anderson. A career educator, Anderson moved to New York from her native Russia, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and for nearly a decade, she worked in some of the toughest intercity schools, running a program that used chess as a learning tool.

Ella Baron Anderson, Dir., Bz. Nat’l Youth Chess Foundation
“They were the worst schools in the neighbourhood, where nobody even wants to go to teach. You come into the classroom where literally you see the chairs flying in the air because the kids just have absolutely no control of their emotions, their anger management. We come to teach chess and all of a sudden, something changes.”

So when Anderson moved to Belize two and a half years ago, she began looking for ways to get children in this country to take up the sport she loves, chess.

Ella Baron Anderson
“It’s such a small country that if I will put enough of my energy and if I will find enough people who will be as passionate about chess as I am, who will understand all the benefits that the chess brings, we will be able to turn the whole new generation of kids into chess players.”

Anderson’s efforts have come to fruition in the form of the Sibun Kingdom Chess Camp. For five weeks this summer, over one hundred children from all corners of Belize, spent five days each living in a converted castle on the banks of the Sibun River, learning not only the game of chess but developing skills that will help them with self-esteem and confidence.

Ella Baron Anderson
“Besides the chess as a game, you can start noticing all these other things that’s happening in the kids mind. They start feeling good about themselves. As they start playing chess, it also starts from scratch. They don’t know anything about the game and all of a sudden you can see them as the day progresses. They started feeling and they go ‘Oh, I won the game!’ For them, maybe this is the first time they succeeded in something.”

Many of these campers have never played the game before. To a beginner, chess can seem overwhelmingly difficult. However, Anderson breaks it down to its simplest form.

Ella Baron Anderson
[To Students] “During the pawn game, the only piece that moves is the pawn, because we don’t have any other pieces on the board. Why?—because it’s the same thing as basketball, before you play full court, you have to learn how to deal with the ball right.”

“We can break it down in such small pieces that even the slowest kid will have a chance to succeed, at a different pace; but he will learn slowly slowly from the single concept ‘what a straight line is’ to actually how to play the game.”

[To Students] “So after she moves, take your time, don’t move anything. Just think, is there anything I can capture?”

Assisting at the chess camp are a number of volunteers coaches and counsellors. Most have a personal interest in the game, such as Frank Tu of Belmopan, one of Belize’s top ranked players, or Peace Corp volunteer Micah Williams, who is working to promote chess in the Stann Creek District.

Micah Williams, Peace Corps Volunteer
“I brought some of the kids that I worked with already in Dangriga to this chess camp, and then when we go back, the 4H clubs that I have started already will start chess clubs with those same kids.”

But for U.B. student Irianie Pech, her attraction top the camp has little to do with the game itself.

Irianie Pech, U.B. Student/ Mentor
“Even though I’m not a chess player, I really got motivated by the cause, the organisation; I really love what they are doing. My role ranges from different stages, from being the one in charge of coordinating different activities in the morning to the afternoon, to helping a sick child or just giving a hug to a child who is homesick.”

During the week, not all of the activities take place indoors, or even involve chessboards. There are plenty of other things to keep the kids busy, such as badminton, football, swimming and even horseback riding, but according to Anderson, there is a reason for everything.

Ella Baron Anderson
“A lot of times, when we start doing a different activity which is scary for the kids, they’re scared. They’re afraid of the horses, the horses are big and they never did it before, right. The kids started feeling scared and all of a sudden, we who were the chess coaches before, we said ‘of course you feel scared’. In stead of denying that feeling we will go on the human level, ‘of course you feel that way’, but that’s how you felt five days ago when you had all these pieces in front of you and you had no idea how to play it. And you were afraid to play some of the kids who were much stronger than you were, this is the same thing; you will overcome it, you will feel good about yourselves.”

Of course, everything always comes back to the game of chess, and by the end of the five days, these campers have a pretty good handle on the game; you could even say that a once obscure sport has come to life.

Kyra Villafranco
“Sometimes chjess teach you more about how you listen, directions and how to be better at more things.”

Carlos Valtoro
“When I reach home I will tell my family I want to come here again.”

Arrie Gentle
“I’m going straight to buy the chessboard and the chess pieces at the store, and just go home, tell my mother about the trip and start to play it.”

But like summer vacation itself, all too soon, camp is over, and it’s time for goodbye hugs. And with the new school year just beginning, Anderson and her colleagues hope that the lessons learned at the Sibun Kingdom will translate to the real world.

Micah Williams
“The hope is that they will take away life skills, leadership, teamwork, respect. Those types of skills that you learn from the discipline that chess teaches you that really are what you need to succeed in general.”

The Belize National Youth Camp Foundation plans to continue to promote the game by holding a number of mini-camps and tournaments throughout the year. It is hoped that the Sibun Kingdom will be able to host even more campers next summer. The majority of costs for the camp were underwritten by Ian Anderson’s Cave’s Branch Adventure Company.

Chess camp, Level 2: November 2007. Please visit this site to see the updates! It was absolutely terrific to see how much our kids matured as chess players. Sorry, no pictures here yet, because we were sooooo busy with other events....Check our http://chessinbelize.blogspot.com to see current events in all districts!