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Churchill Road Elementary

Elementary Team League 2025-26 Matchday 5 Results

After our most recent meeting at St. Luke’s this past Saturday, February 7, the Elementary Team League is past the halfway mark for the season.  Perhaps due to the cold, windy weather this weekend, a few of the team lineups were missing students, and those schools that did show with full teams took full advantage to gain ground in the standings.

Round 9:

White Oaks 4-0 Willow Springs
Colvin Run 2.5-1.5 Orange Hunt
Ravensworth 0-4 Kent Gardens 
Churchill Road 3-1 Greenbriar West
Spring Hill 3-0 Oakton

Round 10:

Willow Springs 0-4 Churchill Road
Kent Gardens 2.5-1.5 Colvin Run
Oakton 1-1 Ravensworth
Orange Hunt 0-4 White Oaks
Greenbriar West 0-3 Spring Hill

Standings after Matchday 5 of 8:
 
Kent Gardens 139
Spring Hill 133
Colvin Run 109
White Oaks 106
Churchill Road 105
Greenbriar West 74
Orange Hunt 72
Oakton 56
Ravensworth 46
Willow Springs 28

Elementary Team League 2025-26 Matchday 4 Results

Just before all the snow fell, the Elementary Team League with its ten participating school teams gathered at St. Luke’s for another day of play last Saturday.  The two matches saw some shuffling amongst the leaderboard, with Kent Gardens now sitting atop the overall leaderboard ahead of Spring Hill, and Colvin Run moving up to third place with a big day.  With four Saturdays remaining in the season and eight matches yet to be played, the competition is set to go down to the wire.

Round 7:

Oakton 2-0 Willow Springs
Colvin Run 4-0 Ravensworth
Kent Gardens 4-0 Greenbriar West
Orange Hunt 0.5-2.5 Churchill Road
White Oaks 2-2 Spring Hill

Round 8:

Willow Springs 0-2 Ravensworth
Churchill Road 1.5-2.5 Kent Gardens
Ravensworth 0-2 White Oaks
Spring Hill 3-1 Orange Hunt
Greenbriar West 1-1 Oakton

Standings after Matchday 4 of 8:
 
Kent Gardens 110
Spring Hill 107
Colvin Run 89
Churchill Road 76
White Oaks 74
Greenbriar West 68
Colvin Run 57
Orange Hunt 61
Oakton 52
Ravensworth 40
Willow Springs 26

Chess imparts lasting benefits and creates lasting friendships

In the decades I have been involved with chess, I have enjoyed my friendships with players more than playing the game itself. Some of those friendships have lasted more than fifty years.

Having been a chess teacher and coach for quite a while, another enjoyment that nearly equals those friendships has been to watch my students grow into adults. Seeing students become parents and bring their children to our classes is very gratifying. It suggests that those former students recognized the value of learning chess.

Recently, a group of recent college graduates who had kept in touch with each other since they had been students at Churchill Road Elementary School invited me to lunch. These brilliant students, mainly computer engineers but one who is becoming a materials engineer, wanted to catch up with me.

We discussed their careers as chess players (all but one still play competitively) and professionally. It seems likely that they would have had successful lives without learning chess, but the friendships they developed over the board and the competitive skills they learned have been wonderful.

Chess enhances people’s lives. It helps people from diverse backgrounds create relationships. It improves skills society values. It is an enjoyable way to become better people. I am grateful for the opportunities I have had to meet talented people because of their interest in chess and I hope that those opportunities continue for others as well as myself.