“Like out of a scene of Searching for Bobby Fischer, 30 students sat furrow-browed over chess boards, their feet dangling several inches above the floor.It wasn’t a prodigy chess tournament in New York City or Chicago; they were Bainbridge kids in the Ordway Elementary School library. Chess and schools make a good partnership, said Ordway principal, Bruce Colley. It ties in with the whole academia that schools promote.As part of a new after-school program, students at Sakai, Ordway, Wilkes and the Odyssey program learn chess from master Charlie Nguyen.The mastermind behind the program is parent Fran Blumstein. When her son Dante attended school in Seattle several years ago, he participated in Nguyen’s chess club, and was having serious withdrawals when there was no one he could checkmate on Bainbridge. We told Charlie, ‘You need to come over here and teach at the Bainbridge schools, Blumstein said.Nguyen, a retired thirtysomething computer expert, enthusiastically agreed to travel come to the island twice a week to engage Bainbridge students in a game of what 9-year-old Catherine Gregory calls fun and strategy.Chess can be used as a tool to further their academic career, Nguyen said. It uses logical thinking, mathematics and problem solving.Yeah, I guess it might help me to do better in school, Gregory agreed.It definitely makes me think, said 10-year old Jana Price. I have to take the time to look at my move. Parents are boasting not just about the academic benefits chess may have on their young geniuses. Many say that on gloomy and cloudy days, it keeps the kids away from video games.When it is creepy outside, the kids say, ‘I can’t go play soccer, so I’ll go play chess,’ PTO president Lynn Martin said.Even though the children have to prop themselves on their knees to see over the board, and rock back and forth to keep the concentration flowing with consistence, they are silent throughout the play.Tony Sousa, a 7-year-old chess club member said the game is good practice for me to be quiet, because I am really loud.Aside from the patience promoting benefits chess provides the youth, the game is also fun.Can you see the excitement? The kids are so excited, Nguyen said while earning a draw with his 7-year-old opponent.He’s a great guy, parent Ove Veggerby said of Nguyen. He’s very adamant that it be fun.I am one of them – I speak their language and use concepts that they can understand, Nguyen said. But chess is not the meaning of life, it is just a tool.Students interested in learning about the game of chess and its pawns, queens and kings can call Ordway Elementary School, or Lynn Martin, 855-8063. “