Charlotte For Chess

 Sunday morning I woke up in Charlotte and the first order of business was, of course, finding a good cup of coffee.

Since I was in the very heart of the city, I figured I could just walk a block or two in any direction and just stumble into a good coffee shop - and I was right.

However, when I exited the coffee shop I encountered hordes of elementary school kids milling  about the city center with their parents in tow (all of whom seemed to be weighted down with excessive baggage for a Sunday morning).

Curious as to why there were so many families everywhere, I did the only logical thing and stopped a person who looked like they would be in the know and asked.

That person was indeed in the know, and they told me "It's the Chess Kids Elementary Nationals, across the street there at Charlotte Convenvention Center."

So I walked across the street and into the CCC to check it out.

Holy moley! There were hundreds of kids and their parents all over the place, and all of them were playing, talking about, observing (because "watching" is not what one does when observing a Chess match), learning, teaching, or competing in Chess.

And I immediately had two thoughts. The first was, "Wow, I'm surrounded by hundreds of kids 12 years old and under who could probably kick my ass in Chess, and the second was, "Why isn't there any press coverage for this? This is kids and their parents sharing in an intellectual pursuit - isn't that newsworthy?"