Dorothy Westerman
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 18/06) - When almost 40 teenagers sit quiet for an hour at a time, you know there must be something interesting captivating their attention.

And so there was during the William McDonald school chess tournament last weekend.

Strategizing, plotting and planning their way through the chess board maze, these students were focused and intent on one goal - checkmate.

"You have to take out all their pieces before you try and set them up for a checkmate," said Robert Orlaw, the overall winner of the tournament.

During one game, student Kayla Eaton's opponent achieved that in what may be record time. "It lasted less than one minute," Eaton said. "There were five moves. The other person moved, then I did, then they did, I did and they won," Eaton said of the lightning speed game.

A mind-challenging game, chess requires patience above all, along with the ability to strategize with the royal family - consisting of the king, queen, bishops, knights, rooks and pawns.

Teacher Russell Ives said although the school has had an informal chess club over the last few years, this year participation has become a bit more formal. "We meet every second lunch hour and we have regular attendance of 25 to 30 students," Ives said of the growing popularity of the game.

"There is a lot of eagerness to play chess in this area. It is a fun game, a challenge and you can play online," he said. "It's not an easy game to play, so I think it attracts a certain segment of the school population."