Star Chess4Life Chess Students
Emily Saletan
Emily Saletan is our student of the month for October 2011. A student at Charles Wright Academy, she ranks in the 98th percentile among Washington fifth graders. She won all 5 of her games at the Charles Wright Academy tournament in 2011 and attended All-Girls Nationals in Chicago in April 2011. Her enjoyment of chess extends through chess classes at her school and at the Gig Harbor Library, as well as with a private coach. To put into practice what she is learning, she plays quads or tournaments almost every week. With that dedication and determination, she succeeded in being the first Chess4Life student to win twelve quad cups in Tacoma. That’s quite an accomplishment!
Emily shares many traits with grandmasters and other good chess players. She always exhibits good sportsmanship, as she did even one time when an opponent refused to shake her hand. Like the top grandmasters, she makes decisions that show her independent thinking and desire to plumb the depths of chess. For example, she embarked on her own investigations of the King’s Gambit, a courageous opening strategy that was very popular over 100 years ago. Following English grandmaster Nigel Short’s dictum that chess players should have a good sense of humor and a vivid imagination, she once told her mother that the best square for a knight would be f9 so that it could fork a queen on d8 and a king on e7!
We congratulate Emily on her strong character and her successes and look forward to hearing about her many accomplishments in the future.