{"id":15053,"date":"2015-10-07T09:56:11","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T15:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=15053"},"modified":"2015-10-07T09:56:11","modified_gmt":"2015-10-07T15:56:11","slug":"15053-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=15053","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flovalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/FFSD-Chess-program1.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-15054\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flovalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/FFSD-Chess-program1-470x313.jpg?resize=470%2C313\" alt=\"FFSD Chess program\" width=\"470\" height=\"313\" \/><\/a>Walnut Grove Elementary<\/strong> students are challenged by Grandmasters (left to right) Alejandro Ramirez and Yasser Serawan.<\/p>\n<h1>F-F District, Ascension Health System<\/h1>\n<h1>Launches After-school Chess Program<\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The elementary and middle school students in the Ferguson-Florissant School District (FFSD) have the opportunity to become chess grandmasters. Funded by Ascension, the nation\u2019s largest Catholic and non-profit health system, and administered by The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis and Ascension, an after-school chess program led by certified instructors was launched Tuesday, Sept. 15, at Walnut Grove Elementary School.<\/p>\n<p>Representatives from the two organizations met with 34 third through sixth graders. The students then played a few rounds of chess with grandmaster chess players. At the conclusion of the launch, all 34 students received travel chess sets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChess is truly a special and magical game, particularly for young people,\u201d said Maurice Ashley, the first and only African-American grandmaster. \u201cI learned to play chess at the age of 14 and it became the largest influencer in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ashley is from Kingston, Jamaica, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He shared with the students his humble beginnings and the opportunities chess has given him.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve traveled all around the world, and I\u2019ve met many famous people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The 10-week chess program is free to students. Sponsors hope it will engage hundreds of students in once-a-week chess club events.\u00a0Not only is chess a challenging game, but the type of thinking involved empowers players and strengthens their decision-making skills.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m excited about this opportunity for our students,\u201d said Joseph Davis, the district\u2019s superintendent.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a terrific chance to instill confidence in our children and provide them with lifelong skills that will enable future success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are great students, you have great minds, and you can be whatever you want to be,\u201d Dr. Davis told the students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walnut Grove Elementary students are challenged by Grandmasters (left to right) Alejandro Ramirez and Yasser Serawan. F-F District, Ascension Health System Launches After-school Chess Program &nbsp; The elementary and middle school students in the Ferguson-Florissant School District (FFSD) have the opportunity to become chess grandmasters. Funded by Ascension, the nation\u2019s largest Catholic and non-profit health [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ferguson","category-florissant","category-school-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>- flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=15053\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"- flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Walnut Grove Elementary students are challenged by Grandmasters (left to right) Alejandro Ramirez and Yasser Serawan. 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