Blitzing, blundering, blocking and attacking. No, its not football. It’s a game that’s been around for centuries known as chess.
The thought of chess may bring images of old timers sitting around with their scotch and tobacco pipes, but these days kids as young as 4 and 5 are mastering the fine art of the game.
On Sept. 11 rooks will be cramped at the Boys and Girls Club on Santa Barbara Drive as Chess for Kids hosts their first class in Rohnert Park. It’s the start of a regular class every Friday, 6-8 p.m. Drop-ins any week are fine, classes are ongoing and one doesn’t have to be a member at the BGC.
“These kids are amazing,” said Jolie Cook, president and founder of Sonoma County’s only chess club for kids. “They pick it up so fast, it’s unbelievable.”
Cook’s son Tyler began playing at age 5, learning the game from his grandfather.
“By the time he was 7... he was getting really good at it and we were looking for other kids for him to play with but we just couldn’t find it anywhere.
“He could sign up for anything in Sonoma County - except for chess.” She signed him up for tournaments, hooking up with Berkeley Chess School who goes into the schools and teaches chess to kids throughout the Berkeley School District. The chess school helped Cook form her own nonprofit here in Sonoma County in 2005 where she began holding classes through the Cub Scouts at a local school library and its been rapidly growing ever since.
But without insurance, no one outside the Cub Scouts could participate so she began searching for a different location so all children could participate. “We wanted everyone to have a place to play chess,” she said. She believed getting it into the schools would be a good place to start.
“I pretty much just started from scratch and went to each school.” After getting a group of about 25 kids, she took the club to Wednesday night farmers market in Santa Rosa and set out a few chess boards to raise interest in her vision of bringing chess to more kids. It’s there she met more kids and teachers, getting the contacts to expand her club.
By then she’d received donations from different companies and groups to buy more pieces and boards. She took out insurance and became incorporated and now runs Chess for Kids. 
But not having a home for her club was a challenge. At first the kids played in coffee shops but as more and more kids signed up, the club outgrew coffee shop space and Cook began using space at a Santa Rosa school every Friday night for two-hour classes.
After approaching schools throughout the county, Chess for Kids is now an after school program at over 45 schools except for schools in Rohnert Park and Cloverdale. She has 11 teachers working for her and continues her mission of getting chess at every school.
It’s all parent-paid and most of the schools let her use the space for free with only a few charging a small usage fee.
Every year the club holds a countywide tournament at Strawberry School in Santa Rosa. The 2009 tournament in May brought 103 kids from 37 schools to compete. “We even had several kids from Rohnert Park who’ve never taken our class compete, so the interest (in RP) is there, we just need to get it in Rohnert Park schools.”
The difficulty she says is getting parents to request it at their school in addition to approval from the principal, PTA and the district. Right now she’s been talking with Hahn School back and forth but nothing’s come to fruition yet and that’s the only school so far showing interest. One of the biggest ways she’s been able to get it in the schools is parents requesting it. “They have other after school programs so I know its possible, we just need more parents to request chess and then get approval.”
The goal doesn’t end in Rohnert Park. “We want it to be in all schools where there’s underprivileged kids. So I’m working on finding corporate sponsorship to help with the funding. I know it’s possible, it’s being done in Oakland right now.” She also hopes to someday have her own place for classes and her own tournament. For more information on Chess for Kids call 527-6427 or visit chessclubforkids.com.