Student Spotlight

Wyatt Caccia joined the chess ranks this past semester by signing up for Integrating Chess and Critical Thinking and he is into this game.  Wyatt is a junior at WRHS and played chess as a recreational  past-time but he has become rather serious about chess since learning about the history, the sport, the science, and the beauty of the game.  He even spends late night evenings on Gameknot playing Blitz games.  Norman Friedman, Manhattan Chess Club and founder of The Right Move Chess Foundation, was able to tutor Wyatt when the Wood River Chess Club was active and Wyatt was an ankle-biter.  Since joining the class, Wyatt has assumed a dominant role and is respected by the chess students that challenge him during the class.  He is currently ranked 10th in our club rating system, however, out maneuvered me this week in a G/5 game.  I agreed that he could call me Adam if he won.  He won.

Last week, he performed an excellent analysis of a chess game as part of his Grandmaster Project.  It was a proud teacher-student moment upon hearing "interpose,"  "discovered check," and "deflection," used casually as he explained the critical moments in a game by Hikaru Nakamura.  On Monday he began thinking about an artistic/chess idea.  By Thursday, he completed this pen-and-ink drawing, though he is not in any art classes.  Wyatt is a renaissance man and is taking a number of AP classes, including AP Environmental Science from me, in addition to working part-time.  I look forward to seeing Wyatt compete in his first tournament and spreading his unique vision and world outlook to my younger chess students.