Riley Smith
Riley Smith.
Riley Smith won the Alabama State Chess Championship in the K-8 division that was held on Sept. 5 at Samford University. He won all five games at the event.
Kids from Central Alabama competed in the tournament’s Scholastic division, which includes grades K-12. Riley also competed last year at the USCF National Junior High K-9 Championship that was held in Atlanta and tied for third place in his division winning 4.5 of his five games. He also placed eighth after the tie breaker. There were about 100 people that competed at the state tournament, and at the national tournament there were almost 1,500.
Riley first started playing chess in third grade with The Knight School, an after school program offered at each of the elementary schools in Mountain Brook and taught by Dr. David Brooks, PhD. In sixth grade, Riley joined ChessKidsNation. He is now taught by chess coach Balagee Govindan and attends weekly classes in addition to playing online chess.
-Submitted by Lori Smith
