[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 70 (Monday, May 1, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S5930]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  ILLINOIS HIGH SCHOOL CHESS CHAMPIONS
 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I would like to commend the Orr High 
School chess team in Chicago, IL, for their outstanding participation 
in the State chess competition.
  Orr High School's chess team is among the best in Illinois even 
though it represents one of the city's most troubled areas. The team is 
the other side of the story, the story beyond the statistic. It is 
ordinary people--parents, grandparents, big brothers and sisters and a 
math teacher joining together to save their children with rooks and 
knights and a lot of prayer.
  It all began in room 207, the detention room at Orr where punishments 
are served. It also became a room where dreams are made: the chess team 
practices there. Team members start filing into 207 early every morning 
because that is where the coach, Thomas Larson, spends his days. Mr. 
Larson is a math teacher, and is also in charge of the in-school 
suspension or detention room where unruly and angry students are sent 
to cool off.
  Nearly 75 percent of Orr's students come from low-income families. 
Students enter Orr, if they are lucky, with sixth and seventh grade 
math skills. In 1986, Mr. Larson started using chess and other games in 
his prealgebra class to help students with their analytical skills. 
Soon he began holding chess competitions in class and started a team. 
Chess was foreign to most of the students at Orr. It was a game that 
they thought was just ``for smart kids.''
  The first year Orr played in the public school chess league, they 
came in fourth of six teams in their division; they placed 14th out of 
16 teams in the citywide playoffs. A few weeks ago, Orr was crowned the 
city champions and was one of the top five schools statewide.
  Congratulations to the Orr High School chess team on their 
outstanding performance in their State and local competitions.


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