King wins girls state chess title

OXFORD — Kaleigh King, a Franklin County Middle School seventh grader, took top honors during the 2022 Mississippi Girls State Chess Championship held recently at the University of Mississippi Center for Math and Science Education.

King, who started playing chess in the first grade, said being competitive comes as second nature.

“I like to win and want to prove myself every day,” she said. “It feels great to be on top after I have worked hard on getting here for a quite a while. Every year I have gotten closer to this, but this year I finally made it.”

The Mississippi Girls State Chess Championship was a United States Chess national qualifying event for the 10th annual Ruth Haring National Girls Tournament of Champions in Rancho Mirage, Calif., which is near Palm Springs.

The recent qualifier, which was held Saturday, March 19 and Sunday, March 20, saw King take first-place honors from among a host of student participants from across the Magnolia State.

Finishing as this year’s top competitor, the 13 year old said she hopes the recognition spotlights the efforts of the Franklin Chess Center, which is based in Meadville, in grooming young men and women to be their very best when it comes to competitive chess.

“The Chess Center is like my second home because I am always here – six days a week with Saturday practices,” she continued. “We work on chess daily and have all grown really close during our time here.”

King was quick to praise Dr. Jeff Bulington, the center’s director, and her FCC peers for pushing her to be her best through competition and in life.

“Dr. Bulington makes chess fun, interesting and entertaining and we, as students, have a mutual respect for one another,” she added.

“We all have a similar sense of humor and the majority of us have been here since Dr. Bulington first got here … so we know each other’s strengths and we work as a team.”

King said in no way, shape or form can she imagine her life without chess.

“Honestly, it has helped me improve my academics so much,” she said. “To learn the game, you have to learn about things like math. If I wasn’t in chess, I feel like things would be much different – especially in terms of my grades.”

Not surprisingly, King’s favorite subject in school is math because she loves numbers and working to be her best in the class.

While she has several years to make choices about her future, King noted, for now, she wants to study in either the technology or math-science fields.

Travels with the chess team have fostered her dreams of visiting places like the United Kingdom, Germany and France – taking in the sights and culture of these historic European lands.

For now, though, King’s attention is squarely on getting prepared to represent Mississippi in the Haring National Tournament to be held July 30 through Aug. 2.

“There are lots of practices lined up with activities throughout the summer including a trip to Chicago, chess camp every day during June and weekend practices in July,” she said.

Bulington said he was pleased to have King represent Mississippi in the Haring tourney and noted he has seen the quality of competition at the state-level qualifier grow through the years.

Bulington indicated some of King’s strengths where chess is concerned might well be her underlying calmness and her ability to be a role model to others — especially young female players.

“She does not get rattled easily and that is something chess demands,” he added.

“If you don’t learn to control anxiety, it has the potential to drive you away.

“She is an essential part of our team. The other kids respect Kaleigh and value her presence on the team— even those few who might be stronger players — because when you’re going up against someone tough, you want her on your side.”

Bulington said the current seventh graders — of which King is part — were the original first graders participating in the local chess program while the sixth grade players got their start in kindergarten.

Next year, they will be together for the first time to help form the middle school team.

“That team will be a significant team in the history of the program,” he continued.

“It is certainly a milestone, and when one of them succeeds there is a sense of momentum for everyone involved and they all want to work hard to improve.