Home-schooled chess team banned from tournament

A team of East Valley home-schooled students who won the state chess championship in 2006 was not allowed to compete this year at the Arizona Scholastic Chess Championship in Tucson.

A change in rules regarding home-schooled teams in the Arizona Chess Federation left the 26 students at home March 16-18 while their peers at public and private schools checkmated their way to victory.

“They put rules on home-schoolers that aren’t on anybody else,” said Joan Harmonick, a mother from Mesa who home-schools her children and whose 18-year-old son coaches the team called Chevalier Noir (Black Knight) Academy.

The ruling, which came in December after months of contention, requires home-schooled students to either join their local public school team or form a team with other home-schooled students living within the attendance boundaries of the same public school.

Chevalier Noir players come from Scottsdale, Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa and Ahwatukee Foothills and practice together at the Harmonicks’ home.

“There are not enough home-schoolers within the boundaries to form a team,” Harmonick said. “And our local public school doesn’t have a team, so we are completely shut out.”

Harmonick and other parents of home-schoolers are quick to point out that Arizona is an open-enrollment state, which means public school students do not need to live within prescribed attendance boundaries to enroll. Charter and private schools do not even have attendance boundaries.

Arizona Chess Federation secretary Myron Lieberman said the December ruling was established to create boundaries for home-schooled chess teams in proportion to those of public schools.

“They have to have some kind of boundaries,” Lieberman said. “It avoids buying and selling of players like a sports team.”

Under the old rules, Lieberman said a home-schooled team could recruit only the best and brightest players, creating an unfair advantage.

“There were instances where people were abusing the rule,” Lieberman said. “Home-school teams would pick the strong players and create a club instead of a scholastic team.”

But Harmonick said the Chevalier Noir team has no tryouts or qualifying standards.

“We only set limits by number,” she said. “All the students who come to us have never played before.”

Chess federation board members Dean Cullen and Steven Kamp agreed with Harmonick and voted for homeschool participation in the 2007 tournament.

Instead, Kamp said the board chose to follow the United States Chess Federation’s recommended policy for home-schooled students.

“They succumbed to the ruling and basically passed the buck back to the USCF because they didn’t want to spend any more time on it,” Kamp said. “I didn’t see the big deal, but some people live the game.”

Lieberman, who abstained from the December vote, said the issue will remain up for discussion until a resolution is found.

“Basically, Arizona does need a different guideline,” Lieberman said. “There isn’t much disagreement on the board that something needs to be done.”

Levi Johnson, 8, is a homeschooled student who played on the championship team in 2006, when the traveling tournament came to Gilbert.

“It’s fun to go with someone you know,” he said. “If you wanted to play this year, you had to go by yourself and not together.”

Top E.V. teams

Teams from six East Valley schools finished among the top five in their divisions at the 2007 Arizona Scholastic Chess Championship.

Kindergarten-Grade 1

1. Phoenix Country Day, Paradise Valley 4. Neely Elementary, Gilbert

Kindergarten-Grade 3

2. Keystone Montessori, Chandler

Kindergarten-Grade 6

1. Phoenix Country Day, Paradise Valley

Kindergarten-Grade 9

2. Mesquite Junior High, Gilbert 4. Taylor Junior High, Mesa

High School

2. Gilbert High School SOURCE: Arizona Chess Federation