When the proverbial dust cleared at a recent chess event held at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the only thing more impressive than the Great Hall setting was the last player standing—GSSEM’s own Girl Scout Chess Team member Windsor Polk! Standing tall among the other players, the diminutive 4th grader went 25 rounds with Jessica Hyatt, a top scholastic player from Brooklyn, New York. 

Jessica Hyatt was in Detroit to chat about her chess career and offer the young female competitors advice on becoming better players. Jessica is close to becoming the first African American woman in the United States to earn the Chess Master title, said GSSEM’s own chess coach Kevin Fite.  During the Simul, Jessica played against 25 of the top girls in metro Detroit, including 10 members of the first GSSEM Chess Team.

All at the same time.

It took Hyatt two and a half hours to finish playing all the girls. When the 24th player was finished, the last player was Girl Scout Windsor Polk. According to Hyatt, Windsor was on track to win the game, but she lost it at the very end. 

When asked how she felt on being the last one standing, Windsor said, “I felt proud of myself for making it that long but looking back, I probably could’ve won the game.”

The next day, Windsor traveled with Jessica while the New Yorker was given a tour of the city, with a special stop at the Motown Museum.

https://www.wxyz.com/news/famous-teen-chess-player-visits-with-students-at-dia-gets-tour-of-detroit