Evan Matherly, 8, draws during a chess-geography lesson at Discovery Elementary School in Sunrise, Florida. All 34,000 second and third graders in one of Florida’s biggest districts will learn this school year to count the number of moves to checkmate in an unprecedented play at making chess part of the school curriculum. The Broward County School District, the sixth-largest in the nation, is bringing weekly chess lessons to every one of its 137 elementary schools, which administrators believe constitutes the largest ever scholastic chess curriculum.
