Chess teacher Terry Moeller said that Hunter Ewald, a fifth-grader, won the tournament's Brilliancy Prize, given in tournaments for the player who pulls off the smartest combination. In Ewald's case, it involved a move that sacrificed his queen.

Moeller, a candidate chess master who has played in two U.S. Opens, started teaching chess at Hanalei School last spring. The school's chess program is part of its "creative wheel," which includes instruction in music, art, Hawaiian studies and chess. Hanalei is the only school on Kaua'i where chess is taught.

"I see that these students find a great deal of self-confidence in playing chess," Moeller said. "On a personal level, it will give them some of the greatest personal satisfaction they will ever experience."

Of the 100 students in the three grades studying chess, 20 made it to the finals. Those students played games driven by the clock. If a player ran out of time before the game was over, he or she lost, even if technically ahead on the board.

Moeller, 51, a news photographer, said any child can learn chess, although some take to it more readily than others.

He believes the game provides young people with valuable educational skills.

"They learn logic and math by osmosis. They learn the fundamentals of geometry. They can understand an X and Y axis and can easily make their way around maps," he said.