Donovan Moore helped his team from Franklin County, Mississippi place 10th at the national chess championships.
Someone — nobody knows who — paid a chess coach to to teach the game to grade schoolers in rural Franklin County, Mississippi, reports 60 Minutes. Kids who grew up eating fried rattlesnake took to the game and became winners.
Last spring, Franklin County’s chess players, mostly in elementary school, played high school students at the state championships, reports Sharyn Alfonsi.
Braden Ferrell: They were basically, like, trying to say we were a joke cause we were kids. But after the game, we usually beat ‘em and they were like very shocked. Sharyn Alfonsi: Don’t you guys feel bad you beat all those older kids? Braden Ferrell: Never… Parker Wilkinson: No. I don’t want that to make me seem like a cruel person, but I’m, I really am just OK with crushing people’s spirits.
A team of Franklin County fifth- and sixth-graders placed 10th in their age group at a national competition in Nashville in December.