Rogers State University in Claremore is now the first four-year university in Oklahoma to offer any kind of a chess scholarship.

RSU faculty member Dr. Barry Knight was instrumental in arranging for the $200 per year scholarship to the School of Business and Technology. It is available to applicants that are currently active members of the United States Chess Federation and who have participated in at least one tournament in the last year.

“We hope that visibility of this on the USCF scholarships page at http://www.uschess.org/scholastic/scholarship.html will be our first step toward bigger university scholarships in Oklahoma for scholastic chess participants,” said Mike Swatek, Claremore chess enthusiast and organizer of the chess club at Central Upper Elementary School.

The Oklahoma Scholastic Chess Organization has been in existence only a little more a month and is very excited about the progress toward one of its stated goals of promoting chess scholarships in Oklahoma.

The OSCO will host its Scholastic State Championships for students in grades K-12 on March 1 in Frank Mobra Fieldhouse at Claremore High School.