Mayor Nutter defeated by Candida Layla Wilcox, 12 - in chess

Mayor Nutter met his match Saturday afternoon in a game of chess, beaten by one of Philadelphia's best players - 12-year-old Candida Layla Wilcox.

She didn't hesitate to say why Nutter lost.

"He wasn't really controlling the center, so he didn't really think long and hard on his first couple of moves," said Candida, an honor-roll student at the cyber charter school Commonwealth Connections Academy. "After I pinned him in, I got him in checkmate."

It took her less than 15 minutes to hand the mayor his defeat.

The chess action, with 240 players from kindergarten to 12th grade, took place at the eighth annual PECO-ASAP Checkmate Violence Chess Marathon, in which Nutter has played for five of the last six years. This match was his last as mayor.

"Soon I'll probably have more free time and chess is one of the things that I really want to get back into," Nutter said, "although it'll be at a very beginner's level.

"But I will take my beating like a man."

Candida's aunt and guardian, Nushiyrah Rodriguez, was teary-eyed and jumping up and down after her niece delivered the final blow. An audience of 300 burst into applause.

"I'm trying not to cry," Rodriguez said. "I'm like trying not to get emotional, because if you only knew her whole story."

Candida was taken in by her aunt after experiencing family difficulties. When she was a second grader, her aunt enrolled her in an after-school program provided by their mosque, Masjidullah, in West Oak Lane, to learn chess, wanting to give her every possible opportunity for success.

"I knew from a young age I had to get her everything I could to help her make sure she had all the developmental stages to be successful," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said she knew that chess would help her niece with critical thinking and communication skills.

Candida has gone on to be an honor-roll student and has acted in school plays. She also acts as hostess for her mosque.

The event at Temple University's Gittis Student Center promotes chess as a successful educational tool and as violence prevention for many of the city's youth.

"Chess helps our young people with their education, it helps them with their studies, it helps them with focus, teamwork, patience, diligence, resilience," Nutter said.

Candida has been playing chess with ASAP for four years and is considered one of the organization's foremost players, said her coach, Roberto Rashid.

She has competed in more than 65 matches with her team, the Righteous Warriors, and has played against such grandmasters as Maurice Ashley.

She completed four rounds Saturday and will go on to play three more rounds Sunday for prizes. The students who competed in this event will move on to state championships in March.

The PECO-ASAP Checkmate Violence Marathon, organized by Philadelphia-based ASAP/After School Activities Partnerships, has been held since 2002. The after-school program works with more than 3,000 students in coordination with the Philadelphia Youth Chess Challenge to help promote after-school activities to keep the city's youth safe and active after school.