A good chess match can be hard to find for an international grandmaster, so Maurice Ashley has spent most of his career growing his own competition. Since becoming the first African American to win the elite title in 1999 according to the U.S. Chess Federation, the Jamaican-born New Yorker has traveled the country to promote the game of kings as a game for children.
He came to Washington this week to square off against 30 young chess players simultaneously on 30 chessboards in an exhibition organized by the District-based U.S. Chess Center.
“It’s great to see these kids who think they have a chance,” he said before heading in to face anxious students in school uniforms lined up in front of checkered boards. More and more kids do, he said. “I don’t give them any games, though. They have to beat me.”
Thirty-seven percent of U.S Chess Federation members are younger than 13, reflecting the strong interest of the elementary school set.
“Like a lot of sports, it’s a younger man’s game,” said Chuck Lovingood, who oversees national tournaments for the Tennessee-based federation. “You run a little faster when you are young and you probably calculate a little faster.”
Children — unburdened by grown-up responsibilities — have an added advantage, he said: the ability to empty their minds and achieve “total concentration on the game.”
Bobby Fischer in 1958 became the youngest grandmaster ever at 15 before going on to win the world championship against a Soviet player in the most-watched match in history. Now 12-year-olds have claimed the title.
Younger chess players these days are aided by Internet programs that enable them to practice obsessively and access hundreds of years of recorded strategies in minutes.
The popularity is also fueled by organizations in big cities across the country dedicated to introducing the game to a larger and more diverse group of children.
The U.S. Chess Center in downtown Washington opened 19 years ago with a goal of moving chess beyond the after-school clubs popular with science nerds and philosophy buffs and into classrooms where everyone can play.
It has sent chess teachers into public schools and offered weekend classes and tournaments, training tens of thousands of students.
Research is spotty on how chess affects academic performance, but advocates say the game teaches problem-solving and thinking skills.
Vicki Bullock, a teacher at Cleveland Elementary in Northwest Washington, said that in the decade that her fourth-grade students have received free chess lessons, she has been impressed at how the game helps even the antsiest, chattiest students settle down and focus.
“They need patience to learn,” she said. “Some things take a minute. This takes a minute,” she said, as she watched three of her former students square off Tuesday against the grandmaster.
As Ashley circled the rows of chessboards, exchanging moves with one student at a time, the hushed crowd could hear only the tap of chess pieces. The children stared into their boards, foreheads creased, chins cupped in hands, fingers pressed against temples.
By Michael Alison Chandler,
Source: Washingtonpost
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