USCF Mission / Chessplayers with disabilities


better than everyone he person - ally knows when it comes to playing chess. Playing online, he said, has


enabled him to meet people from all over the world and “instantly have something in common.” “It is a way for people with


disabilities to be competitive on an equal playing field. It crosses so many cultures and socioeconomic classes. I’ve always been inter - est ed in physics in the universe and chess is like its own little universe,” Gomez said. When he does play tournaments,


Gomez needs someone to move the pieces, as he no longer has use of his hands, and to keep track of his moves. All the tourna ments he’s attended have been in wheel - chair-accessible spaces, but some of the smaller ones have had to make last-minute adjust ments to accom modate him. Because he’s had limited


access to tournaments, he doesn’t have an over-the-board rating for in-person play, though he does have one for correspondence tournaments. “I would like specifically for the


United States Chess Federation to offer a way for people such as myself to earn a rating online that would count as an over the board rating,” Gomez said. “I would also enjoy more correspond ence tournaments to use the Web. Other than that I am fairly satisfied with the current status of the chess world.” Gomez describes himself as a


“very competitive person” when it comes to chess and other hobbies, including trivia: “I like to show that although I am disabled I am mentally sharp.” While almost everyone in -


that person’s life. Through the course of those conversations, he’s gotten the two students— who’ve teamed up to follow him— interested in chess. Watching the two play each other is more fun than partici- pating in a game himself, and teaching others aspects of the game is less stressful for him than playing it. Pattee wonders if stereo-


Paul Gomez “[Playing online]


is a way for people with disabilities to be


competitive on an equal playing field. It crosses so many cultures and socioeconomic classes. I’ve always been


inter est ed in physics in the universe and chess is like its own little universe.” ~PAUL GOMEZ


terviewed for this story de scribed themselves as com pet itive people, the drive to compete wasn’t shared univer sally. “I don’t, basically, like to play chess,” said Jerry Pattee, a


semiretired telecommunica tions worker in Portland, Oregon, who has cerebral palsy and uses crutches to walk. While he has never been inclined to join a club or enter


tournament play, Pattee likes studying games and moves, and teaching chess to other people. Right now, he’s working with two students from Pacific


University who are enrolled in a course called “Writings in Disability” that requires them to talk to a person with a disability over the course of several interviews, and write about


typing—particularly of people with intellectual disabilities — has kept parents and teachers from even attempting to teach some disabled children how to play. He describes a longtime friend of his with severe learning disabilities, including attention deficit disor der, who’s struggled with sub stance abuse and legal problems most of his adult life, bouncing in and out of corrections facilities and shelters. “His reading level is seventh or


eighth grade, maybe,” Pattee said, but has street smarts that make him a formidable chess opponent. “If he even sees where I’m looking, he has me.” Nicholas Brennan, who plays


on the chess team at Atlantic City High School and uses a wheel chair because of a bone disorder he was born with, said he thinks of himself as “somewhat com petitive” but not to the point where he gets mad if he loses or gets overly invested in winning. “It’s not warring, it’s the


opposite of war,” Brennan said. He likes the strategic aspect of chess instead. “You have to think ahead—and even thinking ahead isn’t enough sometimes.” Pattee is also more interested


in the strategic than the competitive aspects of chess,


and he sees a direct parallel between playing the game and living with a disability. He explains that even standing up and walking across the room to get something he needs—let alone taking a trip out into the community—is, for him, a multi-step process, that requires him to think several steps ahead. “If you have a lifelong disability, you’re busy planning,” Pattee said. “That plan ning ahead is a lot like chess.”


The U.S. Blind Championship is being held August 9-10 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Contact Rick Varchetto, richard521@suddenlink.net. TLA is on page 52 of this issue.


www.uschess.org 35


PHOTO COURTESY OF SUBJECT


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