First Moves / Chess news from around the U.S. FACES ACROSS By AL LAWRENCE
THE BOARD DAVID GOHRE
TEXAS A&M- KINGSVILLE
Chess for probationary students
those chessmen could tell. Perhaps it reminds this American history teacher of standing at the tree line at the start of the final charge at Gettysburg. Perhaps it’s not as momentous and certainly not as tragic as that Pennsylvania field, but the world did change because Ben Franklin played chess, and, if you have a love of history, you get to feel some personal connection to it. The set itself is not ornate, which is
appropriate for an American democrat. As famous collector Jon Crumiller told me, it was just easier to make that design. You can find similar looking sets in the 1500s. The rook does look like a rook, but everything else is, for lack of a better term, “quasi-abstract.” The knight is a small nod toward a horse head, and the pawn is, well, a pawn. The king, queen and bishop would be hard to recognize as stand-alone pieces. If Hollywood were doing this as a
movie, Franklin and his opponent would no doubt be using fake Rennaissance chess men. Just as John Adams showed up in his respectable cloth coat, Franklin went with understatement. Although the display was encased in
protective material, I tried taking a pic- ture through one side and had Bruce Pandolfini put his elbow up even with the top of the chair so we would create the optical illusion that our master would be ready to kibbitz once the
games began. The whimsy of our effort would be
appreciated by Franklin, who was humorous about chess. In his 1780 Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout, Franklin has “Gout” (from which Ben suffered) criticizing him thusly:
“But what do you do after dinner?
Instead of walking the beautiful gardens of the friends with whom you have dined, like a man of sense, you settle down at the chess-board and there you stay for two or three hours…Wrapped in the speculations of this wretched game…”
Franklin protests that he will no longer play chess, but he doesn’t fool Gout:
“I know you too well. You promise beautifully; but, after a few months of good health, you will go back to your old habits.” The historian Carl Van Doren called Franklin’s chess playing an addiction. It was probably better described as a challenge. The man who was a scientist, publisher, developer of a 64-square magic square, writer, business innovator among many things, used to sit down at that modest set with a 3 ½ inch king, perhaps with his copy of Philidor, and look for solutions on and off the board. That alone is enough to link him to every chess player since.
See the June 1986 Chess Life for more about Ben Franklin and his chess. Photos: Opposite page, far left: Franklin’s set. Opposite page: Morals of Chess original publication. This page: Bruce Pandolfini at the exhibit.
Write to
faces@uschess.org.
Gohre, who drove 11 hours to Lubbock with seven students, teaches a freshman seminar at the Center for Student Success. He’s also the volunteer faculty advisor to the chess team, which meets twice a week and hosts a unique part of the university’s “Academic Recovery Program.” All students on academic proba- tion are required to attend six hours of chess club during the semester. Initially skeptical, the probies “learn that it can be fun—chess has a fantastic effect,” Gohre said. “Our teams loved the PanAms and were impressed with the helpful chess community.”
CONSTANTINE ANANIADIS
OBERLIN COLLEGE, OHIO
A net win for chess
Neither of Constantine’s parents played chess, nor was tennis a popular sport in his native Athens. Nevertheless, he became a USCF life member and A- player, as well as a star USA college tennis player and then a conference-coach-of-the-year. He’s also the volunteer faculty advisor to the chess club. Oberlin won first place in Division IV and took home the Best Small College trophy—which Constantine, as board- one player, helped to win for Stetson U. back in 1994 and 1995. He’ll soon teach a full-credit course called Chess in Society. The game “instills school pride and camaraderie, and develops decision-making.”
JOEL DEWYER
U. OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY 6-time national champions
A longtime chessplayer and cycling
fan, Joel is Associate Director of The Commons, where UMBC’s many chess trophies are on prominent display. He’s also the volunteer business manager of the chess team. The squad’s history of success at the PanAms is an “important part of school pride,” and the 13,000-student university currently funds five chess scholarships. This year UMBC-A, in a dramatic, last-round upset of UT-Dallas, finished in second place, while UMBC-B took Division II, as well as both the individual and team upset prizes.
www.uschess.org 9
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76