Chess

Two ancient games of cunning andpatience: In one, sculpted armiesface each other, with ornate tow-

ers and galloping horses ready for bat-tle; in the other, humble stones of blackand white fill a vast, blank space, strug-gling to surround each other, buildingup networks of escalating intricacy.For chess and go enthusiasts, each is

certain their game is the best in theworld.They also share a thirst for impart-ing the wisdom of their centuries-old art.Despite jockeying over status, chess andgo advocates share a common goal—toeducate youth through the masteryof a complex set of actions,through competition, sports-manship and camaraderie,through learning the bestmoves and even morethrough improvising, cre-ating something newwithin an ancient context.“Chess teaches childrenan enormous range ofuseful skills,”says DavidMehler, founder of theU.S. Chess Center in Wash-ington, D.C.“Perseverance andpatience, learning the risks ofcomplacency.”And even more,it “teaches them to concentrate,to focus on a task, to resolveissues with their minds.”

For inner-city chil-dren who may sufferfrom low expectations,chess has other benefits.“It gives the kids a sense ofconfidence that they are intellectuallycapable,”Mehler explains, “because ofthe cache of chess. Children who’vebeen brought up being told that they’restupid and worthless, they learn to playchess and they realize that what they’dbeen told about themselves previouslywas a lie.”Mehler cites students in hisprogram who have gone on to become

doctors, lawyers and engineers.Far across the country, inBoulder, Colo., go teacherPaul Barchilon toutseven more intellectu-al advantages for hisfavorite pastime.“Goto my mind is amuch better game,”he says, “almost theopposite of chess. In

chess you start out witha full board and play in the

squares. In go, the board startsempty and you play on the intersectionsof the lines. Instead of trying to capturea specific piece, you are creating islandsof territory, a world, a cosmos.”Roy Laird, a clinical psychologist and

chair of the American Go Association(usgo.org), argues that go encourages amore philosophical mindset.“Chess is aparadigm of 18th-century warfare,” he

says.“Pieces line up and battle eachother. I have to cut out yourheart.”In go, however,“thewhole idea of winning isdifferent. InAsian thought,mountain and valley arenot opposed.They coexistand define each other.”Barchilon adds that the

competitive concept is dif-ferent in go: “If a player is

Two classic games teachchildren useful skills.By Ethan Goffman

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too greedy, and tries to take everything,the game punishes the player.”Go, withits handicap system, also rewards theplay of the game beyond simply winningor losing. A player may compete againsthimself or herself to lower the handicap,while players want to help weaker op-ponents reach a higher level.For John Goon, an organizer of nu-

merous chess and go clubs in the Mary-land suburbs of Washington, D.C., bothgames offer tremendous opportunities:Go is the easier game to learn and offersa richness of strategic breadth; chessoffers great tactical complexity and a

For chess teacher Etienne Gilbert,who works at the U.S. Chess Center, gois a strange and alienating game, one hehas played only once, many years ago.He finds the game “very abstract, theboard is so wide. All the pieces are thesame.”Gilbert believes that chess, with itsornate variety of pieces, each with its ownspecial power,“will have an edge. Becauseit’s dynamic; you know, go is static.”Mehler, for his part, points out that

“chess has a broader international ap-peal. Every country in the world has achess team.”The game has also enteredthe language, so that it’s“just part of the

It took six months of puzzlement andpondering before Barchilon finally won,at which point his friendmoved away. In ago-famished country, he was unable tofind any real opponents for another 17years. Finally, in 2001, a chance encounterled him to start playing again, and he dis-covered the Boulder GoClub in Colorado.Barchilon now sees it as his personal

mission to keep such a drought of goopponents “from happening to otherpeople.”When a go-playing friend andteacher died of cancer in 2003, Barchilonbegan to teach the friend’s children.Shortly thereafter he started a weekly goclub for kids and in 2006 won theTeacher of the Year Award from theAmerican Go Foundation. Currently, heis helping its organizing efforts, result-ing in some 100 new go clubs across thecountry annually.“I have high hopes forthe next generation,”Barchilon says.Mehler’s path to teaching chess was

similarly indirect. Although he learned

consequences,”which made him realizehe had control over his life.Mehler used chess to help a few other

students and then moved on. A fewyears later, as a young lawyer in Wash-ington, D.C., he volunteered to read sto-ries to inner-city youth. Soon, he waslooking for other ways to help. Not sur-prisingly, he drew upon his earlier expe-riences and began teaching chess.His informal activities soon drew

attention.“People liked the work I wasdoing with kids in the city,”he explains.AWashington, D.C., visit by world chesschampion Garry Kasparov led to a pushfor chess education, and in 1991 the U.S.Chess Center opened, with Mehler as its“Go and chess offer a treasure chest

of opportunities for enlightenmentbeyond the mere mastery of rules,tactics and strategies.”

Chess and Go teachers,despite theircompetitiveness,are really takingpart in the samemission, usinggames as an opportunityfor cognitive, social andacademic development.

potent range of educational and clubsupport. To Goon, “the true differencecomes from the skill, training and matu-rity of the teachers and mentors. Go andchess offer a treasure chest of opportuni-ties for enlightenment beyond the meremastery of rules, tactics and strategies.”Laird also sees huge benefits to both

games. “There’s a lot of research outthere that shores up the cognitive ben-efits of chess,”he explains, pointing toelectro-encephalogram studies that showareas of the brain lighting up whenengaged in a game. Yet, he says, otherstudies show go stimulates additionalareas of the brain. Studies have alsoshown both games“enhance reading leveland average rate of academic progress.”

culture, part of the lingo,” pointing toterms used in diplomacy, sports andmany other contexts, such as “keep incheck,”“stalemate,”“end game” and “apawn in the system.”Although chess is more widespread,

many Americans will be surprised thereare more go players overall, but they areconcentrated in Asia, particularly China,Japan, and Korea.

Paths to TeachingIsolated, like most Americans, from go,Barchilon initially learned the game atage 16 from a friend who, for no dis-cernible reason, kept winning. “I wasquite mystified,”he shares.“I felt I wasat least as intelligent.”

the game at an early age, he explains he“didn’t have any great ability, or eventhat much interest.”Teaching at a privatehigh school in the 1970s, he dealt witha failing student whom he describes as“reasonably intelligent, he simply wasn’tconnecting to thewhole academic process.”Because the student came from a family ofalumni, there was extra pressure to helphim, andMehler suggested chess.“Almost immediately, his whole aca-

demic outlook turned around,”Mehlersays.“Other teachers were commenting,what am I doing with this kid that he’sgone from being an F student to an Astudent virtually overnight.”Chess hadenabled him “to plan ahead, and heunderstood that there will always be

AAbboovvee lleefftt:: Players attend the Rockville, Md., Go and Chess Club. Photo by Ethan Goffman AAbboovvee rriigghhtt:: Kids get their game on at the Boulder Kids &Teens Go club. Photo by Paul Barchilon

NNeeaarr rriigghhtt:: In the final round of the 2007 U.S. Youth GoChampionship regional qualifier in Boulder, Colo., 12-year-old Kellin Pelrine (left) was the winner and went onto compete at the nationals in Seattle. His opponentwas 11-year-old Jessica Lin. They are playing on a tradi-tional Japanese floor board. Photo by Paul BarchilonFFaarr rriigghhtt:: John Goon teaches go at his Rockville club.Photo by Ethan Goffman BBeellooww:: Students at HarrietTubman Elementary School in Washington, D.C., take ina game of chess. Photo by Ethan Goffman

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director. The center sends chess teach-ers to area schools, and although itfocuses on inner-city children, it servesall schools that ask. It also runs tourna-ments that bring together kids from allparts of the city and suburbs.One of the newest programs is at the

Harriet Tubman School, where EtienneGilbert teaches third and fourth graderson Friday mornings. “The teachers loveit,” he explains, “and for kids it’s like anindoor recess.” Gilbert begins classeswith a lecture, although with much stu-dent participation. “What three thingscan a king do to get out of check?”Gilbert asks a recent class, and a slew ofhands shoot up, waving for attention.“Run like a coward,” answers one boy.

“Good,” says Gilbert, and solicits moreanswers. Soon the kids divide into twosand sit in rapt concentration at theirchessboards while Gilbert patrols theroom, answering questions.Beyond attracting kids’ attention,

Gilbert believes chess imparts many les-sons. “You have first a sense of respon-sibility,” he remarks. “There is the prin-ciple of fairness; you can’t cheat. Thereis the principle of concentration andfocus, that’s a good quality to develop,of creativity, calculation and planning.Obviously chess is a strategy game, [so]you have to look ahead in time. Back-wards and forwards. Those are qualitiesthat definitely are applicable to otherareas in life.”His favorite part of the job, however,

is the children. “‘Oh, yes, we have chess,’they will shout. They will high five meor hug me.”Barchilon also recounts a hugely grat-

ifying response:“I routinely have parents

coming up to me, thank-ing me for what an amaz-ing experience this is fortheir kids.”

Successful BlendingChess and go teachers, despite theircompetitiveness, are really taking part inthe same mission, using games as anopportunity for cognitive, social andacademic development. Indeed, over hisyears as an organizer, Goon has come torealize the benefits of diversity. Afterstruggling to make go clubs work, headded chess. “It quickly became clearthat the inclusion of other games great-ly improved the chances for a club’s sur-vival,” he explains.To Goon, a monolithic approach,

whether to sports or to boardgames, serves“to winnow out rather than to embrace all.It seems to me that educational programswith student enhancement as their goalought to be all-inclusive if at all possi-ble.” Over the years, Goon’s clubs haveexpanded to include an increasing vari-ety, from fantasy card games to wordgames to European-style games such asCarcassonne and Ticket to Ride. Partici-pants drawn to one kind of game willoften switch around and become inter-ested in others, leading to a variety ofstyles, a variety of riches.

Still, Goon’s foundation rests with thetwo classics: “The successfulblending of go and chess pro-grams demonstrated the feasibil-ity of future friendly and respect-ful coexistence,” he explains.The two games, although

overlapping in some ways, alsoteach different skills. Chess is

the ultimate game of tactics, with piecesswooping down unexpectedly, with forks,pins and discovered attacks. Go is a big-picture, long-term game of patience,structure and development. Very few chil-dren will achieve top-level mastery ofeither game, and even fewer will becomeprofessionals. But the games will be apart of their formative experience and, insome cases, the key element that taughtthem how creative thinking combinedwith self-discipline can lead to success.A child taking up chess or go, then, may

be analogous to the development of aknight in chess toward the center of theboard, pushing from a protected place toa perhaps scarier vantage point, yet onethat opens up new directions, new possi-bilities. Or it may be considered akin tothe placing of a stone in go, a move thatbuilds toward a larger structure, one that,scores of stones later, may prove the keythat changed the game. For most, chessand go will be a stepping stone, one piecein the development of a complex person.And the ability to stimulate a child towarda thoughtful and satisfying middle gameought to gratify any teacher.

Success StoryAmong many stories, John Goon remembers one particu-lar child. In the 1970s, a sparse decade for go, he taughtfor a few months at a local program that soon failed. Some20 years later, the one student who had shown a strongenthusiasm “called my home out of the clear blue sky andbrought me up to date.” He had joined the Navy and beenassigned to Japan, where “because of his go interest, hewas embraced by the players and gained access to a levelof native Japanese culture not normally encountered.” Thisstudent was now better than his former teacher, but bothteacher and student emerged the winners.

TToopp aanndd lleefftt:: This chess program is held at Harriet Tubman Elementary School.BBeellooww:: Chess teacher EtienneGilbert demonstrates how tohunt down a king. Photos byEthan Goffman

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