Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 16, 1992 TAG: 9201160176
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
CHESS GOOD FOR PULASKI COUNTY - AND VICE VERSA, IT SEEMS
How do you coach high school students in a subject they know more about than you do?That's a situation Pulaski County High School chess coach Fran Shelton has been facing for three years.
"Almost all the team members know more about chess than I do," said Shelton, a math teacher. He is not that good, he said, but can teach the basics. And he can show them ways to improve their game.
One way is to keep notes of game moves.
"People learn more from their failures than their successes," he said. "It's the same reason we study history."
And playing chess has obvious benefits for students, he said, such as discipline and making them plan ahead for the best solution to a problem.
Much also can be learned from books, and Shelton would like to see a library of such books the youngsters could check out. Of course, not everyone would use them.
"Unfortunately, they [some students] don't want to be taught. They want to just play," he said. "It got to a point in the middle years where they didn't have to compete to get on the team anymore."
He took the coaching job because his son, Jeff, was a senior member of the chess team. Jeff Shelton, now a student at Virginia Tech, accumulated more than 40 chess trophies after getting into competitive chess as a Critzer Elementary pupil.
Turnabout is fair play. Jeff Shelton said it was his father who got him interested in chess in the first place.
Pulaski County has become well known in chess circles, having won state championships from kindergarten through high school as well as five national titles.
Jeff Shelton recalled a chess enthusiast he met once who was unable to figure out where Roanoke was until someone told him it was about 40 miles east of Pulaski.
Computer science teacher Pete Shaw started the chess program in the schools about a decade ago. Wayne Wooten started a team at Dublin. Teachers elsewhere began sponsoring programs at their schools.
An open chess competition will be held at Pulaski Middle School Feb. 15. Pulaski County players will go to William Fleming High School in Roanoke March 14-15 for state competition. Traditionally, Pulaski also has competitors at the nationals, which will be May 8-10 in Lexington, Ky., this year.
Pulaski County High School will host the Atlantic Coast championships April 11-12. Last year also saw the county's first chess camp, hosted by New River Community College. Shelton said there is a possibility of another this year at Radford University.
"We've hosted the state tournament probably 10 out of the last 15 years," Shelton said. "It's not that we hog it, but there's just more interest here."
That interest may help explain why Pulaski County has done so well in chess competition, he said. There are not that many school systems across the country in which programs exist from kindergarten up.
But that is changing. Not only are programs springing up in other localities but, closer to home, Giles County is coming on strong and the Roanoke area has had a chess program for some time.
"The high school will be lucky if it can win the state next year," Shelton said. The team lost some strong players who graduated, but its future looks good because of strength coming up from Pulaski Middle School.
It will do even better when players such as brothers Ming and King Chan, who have dominated primary grade competition nationally, reach high school.
"What you're seeing now is our second wave," said Jeff Shelton.
He said the openness of the chess competition system was good for the Pulaski County program and for all the adults who have volunteered to work with the students.
"National competition is very exciting," Jeff Shelton said. "And the neat thing is you don't have to qualify for it. . . . You can have as many players as you want on your team, but only four can score."
The natural progression from all the volunteer work by teachers and coaches, he said, would be to hire a chess master, even part time, to work with the students. That has been done in Roanoke, he said. But, with the state budget problems, he is not optimistic about it happening in Pulaski.
He also would like to see a chess club in Pulaski County similar to the Friday night tournaments in Roanoke. He said the accomplishments of players in county schools and the competitions held there could be a drawing card for tourists.
"That's national exposure for Pulaski, not just Pulaski chess," he said. "There were kids who came to the national tournament here who had never seen a cow. . . . Pulaski had its things to offer, too."