Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 9, 1994 TAG: 9406090158
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In an upstairs bedroom of an apartment in the Lincoln Terrace housing complex, a half-dozen children were talking, laughing, shrieking, singing, teasing each other, moving chairs, stamping their feet - and playing chess. Very good chess.
The after-school chess club is operated by the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority and is funded by a Public Housing Drug Elimination Grant awarded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The club is "a trial thing," said Anita Lee, the authority's resident development administrator. The program's goal is to give children an alternative to hanging around on the streets. She hopes that someday it will receive permanent funding.
Children ages 7 to 18 who live in the housing development are welcome to join. So far, Lee said, the response has been very good. The club is supposed to be limited to 12 members, but it's hard to turn the children away, she said, and there have been as many as 18 packed into the apartment that serves as a community center.
April 4 was a school holiday, and the crowd was a little smaller. Seven children sat in a semicircle around a large wall-mounted chess board used to demonstrate moves.
Russell Potter, a national master with the U.S. Chess Federation and a two-time Virginia chess champion, is the children's instructor. The club began in February, and by April, the children were able to answer Potter's questions about complicated moves and to follow a lecture that threatened to put an adult reporter to sleep.
Potter's secret is to explain the game using concepts the children can understand. To teach them the value of each piece and when it's advisable to risk one, Potter assigns each a dollar amount.
"Would you give up $1.35 for $1?" he asked.
"No!" the children shouted back.
He gives the knights names, such as "Bambi" and "Thumper," uses sports terminology, and makes up dialogue for the other pieces to illustrate their relationships.
The club is meant to be fun, but discipline is strict. The door is locked once the meeting starts, so anyone who is late can't get in. Acting up can get a club member sent home, and if the whole group gets too rowdy, members don't get a snack between the instruction and play periods. The snack must be a powerful bribe, because during the instruction, the children - with one exception - listened quietly to Potter's talk.
The exception was Tierra Terry, 8, who, between answering all of Potter's questions accurately and discussing moves with him, chewed on the strings of her hooded sweat shirt, bounced around from chair to chair and kept a running conversation with herself, wondering aloud if "Tenisha is going to get her tail whipped," referring to one of her absent friends.
Mia Ross, 10, who sat next to Tierra, looked bored throughout the lecture, but later, when it came time to play, both girls perfectly executed the moves Potter had demonstrated earlier. Tierra bounced in her seat and sang a little song about her next move when she knew she had Mia cornered.
"I like to take other people's [pieces]," she said. "Chess makes me smart."
Parents like the program, too. Although Thomas Michie's son Michael Smith is a year too young for the program at age 6, he was allowed to join anyway.
"It was his own idea," said Michie, who played a little chess himself years ago. "He catches on quick, and he likes to get involved in a lot of activities."
April 4 was Michael's first visit to the club. He hesitated while making his moves, seeming unsure of himself. His big, heavily lashed eyes were wide with interest as the other children helped him out.
Potter has been teaching chess to children since 1986 at camps, schools and clubs. Children enjoy chess because "kids like games," he said.
He has taught children as young as 5. Chess is the one sport where size and strength don't matter, he said. "It's a power thing when a little person can beat a big person."
The chess program also offers the children a chance for social interaction with each other and with kids from other economic backgrounds. Schools that sponsor chess teams often send members on trips, and that's a big draw for the kids, Potter said.
Potter said that underprivileged children often are more interested in chess than their wealthier peers. For children who are well off, chess is just one of many activities they can choose from. The children at Lincoln Terrace "have a hunger for activities like this," Potter said.
Playing chess builds self-confidence and decision-making skills, as well as teaching children that actions have consequences, Potter said.
"It's too early to tell" whether he has a budding Bobby Fischer in the Lincoln Terrace club, Potter said. But Tierra, for instance, "does know something about chess. She's a pistol."
by CNB