A tough game can turn foes into friends.

Studies have shown that chess improves classroom skills. Program director Michael Joelson said the game teaches youngsters to think before they move, to make plans, to carry them out, and to anticipate rival efforts.

It's also fun. Said Central's Clairese Hammock, "You don't have to actually get mad about it. It's just a game."

Cleveland Public Library Director Andrew Venable said he hopes the players become patrons. The library features the world's leading collection of chess materials, including a piece found in King Tut's tomb.

About 200 middle-schoolers squared off at the library yesterday, and some 250 elementary schoolers are expected today. Most of the pupils are beginners, and it often showed yesterday.

Three Central players won in four moves apiece, virtually the minimum. And tournament organizers had to dispel a few delusions.

"That's not checkmate," Joelson told a prematurely triumphant Brian Jewell of Central. "That's only check."

The chess program was conceived by Carl Bowers, now a Cleveland police detective.

Bowers was a national scholastic champion in his division at John Adams High School, which has produced several chess champions over the years.

He recruited several fellow officers and players to help at the tournament. He also got financial backing from RPM Inc., whose president, Frank Sullivan, is a casual player and the father of four budding players.

The chess stars simultaneously beat and taught several pupils at once. Bowers urged them to make their pieces work together.

"It's just like police radio," he said. "You got to have backup."

Calvin Blocker, the state's top-rated player, simultaneously beat a few students and Patrolman Dave Oxley. This despite Oxley slapping handcuffs on him in mid-game and warning, "If you win, you go to jail, you know that?"

A couple of youngsters managed to beat or draw the officers. "She whipped my butt in three moves," sighed Patrolman Tim Brown after losing to Central's Alecia Jeffrey.

Most of the grownups won, but few of the students were cowed.

"I'll be back," vowed Deonte Pegues after losing to David Allen Jr., a former Ohio scholastic champion. "One day, I'll be able to beat him."

'You Can Never Go Back to Checkers'
A New Generation Discovers the Challenges and Pleasures of the Ancient Game of Chess

Shaker Heights School Review Spring 2002

When Boulevard student Trey Modlin won first place in the second-grade division of the state chess tournament, his father noticed several elementary schools had sent teams to the competition. "I just thought this was something Shaker could do," Charles Modlin recalled. So Modlin assembled a team of seven Boulevard players to compete in the Northeast Ohio K-8 Chess Tournament. with few practice sessions, the informal group won first place in the tournament's K-3 division and brought a big trophy back to the school.

The children's enthusiasm must have been contagious, because this year, with a little more pushing by Modlin, Boulevard established a lunchtime chess club that has attracted 78 children. The club, taught by two professional instructors, started in December and will continue until the end of the school year.

Christopher Hayward, staff assistant at Boulevard, admits he was pleasantly surprised by the response. "We sent an initial mailing to find out how many families might be interested even if there was a fee. The parents of 65 students said they would be interested. In the end, we had 78 actually sign up..

Fernway Principal George Cannon had a similar surprise. An after-school chess club established there attracted more than 120 students - a third of the school's enrollment. "I've thought about doing this for a couple of years, but I was absolutely overwhelmed by the number of kids who responded," Cannon said.

As at Boulevard, it was an enthusiastic parent who made the Fernway chess club happen. Robin Elsen proposed the idea to Cannon and to Fernway's Parent Teacher Organization after her son came in first place in the kindergarten category in the Ohio K-12 Chess Championship in December. Zane Elsen takes private chess lessons from Michael Joelson, the same chess master who teaches Trey Modlin. Joelson helped organize the programs at Boulevard and Fernway and another at Mercer, where 13 children so far have joined an after-school chess club sponsored by the PTO.

Joelson, who teaches chess to individual students and at several public and private schools in greater Cleveland, said there has been a tremendous resurgence of the game among children across the country. "Scholastic chess has definitely been growing. Right now, the U.S. Chess Federation has more scholastic members than individual adult members, and that's unusual in its history." Joelson and others hope to organize a Shaker chess tournament for later this spring.

Onaway fourth-grade teacher Martin McGuan's entire class stays in for recess once a week all year to play chess. Two years ago, McGuan applied for and received a grant from the Shaker Schools Foundation to purchase enough chess sets for each student to play.

At Lomond, second-grade teacher Edward Krnitt teaches his students the basic chess moves within the first two or three weeks of school. "I give them the option of staying in for recess to play chess. Nearly the entire class takes me up on this. Some of my students never set foot on the playground during the whole year. I have enough sets for the entire class to play at once and some computer programs for variation."

Teachers and parents agree the game is fun, appeals to children across racial and ethnic groups, and has educational value as well. "There's a lot of research out there that indicates chess is really beneficial in a variety of ways," Modlin said. "It helps children develop concentration and discipline. Kids who play chess do better in all aspects of their education."

Added Eisen, "I think it's a great thinking tool. It's taught my son how to think ahead, strategize, calculate, anticipate and learn from his mistakes."

Kmitt agrees. "The nature of the game requires a player to consider multiple moves and their outcomes, which can transfer to problem solving in which a variety of strategies could be employed to reach a solution."

Lomond second-grader David Hawkins put it more succinctly: "Chess is a challenging game. You can't ever go back to checkers."