Chess is a battlefield — and then you shake hands

Chess is one of those games you wouldn’t usually call fun.

You stare quietly at a board with 64 black and white squares. You silently move pieces around called pawns, knights, bishops, castles (or rooks), queens and kings. Some of those pieces move diagonally, some horizontally, some vertically. Some can jump. Some can only march forward. And you usually win by forcing your opponent to resign if they are behind on points or hopelessly out of position, or checkmating them, which means their king has no escape route.

Backgammon, in comparison, can be at times fun and wild with the roll of the die. There is some luck involved (My wife somehow beat me most of the time even through my strategy of blocking as many points as possible is clearly better than hers of piling up pieces on a few points. I believe she once won seven straight games before I quit in a fury).

Not so with chess. While it can be exasperating, annoying and maddening (at the master level, it literally has driven people crazy), chess is also a game of wits and will. It is not a game of chance. The best players see far beyond one or two moves ahead, but 10 or 20. And, much like golf, the more you play, the better you will be. The more you study, the more you will understand.

Growing up, I was for several years addicted to chess. I collected chess sets. I read chess books on the opening game, the middle game, the end game. My brother and I would play well into the night. I had a magnetic set so we could play in the car. I was, for a time, pretty good, though my biggest flaw was my impatience and rushing my queen into the fray, often to meet her doom.

I once went to the high school chess club practice and challenged one of the better players.

“Your move,” I said.

I won on a lucky move, but I didn’t return. As goofy as I already was, I was worried about being associated with the chess club and what that would mean to my dismal social life and my slight chances of getting a date.

Bobby Fischer, for a time, my hero, put chess on the map in America when he won the World Chess Championship in 1972. The 1993 movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer”, (which was excellent, by the way) was based on the life of chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin. It offers a realistic look at the demands of this game that is really simple, yet so complex.

But getting people to play chess isn’t easy in a world of endless electronic entertainment. There are too many other things to do that require less effort. Chess players are kind of like runners — odd ducks who are passionate about something many shake their head at.

That’s why people like Damian Nash are great for this game.

The Kauai High teacher organizes and oversees chess tournaments, including the one on Saturday at the Lihue Public Library. He promotes this sport. He is passionate about it. He is upbeat. He exudes energy. He makes it seem like fun. He makes it feel like you are doing more than playing a game.

“It’s an eight-by-eight universe in which two people co-tell a story,” he said in a previous interview with The Garden Island. “There’s always drama. It’s like you’re co-authoring a story by trading lines.”

Nash believes chess brings people together, teaches them to be warriors of the board, and then good friends afterward.

Chess is a sport for all ages, all people.

“It’s about as close as we have to a universal sport,” he said.

Nash would know.

Chess has been part of his life for 40 years. He lived in Utah about 20 years, competed often and studied strategies. He traveled for tournaments and later was a two-time state champion.

In the annual Hawaii open chess tournament on Labor Day weekend at the Kapiolani Medical Center last year, Nash was one of the three co-champions in a field of 44 players. He remains one of this island’s top players. He has taken on multiple opponents at the same time.

So, when this man says chess is good for you, listen. Introduce this great game to your kids because it’s good for them. If you don’t know how to play, Nash (club@kauaichess.com) will be glad to show you.

And perhaps soon you will find yourself in zealous pursuit of that one word that is music to chess players everywhere.

Checkmate.

•••

Bill Buley is editor-in-chief of The Garden Island. He can be reached at bbuley@thegardenisland.com

Benefits of chess

Chess.com lists these benefits of playing chess:

• Brings people together.

• Teaches you how to win and lose.

• Helps children.

• Can help you focus.

• As an educational tool.

• Develops creativity.

• Builds confidence.

• Develops Problem-solving skills.

• Exercises the brain.

• Helps you being calm.