Chess Players

The Republic of Armenia may not be a superpower, but it has much to teach America when it comes to education. The former Soviet republic last month made chess a mandatory school subject for children over 6, citing the benefits of chess in fostering strategic thinking. It's a great gambit by a nation angling to become a superpower in the chess world. But it's so much more than that, says chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who lobbied for Armenia's new law as part of a years-long campaign to have governments and school officials around the world adopt chess as part of the primary-school curriculum.

In only a year, the challenger has shaken up the staid world of international chess. With a game that is both incredibly accurate and lightning quick, the talented youngster from Carnegie-Mellon University has climbed steadily up the national chess ladder. Last October, the challenger won a North American championship, blitzing the opposition four games out of four. Tomorrow, the newcomer will seek an even more prestigious honor: a world championship in Cologne, West Germany. If the challenger's name, "Hitech," seems a bit unusual, that's because the youngster is different from most chess masters.

By the final round of the South Jersey high school chess tournament yesterday, Barry Charnick was visibly suffering. His body ached, his energy was sapped and his fingertips were wrapped in white tape. Every nail had been bitten to the quick. "I had to tape them," the Monmouth County high school senior explained, "because there was too much blood, and the blood got all over my clothes. " Chess may be a cerebral sport, but it is not without physical pain. The two-day weekend competition at Burlington City High School took its mental and physical toll on student players competing for a berth in the final four matchup of the New Jersey High School Chess Team Championship.

Hundreds of chess fiends will begin pushing pawns for cash tonight as the world's largest chess tournament begins at the Adam's Mark Hotel. Many of the world's premier players - as well as hundreds of less-capable but equally zealous contenders - will spend the next 10 days competing in the 15th annual World Open Chess Tournament. More than 1,500 players will try for checkmates in hopes of taking home the big check - $25,000 for the top finisher. More than $210,000 in total prize money will be given out in the tournament, which is scheduled to run daily through July 5, according to tournament director William Goichberg.

Mayor Nutter was scheduled Friday night to make the "first ceremonial" move in the opening match of the Checkmate Violence 24-Hour Chess Marathon at Temple University. Nutter decided to play the entire game. His opponent: 9-year-old Janiya Ashlock. When it was over, Ashlock, a fourth grader at Bache-Martin Elementary School, had used a queen and bishop to pin Nutter's king - the only piece he had left. How long did it last? "Four and a half hours," a Nutter aide said, half-joking.

It was an unusual setback for the American and Soviet chess players gathered in this northern port city for a major tournament. But for John Donaldson and Elena Akhmilovskaya it was love. Donaldson, 31, the captain of the American Olympic team, and Akhmilovskaya, 32, a Soviet woman ranked second among the world's female chess players, eloped Friday. Yesterday, they were in Frankfurt, West Germany, awaiting a U.S. visa for the bride, official sources said. The couple's move deprived the U.S. men's team of its non-playing captain at a crucial stage in the Olympiad, a world team championship held every two years.

Former Pennsylvania state chess champion Rodion Rubenchik opened by advancing a pawn. Then he opened with his knight. Then he opened with another pawn. Then another knight. The 27-year-old Trevose resident, who is seeking international recognition as a master - it is an honor reserved for the top 1 percent of chess players - casually danced from game to game, 14 to be exact, Thursday night. Without seeming to break for thought, he simultaneously played members of the Bucks County Chess Club and a few guests at the Borders Book Store in Middletown, where the group regularly gets together to play.

Erika Sziva is paid to manufacture train engines. She has no idea how the monstrous machines work. Her husband, Tamas Halasz, works for a utility company. He doesn't know the first thing about the central heating systems that his firm helps to operate. So, are trains crashing and heating lines exploding all over Hungary? Well, if they are, it's not the fault of Sziva and Halasz. That's not their job. What Sziva and Halasz really do for a living is play chess.

Brett Chapman has the savvy of an entrepreneur and the build of a linebacker, but his college scholarship is for neither business nor ball. Instead, the West Philadelphia native earned his money by being one of the city's best at chess. Chapman, a senior at Science Leadership Academy in Center City, was one of five students honored for their prowess in after-school chess programs at a ceremony Tuesday afternoon in City Hall. Temple and Drexel Universities each will give $2,500 rewards to two players to attend, while the Community College of Philadelphia will give $1,000 to the fifth player.

Chess: It's a game that takes but a few hours to learn but often a lifetime to master. James Cho, a fourth-grade teacher at Bells Elementary School in Washington Township, is giving fourth and fifth graders there a head start. "Chess is sometimes frustrating, but Mr. Cho makes it fun," said Andrew Castagna, 10, a fifth grader at Bells. "My grandfather taught me how to play, and now I have friends to play chess with. " Cho, 28, is in his second year of after-school play each Monday and Friday, and he says he is amazed by how much his students have grasped the finer points of the game.

Anthony Koppany, 93, of Lansdale, an accomplished chess player who once played Bobby Fischer to a draw, died Monday, Oct. 17, at home. A native of Hungary, Mr. Koppany learned to play chess when he was 10 from a relative who became a chess master. After emigrating to the United States in 1949, he played with the North City Chess Club and was later director of the Franklin Mercantile Chess Club in Center City. In 1964, Mr. Koppany played Fischer at the Cheltenham Township Art Center.

The Republic of Armenia may not be a superpower, but it has much to teach America when it comes to education. The former Soviet republic last month made chess a mandatory school subject for children over 6, citing the benefits of chess in fostering strategic thinking. It's a great gambit by a nation angling to become a superpower in the chess world. But it's so much more than that, says chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who lobbied for Armenia's new law as part of a years-long campaign to have governments and school officials around the world adopt chess as part of the primary-school curriculum.

Brett Chapman has the savvy of an entrepreneur and the build of a linebacker, but his college scholarship is for neither business nor ball. Instead, the West Philadelphia native earned his money by being one of the city's best at chess. Chapman, a senior at Science Leadership Academy in Center City, was one of five students honored for their prowess in after-school chess programs at a ceremony Tuesday afternoon in City Hall. Temple and Drexel Universities each will give $2,500 rewards to two players to attend, while the Community College of Philadelphia will give $1,000 to the fifth player.

Mayor Nutter was scheduled Friday night to make the "first ceremonial" move in the opening match of the Checkmate Violence 24-Hour Chess Marathon at Temple University. Nutter decided to play the entire game. His opponent: 9-year-old Janiya Ashlock. When it was over, Ashlock, a fourth grader at Bache-Martin Elementary School, had used a queen and bishop to pin Nutter's king - the only piece he had left. How long did it last? "Four and a half hours," a Nutter aide said, half-joking.

Boris Baczynskyj, 62, of Center City, a journalist and a chess master who taught the game to thousands of children and adults, died of heart failure Jan. 16 at home. His death came a day before international chess champion Bobby Fischer's. Though the two never played each other, Mr. Baczynskyj told friend and sparring partner Mike Shahade that if he was stuck on a desert island, he would want his favorite book, Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games. In 1985, Mr. Baczynskyj wrote a summary and an appreciation for a published computer disk of Fischer's games.

Thirty of Philadelphia's best young chess players will showcase their skills - and take on challengers - today in Center City. From 12:30 to 2 p.m., members of the Philadelphia Youth Chess Challenge, will square off at the Shops at Liberty Place, 1650 Market St. Passersby are invited to play. The chess challenge is part of the After School Activities Partnership. The group has organized chess clubs throughout the city on the theory that the game teaches strategic thinking, promotes self-esteem, and teaches young people not to act impulsively.

Chess: It's a game that takes but a few hours to learn but often a lifetime to master. James Cho, a fourth-grade teacher at Bells Elementary School in Washington Township, is giving fourth and fifth graders there a head start. "Chess is sometimes frustrating, but Mr. Cho makes it fun," said Andrew Castagna, 10, a fifth grader at Bells. "My grandfather taught me how to play, and now I have friends to play chess with. " Cho, 28, is in his second year of after-school play each Monday and Friday, and he says he is amazed by how much his students have grasped the finer points of the game.

After retiring from his pediatrics practice, John Bayley was looking for a hobby and settled upon chess. "I had this image of a bunch of old men like me sitting by a fire sipping sherry and playing chess," he said. But at the Main Line Chess Club, that's not at all what he found. There are plenty of young people - and they are not afraid to play the old-timers. "Out of 110 members, 40 are under 18," said Bayley, 76, now the president of the club. "One boy has been coming since he was 5 1/2. " Each player has a rating, like a golf handicap, that determines his or her skill level.

He was the ultimate cold warrior, humbling the mighty Soviet chess establishment through his own genius and a pounding ambition to be the greatest player in the world. At a time when competition with the Soviets was measured in moon landings and missile counts, Bobby Fischer beat the Russians' best. But Fischer's own government once believed his mother might be a Soviet spy, and that Moscow might have tried to enlist young Bobby as well. FBI records obtained by The Inquirer under the Freedom of Information Act show that intermittently, from the 1940s to the 1970s, the Fischers were being watched.