Local interest in chess spreads across Hawai'i
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
She's still working on how, exactly, the little castle thing moves, but 7-year-old Drew Sheldon already has the look of a competitor.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
The Kapalama Elementary School student turns a plastic rook in her right hand, gently tapping it against the board as she lowers a cold stare at her mother.
Drew Sheldon, 7, of Pearl City, waits for a chess instructor at Pearlridge Center. Drew and her mom, Donna Sheldon, are enthusiastic newcomers to the game. Pearlridge is one of three shopping centers on O'ahu that offer weekly chess plays with instruction.
Then she takes a bite of her Happy Meal burger.
Sheldon and her mother, Donna, 47, are two of a dozen newbies who have come to the Pearlridge Center Uptown to unlock the mysteries of chess.
"Drew really wants to learn," says her mother. "Look at her. She's really concentrating."
If the mother-daughter duo feel at all self-conscious in this mostly male crowd, they don't show it.
Like most of the other 30 players here — absolute beginners to chess-board certified — they're too engrossed in their game to notice the stares of passing shoppers or the small crowd of onlookers milling about the periphery.
Across the country, chess is undergoing an explosion in popularity, particularly among elementary-school students. According to the U.S. Chess Federation, membership among players 14 and under increased from 3,300 in 1990 to more than 34,000 last year.
Much of this is a direct result of school districts warming to the notion that playing chess can enhance a child's analytical skills, a belief borne of numerous studies linking chess with positive results on standardized reading and math tests.
In Hawai'i, there are more than a dozen chess teams at the high school level and several informal chess programs at elementary and middle schools, according to Guy Ontai, a chess coach at Kamehameha Schools and organizer of scholastic chess in Hawai'i.
"It's kind of spooky how fast kids learn chess," said Ontai, also a Hawai'i legislator. "When we have lessons, it's the kids who really pay attention while a lot of the adults are off to the side doing their own thing. When it comes time to play, very often it's the kids who are running the adults out of the room."
• Honolulu Chess Club: Ala Moana Center stage, Mondays from 5-8 p.m., free lessons 6:30-7:30 p.m. • Pearlridge Chess Club: Pearlridge Center, Uptown, Tuesdays from 5:30-9 p.m., free lessons 7-8 p.m. • Windward Mall Chess Club: Windward Mall center stage, Wednesdays from 6-9 p.m., free lessons 7-8 p.m.
Ontai said children are especially responsive to the larger lessons of the game.
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Friendly play at shopping centers
"Chess is like any other endeavor in life," he said. "The more you study, prepare and challenge yourself, the better you're going to be. You don't have to be big or strong to compete in chess. It's about your intellect, and I think that's what's beautiful about the game."
Substitute teacher Alden Imamura, 24, points to the chess scene in the released movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" as one more inspiration for young players to take up the game.
"I'm not sure if chess is necessarily a 'cool' thing yet, but it's been interesting," Imamura said. "I had a teaching job at Mililani Waena (Elementary School), and there were kids you wouldn't think would be interested in anything like chess, but the were right there playing with everyone else."
Imamura is a member of the Mililani Chess Club, the oldest chess club in Hawai'i. Under the direction of founding members Ontai and Randy Profero, the club — which now functions as a nonprofit organization — has been instrumental in recruiting and developing new players.
A new partnership with America's Promise Hawai'i, a national program administered here by Helping Hands Hawai'i, has extended the club's reach well beyond anyone's expectations.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Through the efforts of Helping Hands Hawai'i volunteer Colin Rayner and others, the organizations extended their outreach efforts to three major shopping centers — Pearlridge, Ala Moana Center and Windward Mall — which have made space available for weekly play and instruction. The response has been overwhelming with as many as 80 people — most of them first-time players — turning out.
Charles Brittain, 21, contemplates his next chess move against Keith Lobendahn, 20. The Pearl City residents are among a growing number of players in Hawai'i who've become absorbed by the strategies and challenges of the game.
"We were just here to get a haircut when we saw the signs," Donna Sheldon said. "It was intriguing. It's something I always wanted to learn, but I never had time to."
Jason Bartimus, 26, was also strolling the mall when he decided to sit down for a game.
"I think this is a great idea," he said. "It gives people an opportunity to do something as part of a community."
Jerrell Tate, 46, comes every week in search of other experienced players to challenge.
"I like the simple strategy and challenge of playing people," he said. "You always meet someone else, maybe a stronger player, and you learn.
"It's the give and take of the game," he said. "It's like war, and you're the general. You get the chance to see how good your management skills are right there on the table. You start losing people, you ain't doing something right."
Tate said he would have appreciated learning the game in the type of supportive environment provided by the mall. Instead he learned it in a lonely barracks in South Korea 25 years ago.
"There was a black guy from New York, a Chicano from Chicago and a white guy who was a military brat," he recalled. "My game is a combination of those guys."
The gathering every Tuesday at Pearlridge is just one of a suddenly crowded schedule of chess events in Hawai'i.
"The interest has been huge over the last few months," said Profero, president of the Hawai'i Chess Federation. "We used to have four annual events. Now we have more than 30 tournaments plus a lot of exhibitions and other events around the state."
The federation has about 250 active members statewide, a number that could swell as new players move from recreational to tournament play.
As an indication of chess's growing popularity in Hawai'i, Thinker Toys has begun stocking tournament chess sets and tournament clocks.
"The beauty of chess is that you can't master it," Profero said. "It takes maybe half an hour to learn how to move the pieces, a half-dozen lessons to learn the strategies and a lifetime to perfect what you've learned."
Drew Sheldon isn't thinking that far ahead just yet. She takes her rook and moves three squares straight ahead. No piece taken on this move but, as her instructor nods her approval, perfect progress so far.
