The recent release of the movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer” has sparked an increased interest in the ancient game of chess, but chess among southwest suburban residents has been strong since the ’70s.
Every Friday night, for instance, in good weather or bad, at least 25 people gather at the Palos Heights Recreation Center at 6601 W. 127th St. for some friendly games. This is the new home of the South Suburban Chess Club, organized in May. From 7 p.m. to midnight, players from 10 to 80 years old of all ability levels engage in some friendly competition (the children generally leave by 10).
So far, 80 different people have played chess with the club, about 25 showing up on any given night. Organizers of the club say that it replaces the Orland Park Chess Club, which relocated to accommodate membership that lived closer to Palos Heights.
“Our membership was not growing and, in fact, was dwindling,” said Glenn Panner, vice president of the South Suburban club. “We thought a move to a new place, more centrally located for our members, would attract new people.”
Panner added that the club has something for everyone. “We offer (free) chess instruction to children,” he said, “and we have serious tournaments” for adults and children. The club is affiliated with the U.S. Chess Federation.
Joining the club is not difficult. “We don’t have any dues yet,” he said, though the club is considering minimal dues of perhaps $10 a year beginning next year. “The only thing someone has to do is show up on Friday night.”
Panner said he and other members of his club would like to see more chess competition in elementary and high schools.
“Members of our club are available for exhibition chess, blindfolded chess or anything else,” he said. Often schools invite club members to give a demonstration.
In exhibition chess, he said, one of the club members would play simultaneous games against 25 different students. In blindfolded chess, the player doesn’t see the board. The other player announces a move, and the “blindfolded” player mentally keeps track of the moves.
Chess is popular among high school students in the southwest suburbs as well. Eighteen high schools compete in the South Interconference Association.
At Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Raymond Kutchek coaches the chess team, which meets after school every Tuesday and Thursday beginning in September.
“We have a very long season,” he said. “We begin in September, although we don’t have a tournament until December.”
Tournament season runs through March. Twice, in 1990 and 1992, his team has been conference champion; the teams he coached at Amos Alonzo Stagg High School in Palos Hills before coming to Sandburg also took two conference championships.
Kutchek said chess, like debate, provides an opportunity for competition for those who aren’t on sports teams. “When I attended Chicago Vocational (High School in Chicago), I was small and could not go out for sports. Chess is an excellent way for someone to still represent their school in competition,” he said. “Our players are proud to be on the team.”
Teacher Mike Zacate from Evergreen Park High School was instrumental in bringing chess competition to the southwest suburbs, although today he is a coach without a team. During the 1967-68 school year, when he began coaching the school’s chess team, he took the members to a tournament in Chicago.
“We got a taste of competition and decided we wanted to be in (more) tournaments,” he said.
This was the beginning of the state high school chess tournament. Zacate made calls to neighboring schools to see who wanted to compete and set up matches. In 1973 the Illinois High School Association, which regulates other high school sports, took over the running of the tournament.
The chess team at Evergreen Park has disappeared after the 1989-90 school year as enrollment at the school dropped from a high in the ’70s if 1,200 students to about 560. Students concentrated on sports and didn’t have enough time for chess, he said. But enrollment at the school is starting to climb again, and Zacate hopes to resurrect the team someday.
Few elementary school teams exist in the southwest suburbs, in part because of the time that coaching takes for the long chess season, according to Zacate and Kutchek. They hope that will change as the benefits of playing chess become better known and children express more interest in the game.
Nationwide, the fastest growing segment of chess players is children, according to Al Lawrence, executive director of the United States Chess Federation (USCF), a non-profit organization headquartered in New Windsor, N.Y.
In the last year, membership of children in the chess federation doubled to 20,000; total membership in the organization is about 70,000. The organization publishes a magazine for students, School Mates, which young members receive as part of their yearly membership.
“Parents and coaches and kids tell us that they see both their attitudes and grades improve” when they play chess, Lawrence said. “Children’s reading and self-esteem improve.”
Lawrence based his statements on anecdotal evidence, but a three-year study under way in New York City by the American Chess Foundation and funded by the IBM Corp. has shown a dramatic increase in reading scores among inner-city students who were introduced to chess, an increase much greater than that achieved by inner-city youngsters not introduced to the game, according to Allen Kaufman, executive director of the foundation.
In addition to the many tournaments held throughout the country under the auspices of the federation, the organization also coordinates correspondence chess tournaments among children.
Interest in the chess federation grows each year, according to officials of the USCF. The rematch late last year between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky and now the movie have helped fuel that interest. And many believe that the growth in youth membership will lead to a higher number of adult members.
But, Lawrence said, he believes that the USCF began laying the groundwork for increased participation during the early 1980s, when the organization began introducing chess into school systems. “Half of our programs are for children,” he said.
Lawrence predicted that chess tournaments will appear on television in the not-too-distant future. “They are already televised in Europe,” he said. “The time controls are getting faster. No longer is it true that you watch a chess game for an hour and don’t even see a move.”
