From: "jay hack" <jay.hack@execnet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: chess news        2/4
Date: 26 Jul 92 00:43:56 EST
Reply-To: "jay hack" <jay.hack@execnet.com>
Distribution: rec
Organization: Executive Networks Information

>>> Continued from previous message

   But Mehler's program isn't about building champions. It's about
developing  good  chess  players who consequently improve as
students and as people.
   " Chess  involves problem solving. This is obvious, that kids
who've played a  game of  chess  have solved several hundred
problems during the course of a  game," Mehler explains. A player
must sit still for long periods, concentrate  hard and try to
figure out what's in the opponent's mind. "Learning to see  things
from the point of view of someone else, that's very difficult,"
Mehler  says. "But once you learn to do it in  chess,  I absolutely
believe that's  transferable into other areas of life."

   Mehler believes that, he says, because he's familiarized himself
with the  results of youth programs here and in other cities,
including Michael Charney's  Games Project/ Chess  Makes Kids
Smart! in Boston; the highflying Vaux Junior  High School team in
Philadelphia; and New York's NYCHESS program, which has  reached
more than 3,000 children in more than 100 schools, many of them in
the  city's poorest neighborhoods.

   Why does Mehler think he can build a better program than those?
With a touch  of chutzpah, he says, "Not only because I think I'm
a better teacher than they  are, but because we have this facility.
. . . No other place has got a central  facility that's just
dedicated to teaching kids to play  chess. "

   The U.S.  Chess  Center owes its existence to a serendipitous
episode  involving Georgetown University Law Center professor Roy
Schotland. Mehler once  taught  chess  to Schotland's teenage son,
and in 1989 he told the professor  about his ambition to establish
the center. The big problem, Mehler explained,  was a lack of money
to buy or rent an appropriate space.
      Schotland is friends with local real estate developers Goldie
and Julian  Kossow, who in 1991 happened to be looking for a
special sort of tenant to  occupy parts of the basement and ground
floor of their building under  construction at 15th and M streets
NW. To comply with a zoning ordinance that  applied to the
structure, the Kossows needed to donate space, rent-free, to an
artistic or cultural organization for 20 years. "Have I got a
tenant for you!"  Schotland said to the developers in June 1991,
and soon the match was made.

   Since then, Mehler has been working overtime to raise the money
he needs to  run the center, upwards of $ 250,000 a year. Donations
and grants have been  flowing in, and Mehler has begun to talk with
world  chess  champion Gary  Kasparov about the possibility of
using the center as an outpost of Smart Move,  Kasparov's
nationwide youth  chess -training program.

   Kasparov will be in Washington soon after his expected July 18
appearance at  a  chess  exhibition in New York's Central Park. The
champ will visit the   chess  center, though Mehler says it's not
clear what he'll do when he's there.  "We would certainly like him
to become a regular feature of the center."

   Make no mistake about it, though. The U.S.  Chess  Center won't
be making a  big fuss over  chess  celebrities or playing up the
glamour of  chess  trophies.  Rather, it will emphasize
self-improvement, intellectual engagement and, above  all, fun.

   THE U.S.  CHESS  CENTER -- 1501 M St. NW. The center will host
two two-week   chess  camps, from July 20 to 31 and from Aug. 17 to
28, for boys and girls  between fourth and ninth grade. There will
be daily three-hour sessions for  beginners and for intermediate
players. The fee is $ 125 (or $ 110 for center  members);
scholarships are available to those who need them. The museum and
hall  of fame should be in place by the end of summer; admission
will be free. Drop-in  play will be free for the first few weeks.
Call 202/783-1616.

           REPORT FROM THE US GAME/10 CHAMPIONSHIP
              Held New York City, July 11, 1992

Fifty-one players, including 19 GM's (it would have been an even 20
but Sergei Kudrin was a no show, but more about that later), 5
IM's, an untold number of FM's, and 50 players rated over 2200
(yours truly being the only player lapped by the field at 1423),
competed in the inaugural US Game/10 Championship at the Hunter
College Campus School on 94th Street in NYC on July 11.  The
tournament was played in seven rounds, with one round per hour.
Tieing for first place were GM Max Dlugy and FM Maurice Ashley with
6 points.  Ashley, who was heard to remark after round 4 (when he
stood at the top of the leader board with the only perfect score),
"this is the beginning of my run at a GM norm" knocked off GM's
Benjamin, Gulko, Wolff and Yermolinsky and IM Ibragimov.  He lost
his game with Dlugy but tied for first when Dlugy drew GM Wolff in
round 4 and GM Gulko in round 7.  Tieing for third were GM's Gulko,
J. Polgar and Browne with 5.5.
>>> Continued to next message
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