From: "jay hack" <jay.hack@execnet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: chess news        1/4
Date: 26 Jul 92 00:43:56 EST
Reply-To: "jay hack" <jay.hack@execnet.com>
Distribution: rec
Organization: Executive Networks Information

The following articles were posted on the network in the past few weeks,
but due to a problem at the local BBS, they appear to have stayed on the
local server and gone no where else.  AQll are from national media
except for the article on the Game 10 championships, which is my own
handiwork.  Due to past problems, I would appreciate it if those of you
out there in computerland who receive these messages send me an e-mail
message back so I can determine whether they were properly distributed.

                        Jay Hack.  jay.hack@execnet.com

CHESS NEWS from major market media


                      The Washington Post

                      July  3, 1992


   THE  chess -for-success movement has found a home in Washington,
and what a home it is: the brand-new U.S.  Chess  Center,
headquartered in a gorgeous, neoclassical office building at 1501
M St. NW.

   This month the center will open its doors to people of all ages,
but its promotional overtures will focus on one particular group:
kids. Staff instructors and volunteers will teach beginners the
elements of chess  and help advanced players sharpen their games.
In time, boys and girls at all skill levels will become happier,
more focused individuals.
   That, at any rate, is the bold assertion of David Mehler, the
center's director. And he says there's evidence to back him up. "We
have this huge number of individual examples -- thousands of
examples up in New York,where a scholastic  chess  program has been
in existence for years --showing that the kids who learn to play
chess  do better in school and do better in every measure of life,"
he says.

   There are success stories like that in Washington, too. Andrew
Agostinelli,  chess  coach at Eastern High School, one of a few
dozen schools that have extracurricular  chess  programs, says that
each year about 20 of his students get hooked on the game, and a
few have even had their lives changed by it. One boy, a car thief
and drug dealer, took up  chess  seriously in his junior year at
Eastern, phased out his criminal activities, became a scholastic
champion and is now in college.

   Says Agostinelli, "He told me that if he had not gotten into
chess  as  heavily as he did that he might very well be dead by
now, or in jail."
    Though  chess  for success is hardly an alien notion here,
Mehler says  Washington is not considered one of the country's
chess -training strongholds.  New York City is tops in that regard
-- or at least it has been until now.

   "I think we're going to be even better than New York," declares
Mehler, who  is winding down his career as a criminal defense
lawyer. "No other city has got  a central facility that's dedicated
to teaching kids to play  chess.  This is  unique in the country."

   Not only will the center house the  chess  school, it will also
host a  variety of tournaments and exhibitions, become the new home
of the U.S.
 Chess  Hall of Fame and Museum and offer a comfortable milieu to
players of any  age who simply want to drop in and play.      Up in
New Windsor, N.Y., where the hall and museum are presently located,
the  change of venue is seen as a brilliant move. "You'll get 10 to
100 times the  number of visitors we've been getting," predicts Dan
Edelman, assistant director  of the U.S.  Chess  Federation,
current steward of the hall and museum. In New  Windsor, Edelman
says, daily visitors typically have numbered between zero and
20.
    The center will act as an occasional host of national and
regional  tournaments, such as the U.S. Championship and The
Washington Post scholastic  tournament. As for drop-in play, Mehler
notes that that privilege will go to  anyone who buys a center
membership. The fee is $ 200 a year for adults and $ 60  for senior
citizens and full-time students. For kids who can't afford the fee,
Mehler will waive it in return for a promise of 12 hours a year of
light work,  such as putting up tables and stuffing envelopes.
   Talking about these "scholarship" students, Mehler makes it
clear that the  center's educational mission is the one that gives
him the greatest thrill.
   "I'll be able to carry out my dream," he says. "I've been a
chess  teacher  now for roughly 20 years and even though I'm not a
particularly strong player  myself, I've developed exercises and
lessons that bring people to a level well  beyond a level I'll ever
reach."
    Mehler's re'sume' bears this out. His current students are
College Park's  Alex Sherzer, 21, reigning U.S. junior champion,
who just bagged the prestigious  Samford Fellowship; and Geoffrey
Gelman, 15, of Falls Church, the current U.S.  junior high school
champion. Former students have included Matthew Morgan of
Annandale, who placed first in the 1990 National Tournament of High
School  Champions; and Lael Kaplan, a former D.C. Scholastic
Champion.
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