Students Make All The Right Moves In Highland Chess Club
November 29, 2009 by John Rook
Chess is a thinking person’s game. Competitors, if expecting to win, must stay at least two steps ahead of their opponents, anticipating moves and hoping to lure less experienced players into elaborate traps.
That’s what Cheshire resident Clifford Hartman would like to teach groups of students at two different elementary schools how to do.
“I am teaching them international chess,” explained Hartman. “They can go anywhere in the world. They don’t need to know the language, they just have to have a board and someone with which to play.”
For the last several years, Hartman has been teaching students at Highland and Norton schools how to play chess like a pro. Last Friday, Hartman met for the last time with one of his larger groups of players in the Highland School Chess Club, imparting to them valuable information on how not only to play the game, but play it to win.
“The toughest thing is that I have fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, and the fourth graders are really ready for this yet,” said Hartman. “Those differences in ages is the hardest part, but I enjoy teaching the kids.”
Hartman, who has been retired for 23 years, said that the classes allow him to get out of the house and help a younger generation learn a game that has enraptured him since he was a young boy.
Taking up the game in high school, Hartman played sporadically throughout his teenage years and then in college, becoming more and more involved with chess. Then, when he went into the Army in the 1940s, Hartman found a number of willing adversaries waiting to challenge him to a game, and also realized that the sport could even help him personally.
At one of the earliest meetings of the school chess clubs, Hartman related the story of his first time on board a military ship — the Queen Mary. With no room down below decks in which to sleep, Hartman was sent to spend the night in one of the lifeboats. There, Hartman met another private, who asked if he knew how to play chess. When Hartman answered in the affirmative, a small board was produced and the two men began to play.
“We saw this man walking towards us. He was all in white. We didn’t know who he was,” recalled Hartman. “He walked a little past us, then turned around and said, ‘You boys playing chess?’ I was young and I didn’t even salute. We didn’t know who he was.”
Hartman, unaware of the rank of the man to which he was speaking, promptly said yes, he recounted, and offered the man a chance to play with him and his new friend. The officer immediately ordered the two chess players to follow him and they were brought to a small area of the ship, where Hartman assumed the two were going to be disciplined.
“It was the captain of the ship,” remembered Hartman. “He said, ‘These boys are going to be staying with me.’”
Suddenly, instead of being relegated to an uncomfortable lifeboat for his sleeping arrangements, Hartman was suddenly bunking with the captain of the ship.
“It was all because I knew how to play chess,” he said.
After leaving the military, Hartman continued to play, joining a group of engineers and chemists to form an independent club and competing against top competition at different events. Hartman, over the years, played and defeated national and international players, and participated in the first televised match ever.
“I always enjoyed playing,” he commented.
During his classes at Highland and Norton schools, students compete against one another using some of the lessons Hartman has taught. Mostly, Hartman advises his students on the more basic principles of the game rather than getting into complicated strategies.
Students are taught never to remove their hand from one of the game pieces until they are absolutely certain about the move. They are also taught to keep their hands down and to take their time thinking about each movement before ultimately trying to out-maneuver their opponent.
During the course of the match, students are asked to raise their hands when they believe they have checkmate or a stalemate. At one point during the Friday session, two students claimed to have a stalemate, meaning that, while one competitor is not in check, they cannot make a move without putting themselves in check, which is a prohibited move.
For a stalemate, under competition rules, both players are awarded a half a point.
“I hate awarding half points,” Hartman told the two players, then he removed some of the chess pieces from the board and told one of the players, “get checkmate as quickly as you can with those two (remaining) pieces.”
Playing at the end of one of the tables, David Biddiscombe and Benjamin Brewer, both 9 years old, battled each other in a very competitive game. Brewer decided to take the course after receiving a chess set for his birthday.
“I started playing with it and I started to like it,” said Brewer. “When I heard about this, I wanted to try it.”
Biddiscombe admitted that he enjoyed the class because he liked playing against friends. “That is always really fun,” he acknowledged, while trying to trap Brewer to end the game.
The class consisted of seven sessions, with another seven planned for next semester. During the early spring, 10 players from Highland School and 10 from Norton School will be chosen to participate in a tournament, to see who has learned the most.
“No one else is doing this,” said Hartman. “No one else is teaching them to play, so I am really enjoying this time.”