Great Barrington – For the past seven years, Gene Kalish, a retired college teacher, actor, graduate of the Yale Drama School, and Berkshire Hills Regional School District parent has been overseeing an early morning chess program two days a week in the library of Muddy Brook Regional Elementary School.
Berkshire Hills Chess Club founder Gene Kalish.
Each Monday and Wednesday mornings at 7:45 up to 40 students, from kindergartners to fourth graders, would cluster around chess boards stationed on the library’s carpeted floor, and for the next 40 minutes would be immersed in a board game that requires concentration, stamina and intellect and has been a popular, challenging exercise in strategic thinking for more than 1,600 years. The game of chess is thought to have originated in India, spread to Persia in the Middle East and was taken up by the Muslim world before emigrating to Europe. It is estimated that 605 million adults play chess worldwide; in the U.S. 70 percent of adults have tried their hand at chess at one time or another, and 15 percent maintain an active interest.
While the games on the library floor were going on, Kalish walked among the boards, observing the games and giving advice on rules.
“As a child I played chess, and it fascinated me,” he recalls of his childhood in Missouri. “For kids, chess is an excellent learning experience. At Muddy Brook I’d watch the games, talk to the players afterwards. I’m shepherding these kids. By establishing a chess community, it’s a way for them to find their own way of thinking.”
The Muddy Brook administration agrees with Kalish’s assessment of the educational value of chess. Principal Mary Berle, Kalish notes, has provided chess sets for each of the school’s classrooms.
And it is a game that has wide appeal across diverse cultures. It is the one board game that children in Ghana ask for, Kalish points out. This week, the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington is showing “The Queen of Katwe,” the true story of a young girl from the slums of Uganda who became an international chess champion. (See trailer below and click here buy tickets.)
Now Kalish wants to pass on his fervor for chess to the wider community. He’s organizing the Berkshire Hills Chess Club that will be open to all chess players and will be affiliated with the Federal Chess Association. It’s first meeting is Tuesday, November 1, from 5:30 to 7:30 in the Community Room of Muddy Brook Elementary School.
A chess match at Mt. Everett Regional High School in Sheffield.
“This chess club is for everyone who plays chess – or wants to learn how to play,” he explained. “The matches won’t be determined by age but by ability. You’ll be able to play those of similar ability. The school is really supporting it. They’ve supplied us with 50 chess sets.”
The Berkshire Hills Chess Club will meet every Tuesday evening. For information contact Kalish at 413-528-4030, or ekalish@verizon.net.
“Chess is really taking off here,” he comments, noting that chess programs occur after school at the libraries in Lee, Great Barrington and Sheffield. And Mt. Everett Regional High School has had a chess club for several years organized by Carl Stewart, chairman of the Southern Berkshire Regional School Committee.
Kalish, left, and Berkshire Hills Superintendent Peter Dillon monitor a match in a double elimination chess tournament at Muddy Brook. Photo: David Scribner
“I think there’s a real thirst for chess these days. Chess combines intellectual and emotional discipline – both of which are desperately needed in this irrational time,” he said. “It’s a game that demands thinking and planning, and at the same time requires players to be polite and have decorum.”
He could have also added humility as a quality that is learned from chess. At the conclusion of the school year, Kalish would conduct a Muddy Brook chess tournament – a double elimination tournament.
“Double elimination is essential since in chess you have to learn how lose,” he said. “Every great player has the tenacity to say, ‘I’m not going to let that happen again.’ ”
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