The Record Hackensack, New Jersey Monday, February 07, 1972 - Page 11
Chess Advancing in Bergen, Thanks to Fischer's Victories by Nina Wood
When a 28-year-old high school dropout can win a crack at the world chess championship, well then, this game of chess deserves another look.
The fame of Bobby Fischer, the first American to qualify for a try at the coveted title, has put a whole new perspective on the game of chess.
Schools in Bergen County are teaching students to play chess, and department stores report an increase in the sale of more expensive sets.
A salesman in the toys and games department of Bamberger's says he's noticed an increase in the sale of expensive chess sets—hand carved, silver-plated, and novelty designs.
A sales in the sporting department at Gimbels says sales of more elaborate chess sets have rise 25 per cent. He said the store also sells a large number of inexpensive sets for beginners.
Both men say people are probably buying expensive sets for ornament as well as practicality. They say the sets are often prominently displayed in homes.
Northern Valley Regional High School in Demarest began a course in chess for beginners Feb. 1.
Woodcliff Lake schools have a chess club for students in Grades 6 to 8 and, after school, students join with their teacher to learn the intricacies of the game.
At Quarles School in Englewood, 81-year-old Nathan Tenney, who learned to play chess in Russia when he was 5, teaches 9 to 10 year-olds the game two mornings a week, as part of a volunteer program.
The Englewood Recreation Department is trying to form a chess club for anyone 18 and over.
Two weekends ago, Closter had its first school tournament at the Village School, where children 11 to 13 meet once a week to play chess. Plans call for an annual tourney.
Gary Fischer, 13, was tournament champion and Scot LeBolt, also 13, was runnerup.
Club advisor Alexander Katzman has great hopes for the future of chess in young people's hands. “We hope someday to have our own Bobby Fischer,” he says.
Katzman and Donald Mufson, a New York City school principal, also teach chess at the Saturday children's workshop in Closter's Hillside School.
About 18 children come to workshop and, Katzman says, adults are starting to come too.
Mrs. Robert Bowman of Ridgewood has two teen-age children and she says they learned how to play chess when they were in the third grade. She says their teacher taught them the basics and they've played chess ever since.
Youth is taking a growing interest in the game that will take Fischer to the world chess championship in April.
Several of the 26 men competing in the Bergen County Chess Tournament now under way in Dumont are under 21.
In fact, one of the prime contenders for the junior class trophy is 12-year-old Kenneth Regan of Paramus who came in second at last year's tournament. He plays contestants of all ages and skill and is among the top 25 chess players under 16 in the country.
Ken learned to play chess from his father six years ago. Now, he could probably beat his father on any given day.
The tournament games have been played on successive Wednesday nights in the Dumont High School cafeteria. This Wednesday will be the last of six weeks of competition and each week Ken's mother has been driving her son to the match and sitting in the background reading while the 12-year-old hovers over a chessboard.
As she sits diligently through the lengthy competitions she says she's very proud of her son. Ken is a patient chess player. His mother is a patient chauffeur.
Jules Platt of Paramus and Bernard Friend of Leonia lead in the finals, each with four wins and a tie. Next are Regan and Richard Engnath, who lives in New York but belongs to the Glen Rock Chess Club. Both have won four games.
Players vary from New Milford policeman William Havens to Ridgefield Park High School student Gregory Quimby, president of his chess club, to Teaneck piano tuner Ladislaus Rysey.
Rysey is from Czechoslovakia. Until two years ago, he couldn't find anyone to play chess with him in the States. Then he came to tune Harry Strickling's piano and noticed a chess set.
Stickling, president of the Dumont Chess Club and director of this year's tournament, invited Rysey to join the group.
Although he claims chess is only a game to him, Strickling, who teaches the chess course at Northern Valley Regional High School, refers to the time when he took a real interest in the game as when he came alive.
“I played when I was a little kid, but it never really came alive for me until eight years ago,” he says.
He maintains there are more chess players in Bergen County than can be accounted for in chess clubs and refers to incipient chess players—people who enjoy the game but can't find playing partners.
Strickling also says interest in chess had grown recently, probably because of Bobby Fischer's wide acclaim. “A lot more people are talking about it,” he says.
Despite the blossoming interest, Strickling says two misconceptions still exist about chess.
“One of them is that you have to be some kind of genius,” he says. “About all you have to do is be able to count to four.”
But, later he admits that only persons with a certain intellectual bent are seriously attracted to the game.
He says another misconception is that the game takes a long time to play. Chess can take from 10 minutes to three or four hours, Strickling says, adding that even the maximum is no longer than a night of playing bridge.
Most games take about an hour, he says, contrasting it with feverish board games that can go on for days.
A good chess player is competitive—sometimes fiercely so, likes puzzles, has a good memory, and is imaginative, Strickling says.
Some are reckless, others are patient. Most play the board, a few experts play their opponents, he says.
“It has to grab you,” Strickling says of the game. “It's all right there in front of you. That's the amazing thing about chess.”
The game combines an interplay of power, space, and time. Games are won or lost, because a player wastes moves getting his pieces into play.
An expert player can win a game by sacrificing some of his stronger pieces to put the remaining ones in better playing position.
The queen—the most powerful piece on the board—can be an intimidating force, yet it can be defeated by a lowly pawn in the right place.
No women are entered in the county chess tournament this year, and Strickling says only three of 60 members in the Dumont Chess Club are female.
He suggests that perhaps most women aren't competitive enough for the game.
Strickling thinks there is a growing interest in chess and, even if it's only from a bystander's viewpoint, he says he welcomes the new-found popularity.
Chess Advancing in Bergen, Thanks to Fischer's Victories Mon, Feb 7, 1972 – 11 · The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey) · Newspapers.com
