ALEXANDERLIU

By Zachary Williamson

I’m exhausted. I’ve done so much participating for you guys (y’all work me to the bone) and my noodle-limbs need a break. But what can I do, if not participate? Oh, I have an idea. Hmmm. Yes. That’s a great idea.

Alright, everyone. I’ve decided. I’m going to become a coach.

Hold on. There aren’t many sports for which I’d consider myself coach-worthy. I’ve coached tennis and soccer to five- through eight-year-olds in the past, but can confidently say I don’t want to relive those experiences (eight-yearolds can be really mean!). I should pick something I can coach to better listeners.

How about chess? I play for Blair’s chess team, winners of the Metro Area Chess League (don’t ask—it’s a hip, underground thing you’re too nerdy for), and I’ve got around a 1450 ELO (a rating of chess strength that puts me in the top 4 percent of Chess.com users).

But who to coach? Totally conveniently and not at all pre-planned, Silver Chips is hosting a beginner chess tournament that works really well with my column (read more about it on page E4)! Because the tournament participants need coaching, many of my chess club friends and I can be coaches. The Silver Chess writers have assigned me to coach Christy, one of Silver Chips’ wonderful EICs. Here’s how the experience went:

Before our first training session, I suggested Christy check out some specific tutorials videos on Chess. com. At our first session a few days later, I was astonished when she not only understood the content from the videos, but could also erything I taught her she seemed to pick up on right away. My whole lesson plan was basically trash within the first ten minutes—a good problem to have, but a problem nevertheless. If I was going to be a good coach, I would need to have more exhaustive lesson plans.

Early into this training phase of the tournament, Silver Chips took a field trip to New York City for a journalism conference. This provided a couple key opportunities for me as a coach. Firstly, two of my roommates, Christy and our other wonderful EIC, Sean, were competitors in the tournament, so I had plenty of time to play chess with them. Over the first two evenings, we played hours of chess against one another.

Both of them were, unlike me when I was learning, incredibly patient. Common chess advice is to play long games as a beginner, because you get to spend significantly more time thinking about the positions on the board and learning from them. Christy and Sean are also older than I was when I started learning and picked up on patterns much faster than I had. They’re also total geniuses, which helps too.

When playing them, I would often ask them what was going through their minds. This would let me better understand their thought processes and give applicable advice. After giving advice, I would always ask, “is this advice helpful?” While some coaches may frown on the lack of self-confidence this question demonstrates, I think it’s a useful technique to improve my coaching. It may not work well with children, but I’m confident Christy and Sean are mature enough to know what works well for them and help me guide them toward their improvement.

It brings me both pride and ed me on the second night. During this particular game, Sean made up for his limited experience by patiently thinking through each one of his moves. In contrast, I made my moves too quickly, lost focus, and took risks, which went in his favor. I resigned after blundering my queen. If he could beat me, he certainly had the chops to win the beginner chess tournament. Even though I was coaching Sean as well, Christy was my official student, and we’d have to train hard for her to beat Sean in the tournament.

Another great part about being in the Big Apple was that we got to scout the city for worthy chess competitors. Due to a busy schedule, this was only possible on the final day. Instead of attending seminars at the journalism conference, we skipped out in favor of visiting Union Square Park, one of the primary locations for chess hustlers.

It was fascinating to get to experience the “hidden in plain sight” New York staple that is chess hustling. These guys were sitting at the exact same spots as they had when they were featured in chess YouTubers’ videos, and they were wearing the same hoodies and playing with the same boards. The consistency about it all was so cool!

Christy and I found a scenic place in the park to do our next chess lesson. We went over the London system, other openings, common middlegame strategies, and started a practice game.

Sensing a golden opportunity, I suggested Christy ask a hustler to give her a chess lesson. She did, and the hustler graciously gave her one. He covered a lot of ground quickly. At first, he was teaching her stuff she already knew, but then he moved into uncharted territory, going over tons of openings in addition to other, more general advice. It was a great conclusion to the trip and the preparation phase of the tournament.

When we got back from New York, the Silver Chess tournament started. I got to witness my wonderful pupils demonstrate the results of their train ing. Both Christy and Sean won their first matches soundly, but that brought them to the most intense match of their lives thus-far, where they’d play each other in the semi-finals. As they were scheduling the match themselves, I had no clue when they’d be playing.

When I tuned into Chess.com at 11:30 p.m. on a Monday night (I have a problem), I found out they were playing their game. Because Christy was my official student and Sean had another coach anyway, I was naturally rooting for Christy. She assumed a winning position and… stalemated (a chess term for tied). Oops, I forgot to go over that with her.

No matter, she and Sean would just do another game to decide the result. Thirty minutes later… stalemate again. Two wonderfully winning positions for her. Two draws. She and Sean mutually agreed that she would take the win. It was 12:30 a.m., and they rightfully wanted to go to sleep. In fact, I wrote at the time, “My poor students have spent an hour playing chess with two stalemates to show for it.”

Well. Woohoo! My primary student won! After a lesson on stalemates when we got to class in the morning, it was onto the finals for her.

I wasn’t there to see the final game in person, but when she messaged me saying, “I won the tournament!!” I got the pride of having trained a winner, and I reflected on the absolute joy that was working with two amazing chess students who may one day achieve even greater chess heights than a high school class tournament.

I may have not improved as an athlete, but I certainly have as a coach—getting to better understand the troubles that come with teaching a skill to others.