Chess champ helps kids find fun in checkmating

Local chess coach Charles A. Smith has a vision: to inspire our nation’s next generation to lay down their video game controllers and instead pick up kings, queens, rooks and other counterparts to become accomplished student chess players.

In the monthly chess course at Trussville Public Library, Smith educates his students using a modern teaching style.

“It’s a common misconception that chess is boring and takes a lifetime to learn,” Smith said. “But, depending on your teacher, you can really have fun with it. In order to be an effective chess coach, you must teach children how to play and how to win quickly. That’s very important.”

To Hewitt-Trussville Middle School seventh-grader Skyler Robinson, 11, those teaching practices took him to Nashville last year to compete in the National Elementary Championship, where he placed eighth in his division.

“It’s all thanks to Coach Smith,” Robinson said. “He’s a fantastic teacher. I really felt ready for the competition. He really helps us by teaching us a lot of strategies.”

Chess became a hobby for Skyler, who also serves on the school’s math team and plays the bass clarinet in the band, about a year ago when he started classes at the library. He said he could see improvements in his schoolwork after picking up the strategies on the chessboard.

“I like how it’s a strategic game and how it can help you with math, because there are a lot of numbers involved,” he said. “There’s really nothing I dislike about the game.”

This is where Smith is hoping to make a difference -— in the education realm.

He is one of only eight people in the nation to have earned the title of National Chess Coach from the U.S. Chess Federation, the governing body of chess in the United States.

“The governing body determines who should be coaching in schools,” Smith said. “I was labeled one of the top coaches in the U.S., and I’m really proud of that.”

Thanks to some federal funding, many chess programs are showing up in school curricula, especially in New York, and he hopes that will spread across the nation.

“Chess helps with critical thinking and math skills, and there is scientific proof of that, but they’re still researching how that happens,” Smith said.

Not surprisingly, Smith liked chess at an early age. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, he learned the game while sitting around a table and watching his brother play and triumph at the game. It sparked his love for it, and he’s been playing for 37 years.

It took years of practice, of course, to be where he is today, making a career as a renowned chess coach. After taking a break from chess for some time, serving in the Marine Corps and working as a chef, he moved to Alabama in the 1990s and started Magic City Chess U -— a club that encompasses all of his chess programs and activities. He began teaching chess eight years ago in local schools, starting first with inner-city youth in Birmingham.

In the library’s chess course, children ages 5 and older will learn the movement of the pieces, basic strategies and, when they improve, even more advanced strategies, Smith said. Although it’s mostly kids who attend the classes, parents learn as well by watching, and it also provides an engaging activity for parent and child.

“Chess is not the bright lights and quick reward that many kids want these days,” Smith said. “I believe video games shut them down from critical thinking and make them impulsive. We need thinkers in this nation,” he added, “and chess is a productive activity. Period.”

Like many other chess professionals, Smith had a mentor or an influential figure in his life.

“A lot of great chess players have a group of players who follow their certain style,” Smith said. “Mine was Emory Tate, and I call it ‘Tateism.’”

Smith continues Tate’s teachings in his own classes today, bringing energy and passion to each game, much like Tate did.

Smith has garnered numerous team and individual championships at the local level and beyond. The Trussville program has grown during the past few years, too, and this year, he plans for his library team to compete at the state championship in March at Indian Springs School in Pelham.

“The most difficult thing about learning to play chess is discipline,” Smith said. “Chess involves concrete analysis and knowing how to make every move using those analysis strategies. You need a disciplined mind for it.”

Smith said the things he loves about chess are endless, and he’s currently writing a book about how to play and improve at the game.

“I like the way chess changes people,” Smith said. “It’s the greatest thinking game ever. It is the ultimate game.”

Skyler said he wants to continue developing his skills with the game under Smith’s leadership, and he wants to compete this year with the team.

“I want to be a better chess player when I grow up, but I also have other big dreams set aside,” he said.

Smith’s free introductory chess course is at 6 p.m. at the Trussville Public Library two Tuesdays per month. For more information, go to trussvillelibrary.com/children/chess/ or magiccitychessu.blogspot.com.