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Twillman Chess Club
TWILLMAN CHESS CLUB: Robert Levins Jr., a parent volunteer at Twillman Elementary, right, stops to check on his students’ progress during a Chess Club meeting. Once a week, in the school cafeteria, at least 30 students gather to learn how to play chess.
Twillman Students Learn How to Think & Strategize in Chess Club
Terms like “checkmate,” “capture” and “control of the board” have filtered into the vocabulary of at least 30 students at Twillman Elementary along with, “it’s your turn!” “go!” and “you can’t move that way!”
These boys and girls stay after school one day a week to participate in the school’s Chess Club, led by parent volunteer Robert Levins, Jr.
“The kids in this area needed something to do and chess is a way for them to think, to use their brains,” Levins said. “I learned to play chess as a teen in New Jersey and I fell in love with the dynamics of how the pieces came together to achieve the ultimate objective: to checkmate the opposing king. Sharing my knowledge about chess with the kids has been a desire of mine for some time now.”
He said a recent local crime involving children motivated him to create the chess club.
“This indicated to me that there is a lack of not knowing how to act in my community,” Levins said. “This is where chess comes in, learning how to play the game allows you to exercise your mind, which aids in higher order thinking. This is what I love about chess and hope this is what the students will eventually come to love about it.”
For their first lesson, the students learned the basics – how to place the chess board, the names of the different pieces, initial piece positions and how they move and other factors. Instead of working with individual chess boards, Levins started the group out with a paper chess board mounted on an easel. At least 30 students have attended each week since the club began in early November.
Levins tells his students, “Play the man, not the board.” Levins’ daughter, Myranda, was not satisfied with that phrase.
“She asked me, ‘Daddy, why isn’t it, “Play the woman, not the board?”’”
Levins said he laughed and told her men were better at chess than women. She disagreed and the result was a boys-versus-girls match for their second lesson. He selected the oldest boy and girl in the club to be the leaders and they would consult with their teammates on strategy before walking to the easel to move their pieces.
Fourth grade student Marlow Case defined the most important things he learned about chess: “To check mate the king and to have fun. I enjoy playing chess because it’s awesome to play with friends.”
During their second lesson, Levins taught his charges about opening tactics and strategies. He told them the key to winning is to control the center of the chess board. The girls took a commanding lead but the boys soon caught up to them and then pulled ahead before the girls tied the match and time expired. Periodically, Levins would interrupt by yelling, “I got a question!” and the crowd would quiet to listen to him. His questions included how much a pawn is worth and which team has control of the board and why. Students’ arms shot into the air as they bounced impatiently in their seats.
For the third lesson, the students got to pair up and challenge each other over individual chess boards. One student from each pair fetched the board and pieces and Levins told them to set them up, to remember what he told them in the first lesson.
“I see some of you are cheating,” he quipped as he hid the master page on the easel that depicted the correct board setup. The students groaned that they had to set up the board without a model.
“Who’s the best chess player in here?” he asked them.
“You!” several students responded.
Levins praised Twillman building aide Demetrius Bratton for all of his help and support in starting the club. Levins also said he faces challenges such as funding the club and the fact that he has never taught before. “I must say these challenges are the rulers we measure our success with. I enjoy the challenge of bringing this club together.”
