More than a game: A `mental challenge' 

Published on December 10, 2003, Page 1V, Charlotte Observer, The (NC)

HICKORY - In a day when there are more things than ever to stimulate the human mind, a Hickory group is attracting a following for an ancient board game.

It's not just any old board game, mind you.

It's chess, the much vaunted "game of kings," and it draws both young and old for weekly matches at the Hickory Chess Club. The group meets on the campus of Lenoir-Rhyne College.

"I like the game because there's a clear goal," said 16-year-old Ben Gootman, a junior at Hibriten High School in Caldwell County and one of the group's youngest members. "I play every chance I get."

"I played when I was in grade school, then quit for years and years and just recently started again," said Dr. Ed Gerrard, a Hickory urologist who recently joined the group. "It's an extremely complicated game, a real mental challenge."

Russian-born Mike Mitelman, a retired General Electric employee, serves as coach, mentor and tutor and provides inspiration from his years watching and learning from his native country's best players. Retired Hickory stockbroker Larry Robinson is the group's president, and he and Mitelman founded the group about 1½ years ago.

On a typical Tuesday afternoon, about two dozen chess players crowd into a small room off the campus cafeteria. After a rough start, the chess group has reached a level of stability with regular meets, a good stable of players interested in honing their games and lots of potential.

"We started with two people, and now we have a couple of dozen," Mitelman said. "For any chess club to function actively, we knew we had to have a larger group of people; we knew that if we could get kids from high school, college and interested adults, it would work."

The aim is to recruit and develop enough players so that Hickory can field a team against other cities in the region that have well-established chess clubs, Mitelman said.

Short of that, Mitelman has a host of good reasons for people to play chess.

"Back in 2001, USA Today reported that mentally stimulating hobbies like chess could help people avoid Alzheimer's disease," he said. "According to a Harvard study, it reduces the probability of the disease by 50 percent."

He paused like a chess pro and added: "You have to use your brain or it will stagnate."

Then there's chess's historical significance as the "oldest intellectual game on Earth," Mitelman said. The origins go back some 2,000 years, and during the Middle Ages nobody was accepted in a royal court unless the person could play chess.

"It has all the elements of intellectual, physical and emotional competition," Mitelman said. "My only regret is that I have been playing since I was 8 and I never played more consistently. I wish I could have played more."

Gerrard, who also plays chess on the Internet, said the club adds another dimension. "This is a very different environment," he said. "You can't sit there and ponder; you have to make moves in a relatively quick period."

Gootman, who already plays in tournaments at the high-school level, said the club gives him additional practice. "Anytime you play a game or study more, you get better," he said. "That's what it's all about."

Want to play?

To join the Hickory Chess Club, call Larry Robinson at (828) 322-1493 or Mike Mitelman at (828) 328-6022.