JUST DON'T LET THEM THROW THE CURVE UNTIL THEY'RE OLDER:

Young Knights: A rivalry is growing between several Massachusetts chess stars, each of whom could become a top-rated, even professional-level player. That is, if they don't lose interest once they get out of middle school. (Michael Fitzgerald, June 24, 2007, Boston Globe)

After a full day of competition, the state championship is hanging in the balance of one battle. Andrew Wang and James Lung are squared off, mano a mano – as mano as 10-year-old boys can be, anyway – renewing a budding rivalry between two of the best young players in Massachusetts. Andrew has beaten James before, and this day, each player has led his team into the final round (team chess features four players per side). But Andrew’s grip looks tenuous as their struggle stretches well into its second hour. People are clustered around this game, since the rest of the day’s matches are done. If Wang bests his rival, the Sage School in Foxborough will win the 2006 state K-6 championship, avenging a loss the year before. If James wins, his school, Lexington’s Harrington Elementary School, will again be the winner. If they draw, the title will go to a third school.

The arena, which happens to be the Natick High School cafeteria, is boisterous – for chess. Which is to say that people can be heard whispering, and at one point, Andrew distinctly hears someone say: "It’s a draw." Indeed, it looks as if neither player can win. Both boys are down to two pawns and a king, though Andrew also has a bishop. And he is sure he can find a way to win. Still, he is running out of time – tournament chess gives each player a two-hour limit, and Andrew has only five minutes remaining. But five minutes of clock time, which stops after each move, can be an eternity in chess, and so he keeps plugging away. Then he sees his edge: He can use his bishop to protect one of his pawns from James’s king and use that pawn to get his queen back. Once Andrew gets his pawn in position, James concede defeat. [...]

Andrew’s father, Frank Wang, was born in Taiwan but grew up in Montreal before immigrating to the United States in 1989. His mother, Tiffany Wang, came from Taiwan to study harp that year at the New England Conservatory. En-Kuang Lung, James’s father, arrived in 1978, while his mother, Florence Lung, came here in 1971; they are also both originally from Taiwan. The two other top rising seventh-graders in the state are Winston Huang, whose parents left Shanghai almost 30 years ago, and Zaroug Jaleel, whose parents emigrated from southern India, living in Wales before moving to the United States in 1995. The only thing these four families seem to have in common, besides roots in other countries, is the fact that they see chess as an activity that will help their children in school.

That and the fact that, right now, these four boys happen to be engaged in a fierce battle for domination. Any one of them might one day become a grandmaster – the game’s highest rank. And it could happen before they are old enough to drive to their own matches.

But, really, what value do immigrants add to the culture....

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 24, 2007 12:00 AM