The Daily Times-News from Burlington, North Carolina • Page 25

3C BttrHoctog (N.C.) Thncg-News. Thursday, June 15,1972 Teen-age Chess Expert Advises Teaching The Game To Children By JOY STILLEY AP Newsfeatures Writer PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (AP Five-year-olds are perfectly capable of learning to play chess and, in fact, that is the best age to start them out, says teen-age chess expert Eric Schiller, who serves as a volunteer teacher to kindergarten youngsters. "The earlier they learn to play chess the more beneficial the ability will be," he says. "Chess playing helps develop more logical reasoning processes and helps them to think 'more clearly and evaluate decisions better." The 17-year-old senior at Schreiber High School here the fundamentals of the game to kindergarteners at the Flower Hill Elementary School.

He is a volunteer to HELP (Help Educate Little People), a program that places high school students in an assistant teacher capacity in elmentary schools. asked for the younger children because I feel they're easier to work with and there's more you can -teach someone young," says Schiller. "I've always had the idea of introducing chess to kids and felt the best place was on the kindergarten level. "I learned at that age and Bobby Fischer did and so did most of the other players I have come in contact with," he continues. "In the United States seem but in the Soviet Union it's normal." Schiller, who gets, a half unit credit per term for working EARLY START Teen-age chess expert Eric believes in introducing children to the game at a young age, gives 6-year-old Laurence Struber some pointers.

five days. a week with his young students, starts out by introducing the pieces one at a time and letting the kids become thoroughly familiar with how each moves. One 6-year- old has already played in an under-13-year-old tournament. "I give them general principles that get them going," he explains. "They use basically the same opening all the time, but they are beginning to get some attacking schemes down and occasionally get into some defensive things." The youth lists intelligence and a "very competitive instinct" as major prerequisites for the game.

Though an aptitude for math often is not ap- parent at that age, hs adds that the child who plays good chess will be good in math. Schiller recalls that from the time he was 4 or 5 lie played chess with his father or guests in a casual way. In the middle of junior high he joined a group of 9th-graders wlio played it a little more seriously. "We entered a and had a crushing defeat," he admits, "and then I started to pick up chess seriously and bought the first of many chess books. I probably buy more chess books than any other junior (under-21 player) in the country." Now chess has become a way of life for Schiller, who carries a folding chess zipper- cased playing pieces and basic chess books with him wherever he goes.

He was an assistant tournament director for the U.S. Chess Championship, was captain of the Eastern High School co-championship team and has won many trophies. He owns seven chess sets, including one huge "artistic" one. He also plays bridge, but thinks it involves too much luck. "In chess there's a very small percentage of luck," he says.

"The only reason people lose hi chess is because they make a mistake themselves." Schiller plans to attend the University of Chicago next year and major in Russian, a language he became interested in from reading books about chess, but which he now enjoys for its Own sake. In addition to speaking Russian, he speaks Serbo-Croatian and can read German, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Czech and Swedish, all of which he familiarized himself with through reading chess magazines. He may eventually go into the field of diplomacy, teaching or some type of interpreting work. "But my real idea for life is to get a job to sustain myself while playing chess," he says. LOSE UGLY FAT Start losing weight today OR MONEY BACK.

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