Checkmating With Pawns

Checkmating With Pawns It was a hot day at the chess tournament in Phoenix, Arizona—103 degrees, to be exact—and 14-year-old Nathaniel Dight was elated over his custom-made chess set. Those carved wooden pieces had been weighted precisely for the smooth moves he liked to make. Each one had been lacquered and, for this extreme heat, carefully protected by matte acrylic spray. But before the game could begin, young Nathaniel was ordered to take a urine test. “| know why you’ re doing this,” he snarled. “It' s because |’ ve won three tournaments in a row, isn’ t it?” “No, son, that’ s just a coincidence. This is a random drug test.” “| don’ t do any drugs. | mean like when | get a headache from playing chess too long, | won’ t even take an aspirin.” “Look, here’ sa cup. |! need you to go fill it, right now... .” All right, | confess, | made all that up, but consider the implications of something that | haven’ tmade up: America’ s drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, wrote in an article published in Chess Life magazine: “Research proves that mentoring youngsters and teaching them games like chess can build resilience in the face of illegal HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015297