The Most Valuable Asset

September 27, 2010
Tags: Teaching Chess Articles

Written by guest author Erik Czerwin for Wholesale Chess.

“What am I going to do about these kids?  They just don’t take my advice.”

“Our advice…”

“Yeah, our advice.  What can we do to inspire them?”

“Maybe we should get in more tournaments, spark the competition bug.  Or maybe we could just beat them over the head with rolled up chess boards.”

“Tournaments are expensive.  And I don’t know about beating children.  That’s a lot of paperwork.”

Such is a common conversation between my assistant chess coach and me.  Coaching chess is a weird, stumbling sort of a job that involves teaching a tremendously complex, yet beautiful, game while at the same time managing a small crowd of awkward, sometimes rambunctious, teenagers.  When I think about the success our chess team has had, I can really only contribute the success to one exceedingly important factor: having an assistant coach.  Every success of our team hinges on Coach Brian and his voluntary presence, and no other team appears to be so lucky.

Coaching and teaching both involve a lot of internal frustration that must occasionally be vented to prevent explosions.  My assistant has always been a superb listener, and without him, I would have long ago forgotten the real goal of inspiring a love for chess.  I often become over competitive and therefore over-critical of the team.  Over the last several years, my assistant has often been a vital barrier between my zeal and the emotions of our young players. Whenever I start getting tournament fever, he’s always the one to bring me down to reality.  Whenever I start getting down on the team and wanting to just go through the motions, he’s the one to pull me back and set me on the path towards the real goal.  Without his checking my emotions, things would be very different.  He balances me, keeps me centered and focused.

He is also an amazingly talented player who offers brilliant insights into games.  He and I have distinctly different approaches to the game, and having these two viewpoints has taught the team bundles of information about the game.  As we squabble about positions, the team hears more than one view and therefore learns to analyze each position using multiple perspectives.  Not only that, they learn to value their own opinion and not discount themselves just because a coach disagrees; in other words, they learn the value of authentic debate and forming conclusions using evidentiary support.

As each season grinds away, I find myself forming judgments about particular players and their ability level.  Often, my assistant is the one to engage me in conversations, asking when we should move a player up or down on the boards.  Those conversations help to be more accurate and fair with each player because decisions aren’t based solely on my narrow analysis which may be clouded by past experience.

Finally, my assistant is the reminder, the drive, to improve my teaching, my chess game, my coaching methods, and myself.  Without the constant presence of a quality assistant, a quality friend, coaching would not have nearly the satisfaction that it does.  Having a yin to my yang, a zig to my zag makes our team unique.  I notice other teams being jealous of the rapport and strength of our team.  I notice them try to mimic our techniques and our discussion.  What they don’t know is that none of those things really make us what we are.  The brain of our team is me, the heart, however, is Coach Brian.  Every student adores him, every team envies him, and I simply couldn’t do it without him.

Erik Czerwin is a self-taught chess player and also a self-taught chess coach. He founded the current Marengo Community High School Chess team, founded the Marengo Chess Club, plays at the Rockford Chess Club, and occasionally volunteers as a chess teacher at the Rockford Public Library, all in Northern Illinois. In his spare time, he’s also a full-time high school language arts teacher, part-time graduate student, part-time tutor, and full-time father of two and husband to a very understanding wife.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of Wholesale Chess. We welcome open discussion on all aspects of chess on the Wholesale Chess Blog. If you would like to be a guest author on our blog, please contact us at marketing@wholesalechess.com.