News-Info-Alerts

Re: Chess Saved Sanity of Korean War POW

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: February 14, 2003

"Former war prisoner teaches game of chess to others

By:Allan Stein, Correspondent

Norman Renouf of Windsor Locks said he never would have survived the two years he languished in a North Korean prisoner of war camp if it hadn't been for a bloodless war game called chess.
With chess pieces he made from scratch, Fenouf said he would play as many as 20 games a day with his fellow prisoners of war. It kept his mind off his terrible surroundings. And it kept him sane, he said.

"I've played chess all my life, since I was 6 years old. It was a family game," said Renouf, the instructor for the new Windsor Locks Chess Club.

About a dozen people of all ages attended the club's first meeting held Feb. 6 at the Windsor Locks Public Library where Renouf taught basic and advanced chess strategy.

"I'd like to get people interested in the game and perpetuate it, if that's the word," Renouf said. "I'd like to get kids interested in it."

Head librarian Eileen Pearce said the new chess club was launched this month after a patron called asking if the library would be interested in teaching the game again. A previous chess club that met at the library disbanded last year when the instructor moved away, Pearce said.

"This is something we thought we wanted to start up again," she said.

Pearce said the library purchased three new chess sets for the club so that all members will have a chance to play.

The basic premise of chess, a medieval game of strategy, is to maneuver each individual chess piece with the ultimate goal of capturing the king in an immovable position called "checkmate."

Renouf, 73, a member of the U.S. Chess Federation, said he has played in chess clubs both in Windsor Locks and in Springfield, Mass. He considers himself a Class C, or average, player at more advanced levels.

Once a week Renouf said he plays chess with his eldest son, David, a certified public accountant who learned the rules of the game from his father.

"I beat him mostly during tax season," when he's tired, Norman Renouf joked.

Renouf credits chess literally with saving his life as a POW during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953. It kept his mind sharp and focused on enjoying the game and not on his captors, he said.

Observing the kickoff of the chess club Feb. 6 was Michael Melts of Suffield, an international chess master and chess coach at Hebrew High School of New England and Salamone Chester Day High School in West Hartford. He also teaches private chess lessons.

"Chess is very important for people. Unfortunately, a lot of American people don't understand this," said Melts, who likens chess to the game of life. "People think chess is like a card game. It is absolutely different."

Chess, he said, requires skill, strategic thinking and concentration not found in any other card or board game.

"It may be the best or strongest tool for teaching children to think and to find something interesting in different situations," Melts said. "My goal is to give people more knowledge and fun. I try to explain not only chess; I try to equate chess with life and to give people different examples for better understanding."

Meanwhile, novice John Sullivan of Windsor Locks listened carefully as Renouf explained to him the rudiments of chess.

"Well, he does a lot of coaching. That's why I'm doing well," Sullivan said, apparently unaware that he had just made a big strategic mistake.

"Oh, boy, look what he did. He just gave you his queen," Renouf said to Sullivan's opponent.

"Uh, oh," Sullivan said.

©Windsor Locks Journal 2003 "