Don’t be a pawn be a king

Teaching Kids to Be Kings Through Chess
Posted on 15 March 2009
By AMANDA MARTINEZ

The pawns, rooks and bishops clicked as the teenagers set up their games and, seconds later, the sound of pieces sliding across across the board could be heard, followed soon, by shouts of “check,” “checkmate,” and then again the clicks of boards being reset.

Neither nerds nor chess masters, the players in the library at John O’Connell High School on a recent Friday were mostly boys, mostly wearing hoodies and completely into playing chess with a focus that would make their teachers jealous.

Weaving in and out between games was chess mentor Adisa Banjoko, with, “Don’t be a pawn be a king” blazing across his t-shirt. The 39-year-old founder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation, an organization that promotes nonviolence, unity and life skills through music, chess and martial arts, has been working at O’Connell high school for four months.

“He teaches me how to make a checkmate faster,” said 15-year-old Leo Espinoza, who added that working with Banjoko is simply about playing chess. But it’s clear there’s more to it than that for Banjoko.

Moving the right pieces on the board and making the right choice in life go hand in hand, Banjoko said.

As he demonstrated chess moves to a group of players, it was clear his advice could be applied on and off the board. “Make sure the king is cool in situations of danger. Your partners have to be there to back you up. What are you willing to risk?”

Banjoko, who has been running the Hip-Hop Chess Federation for the last two years, said Espinoza will soon be moving the pieces around the board without missing a beat. But he hopes the new player will use his chess smarts on the streets, too.

“The idea is not to create chess masters or rap moguls. It is to get the students to think and be comfortable with their own intelligence,” he said. “When playing chess you learn to think before you move, take responsibility for your actions, and recover from loss.”

The San Francisco Unified School District pays Banjoko, a self-described chess evangelist, to teach the students twice a week how to play the board game. Using music from Public Enemy and EPMD, he gets students to think about strategy.

Here is the full article.