I’ll play anyone

Navy officer playing in NATO chess tournament
By Philip Ewing – Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jul 21, 2008 17:02:15 EDT

Lt. Cmdr. Paul Choate tries not to let little things, like his deployment last year to Iraq, get in the way of his chess game.

Even as Choate served as an individual augmentee in Baghdad, in charge of a facility that installed roadside-bomb jamming equipment on Army vehicles, he played the soldiers he was with, or contractors, or anybody else who wanted a game.

“When you’re a chess nut like me, not playing in tournaments doesn’t mean I haven’t been studying and analyzing grandmaster games,” Choate said. “I’ll play anyone.”

He was able to tear himself away from the game enough to be awarded a Bronze Star for cutting down the time needed to install the jamming gear: from two hours to under 45 minutes.

Still, the spare-time preparation paid off: After reporting to his latest job at Fleet Readiness Center Southwest at Naval Air Station North Island, Calif., Choate qualified to give the Navy its lone spot on the U.S. military chess team, which is flying next month to Belgium for the annual NATO Chess Championships. He, one team member from the Army, one from the Marine Corps and three from the Air Force, will play military chess teams from 16 NATO allies, including Great Britain, Germany and France.

The American players have their work cut out for them, Choate said — no U.S. team has ever won the NATO Chess Championship. The Americans did finish second in 2002, with a team that included Choate’s only other trip to the tourney; he was stationed aboard the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis at the time.

This year, as every year, the team to beat is Germany, which has consistently finished at the top of the standings since the first official NATO tourney in 1989.

With an “expert” rating of 2,100 from the U.S. Chess Federation, Choate is one of the most accomplished players in the Navy. This is thanks, he said, to constant play since he was about 12. He had his rating even before he enlisted in the Navy in 1986, he said, and played for his 10 years as an enlisted sailor before getting his commission. But Choate said he hasn’t played in a tournament since 2004, partly because he has been moved around by different deployments and partly because he likes to give up-and-coming players a chance.

Here is the full story.