I hear it at least 20 times an hour from parents and teachers at any chess related event. Whether it's practice, a casual game at home, or a chess tournement, parents fill the air with praise for their little chess players. "Baby...you're a genius. I'm so proud of you!" Yet, this seems like the one of two places on the planet where children are herold in mass for looking, acting or actually being smart. The other place is the National Spelling Bee. I am a supporter of both.


Spelling Bees and Chess do something very unique for children. It is a rare and often missed opportunity for young people to be celebrated for what they know. I was recently amused and deeply please to see the National Beeing Bee Competition aired on ABC in primetime. All the cameras, announcers, sponsors and fanfare was quite inspiring. I dream of a time when we have cheerleaders and bands for our favorite high school chess teams. Well, in the meanwhile we have The Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Here's the point: We must celebrate the brains of all our children. Atheletics and academics receive tremendous support and recognition, evidenced by the abundance of scholarships and awards. However, the building blocks of strong academic performance and atheletic development is often found in the devleopment of special cognitive gifts. For example, a 7 year old who sits at the piano for the first time; or a struggling student who stubbles across a board game that just makes sense and finds himself excelling to the top of the rating scale. These are the building blocks of success.

I invite you to join me in supporting the genius of young chess players, who are on their way to capturing the attention of the nation.

Coach Hodge 

An Introduction To Character and The Game of Chess 
My Name is Harlan Hodge and I am a Chess and Character Coach. I teach lessons of character through the game of Chess. Much of my success in life can be traced back to the lessons the game of Chess has taught me. From planning before you move to never underestimating your opposition, these lessons have contributed to my successful navigation through poverty, graduate school and business.

Ironically, the game of Chess for me is not just a game, it is an opportunity for us to examine ourselves, form relationships with others, and to develop sound principles for life. In the next few segments, I would like to share with you 10 of the Most Valuable Character Lessons Chess Has Taught Me.

Coach Hodge 

Larry Jack was a half-inch taller than me. Everyday in Ms. Nave's math class, he got the answers about 0.5 seconds before me. Larry Jack passed his note to Helen Rose asking her to be his girlfriend right before I did. And when we walked home from school, Larry Jack was always a half a step ahead of me. I hated Larry Jack. He was my best friend.

We competed in the gifted program at Landsdowne Middle School in East St. Louis, along with 30 other very bright students. After school, Mr. Magarian offered all the students an opportunity to compete in the Snickers Candy Bars Tournaments. Larry and I were regulars in the chess match. This daily tournament would soon become chess practice for one of the Midwest’s most notable middle school chess club.

Chess requires you to plan out your moves; to think through the consequences of every choice you make. “If I move here, my opponent is likely to move here or there. If he chooses to move there, I’ll move here and then he’ll be forced to move there! Once he moves there…I Ah HA!” And so it goes for hours. This process of self-talk might be considered paranoid or compulsive anywhere outside of Chess and/or IT auditing. However, this is exactly what it takes to beat the competition in Chess. It has been said that the great Bobby Fischer could see the end of a game from the beginning. And that is why he has been considered the best of all times.

I’m no Bobby Fischer. At my best, I could see up to 10 variations for every move in a game. But even then, Larry was usually one step ahead of me. Because of this, he usually beat me in Chess. I heard that Larry would go home and play chess against him self for hours. He would sit at a table with two chairs. With the board set for two players, he would make white’s best opening move. He would then stand and walk to the other side of the board and sit. Once there, he would become the black player. Then he would make his best move as black. This intellectual battle against him self would last for hours. Of course this was all a rumor.

One day after beating all the other kids in the Snicker Tournament, Larry and I stopped at his house to go over a game we played. Of course, we played a game or two or three. This brief stop turned into a daily ritual after school and chess practice. We would rush to his house, finish our homework and get down to business. We would tryout our toughest openings. We would share the most challenging situations we had seen from our opponents. We would critique each other’s moves. And then there was the most outrageous and disturbing thing. We would play heavy metal music very loudly in an effort to break each other’s concentration. I believe his mother soon provided us with head headphones. In the process, we became big fans of Bon Jovi and Twisted Sister. We also developed very good focus.

Most importantly, we developed The Chess Partner Challenge, which is commonly known in the business world as an accountability partnership. Accountability Partnerships are functional relationship agreements that serve three primary purposes.

1. To insure that things get done

2. To improve the partners’ performances

3. To celebrate achievements and accomplishments

These three benefits are very difficult for individuals to produce for themselves. Through accountability, we find improved performance and self-confidence. As a chess and character coach, I often create accountability partnerships between students. This helps young people understand the importance of relationships and accountability. In chess, it is the most effective tool I have found to improve performance.

If it true that Larry played against himself daily; playing against me gave him a new perspective. And if nothing else, it saved him time in moving back and forth from chair to chair.

If you would like to know more about Accountability Relationships and how you can use them to create stronger and richer relationships with the student groups you serve, drop me and email. I’ll send you “How To Create Accountability Relationships That Work;” a guide for creating effective relationships with teen groups.

Coach Hodge 

It was in East St. Louis that I was lured into the world of tournament chess. The summer before middle school, a neighbor sat on the stairs of his front porch playing this strange board game. He called it “Chess.” Many of the kids on our street knew how to play. This young man offered to teach me. I spent the rest of that summer, day and night, learning the basic rules of the game. I remember him saying these words at the end of one session: “the more you play, the better you’ll get.” This lesson would prove to be true in every aspect of my life. This would become one of my life’s mottos and the first lesson of this blog. I did play more. I played often and by the end of the summer, I was the best chess player in the neighborhood.

The summer came to an end and September rolled around like it always does. I started a new school year at Lansdowne Middle School in the gifted program. The kids in my class were mostly my friends from elementary school. Some of them were the smart kids, but the others were just ordinary kids like me. I figured either, I was as smart as Mark Holt or he was as slow as me. I chose to believe the former. Our 7th grade class was considered the smart kids in the school and I was one of them. I liked that.

During the second week of middle school the conspiracy began. My social studies teacher, Mr. Allen Magarian, held a chess tournament in his classroom. He invited all of the kids to his classroom after school to play chess. The winner of any game would receive a Snickers Chocolate Candy Bar. For a sugar addicted adolescent the promise of a Snickers Bar was like the rising of the Sun one day after the end of the world. This was a motivation enough to come to school, let alone a reason to stay after. Nearly the entire gifted class, boys and girls, stayed after school to play chess for a chance to win Snickers Bars.

It was in these after school competitions that I realized the power of practice. Of the 30 or more 7th graders competing for candy prizes, I left daily with at least 3 candy bars. I was better than the other kids, because I practiced more than the other kids. And when it looked like they were catching up, I played and practiced more.

I soon employed a strategy that I still practice today. This is lesson #2. I will share it with you tomorrow. I call it, The Chess Partner challenge.

 If you would like to have a list of the next 10 Character Lessons from chess, drop me an email at [email protected]

Coach Hodge