Checkmate Near the Checkout Aisle.

The food theme continues… Rich

Steve Martens – Quad City Times

CLINTON, Iowa — Most people who shop at Hy-Vee in Clinton on Tuesday and Thursday nights probably don’t even notice them there, tucked into a corner in the dining area, staring down at chess boards.

Members of the Reflections Chess Club are there every Tuesday and Thursday, and they’re always looking for new players of all ages.

The group took its name from its original meeting place, the Reflections coffee shop in Clinton, member Gene Deedon said. After the coffee shop closed, the group moved from location to location over the past several years before finally settling in at Hy-Vee about two years ago.

They have their own storage locker, full of equipment and books about chess strategy, and the members can get dinner or something to drink while they play.

“Hy-Vee turned out to be ideal,” Deedon said.

Deedon, 62, played chess in high school, but didn’t become serious about the game until about 15 years ago. He has become a student of the game, using computer chess games to study strategy and competing in tournaments in Chicago.

“I should be a lot better, now that I think about it,” he said.

At one Chicago tournament, Deedon was paired with a boy who was about 5 or 6 years old who played while holding a stuffed monkey and eating candy.

But the boy identified Deedon’s strategy and made the correct counter-moves, beating the man old enough to be his grandfather.

“It just blew my mind,” he said.

Deedon said it doesn’t take intellect or age to become a good chess player, it just takes the time and patience to learn. “It’s like golf or anything else,” he said. “If you want to get good at it, you have to put in the time.”

The group has about two dozen members in a range of ages, and about half show up for each chess-playing session.

Club member Joe Moore picked up the game quickly when he was 9 years old, with lessons from his older brother.

“I guess I played him for about six months before I started beating him, and then he stopped playing with me,” Moore, now 57, said.

Chess is a unique game in that when people begin playing and simply learn how the pieces move, the game is simple, Moore said. It is only when they get deeper into the game and learn its strategies that the game becomes more complicated.

“The more you know, they more you need to know,” Moore said. “The more you play, the more complicated it gets.”

Moore said it is the complexity and the mental exercise of the game that he enjoys.

“There’s artistry to it,” he said. “A really subtle kind of artistry.”

Deedon said the club welcomes anyone who wants to join, even on the spur of the moment. Around Christmas, a man in a National Guard uniform noticed club members playing at Hy-Vee and asked for a game, explaining that he had played in high school.

“He just kicked my butt,” Deedon said.

The club

The Reflections Chess Club meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at Hy-Vee, 901 S. 4th St., Clinton, Iowa. For more information, contact Gene Deedon at (563) 242-8626.

Intellectual development

Playing chess is believed to have several benefits for the intellectual development of children. Skills that chess can help develop include mathematics, memory, reasoning, problem solving, concentration and creative and critical thinking.

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