Making connections through chess
Mark Pavelka was just 4 years old when his father Norm taught him to play chess, a game that has become a lifelong connection for the pair.
‘‘To get Dad to write while I was living in Ecuador for 10 years, I started a chess game with him,’’ Mark said.
‘‘We just emailed our moves and chatted along the way.’’
He said he would set up a physical chess board to see the moves and games would run for a couple of years.
‘‘We had a lady that came to clean for us, because you employ locals to keep them in work, and one day she thought she was doing a good turn, took all the pieces, dusted the board and put them all back in their starting positions,’’ he said.
‘‘We must have been about a year into that game.’’
Today the father and son still play chess every Sunday and this weekend Mark ran a weekend-long chess tournament at Gleniti Baptist Church in which Norm competed.
‘‘This is the first time we have run the tournament and the idea is that it will start a chess club,’’ Mark said.
‘‘We want to connect with people and schools. One of our focuses at this church is intergenerational connection and chess is a great way of doing that.’’
Several children took part in the morning beginners’ session on Saturday, and some were really good, he said.
‘‘Kids can pick it up really well,’’ he said.
‘‘What I like about it is the way it develops the mind – it takes a lot of perception, you’re planning three or four moves in advance, you’re trying to anticipate what they are going to do – so it actually develops the skills you need for good driving, for example.’’
He said the game was also a way to connect with people you don’t share a language with.
‘‘I’ve been in the slums in Manila, I’ve worked with people on the streets in Auckland, in Mexico before I could speak Spanish – and I played chess in all those situations with people I couldn’t actually speak to.’’