CHECK MATE
Le’Veon says his knowledge of chess helps on-field performance
It was a rainy day in Columbus, Ohio, when Le’Veon Bell first discovered the game of chess.
He was in third grade and the weather forced the class inside for recess. Some kids grabbed the Monopoly board. Others played checkers. Bell and his friend Tyreek picked up a chessboard and started teaching themselves to play.
It began a love affair with the game for Bell, and the Jets’ new running back says the lessons he has learned on the chessboard have helped him on the football field.
“I think the thing I love about chess so much is it’s an opportunity to kind of manipulate people,” Bell told The Post. “You get to really exercise your brain and see how you can outt hink people. There’s nothing athletic about it. It’s literally me trying to outsmart somebody else.”
Bell has been named All-Pro twice and been to the Pro Bowl three times in his five-year NFL career. His unconventional running style is as distinctive as his first name. That style is also who he is playing chess — patient, waiting for an opponent to make a mistake. When they do, he pounces.
“It translates to football in a lot of ways,” Bell said. “That’s why I kind of run the way I run. I know what hole I want to get to, so I’m kind of setting up guys and putting pieces in different spots to get to the hole I want to get to. That’s why chess helps me out in football.”
Bell sets up defenders with the way he runs just as he sets up chess opponents.
“It helps me get to that next step,” Bell said. “I already know my first step, so if I move a pawn, I’m already anticipating this guy is going to take this pawn, but I already know my next move when he takes that pawn because I want him to take that pawn. If I see a hole or something, I may have a guy thinking I don’t see the hole, making him think I see another hole and he over-fits that next hole and I get to that next hole that I want to go to.”
After learning how to play in elementary school, Bell joined the chess club and kept honing his skills. At Michigan State, he often played with fellow running back Larry Caper. When he got to the NFL with the Steelers, he would play teammates, but did not find anyone as good as he was.
That has been the same in his early days with the Jets. Bell said he plays rookie tight end Trevon Wesco and linebacker Tarell Basham the most. Bell said he has not lost to any NFL teammates, and he sounds frustrated when he talks about finding competition.
“I say, ‘Can you play chess or do you just move the pieces?’ There’s a difference between knowing how to move the pieces and knowing what a bishop does, knowing what a rook does, a pawn and knowing how to play,” Bell said. “There’s a lot of control that goes into a board. When I play Wesco, I can beat him in three or four moves because I know how to play.”
Like most things, there are apps for chess now, and Bell does most of his playing on his phone. He said his rating is a 91 out of 100 in the app he uses. He might be the only NFL player who is talking about chess and not “Madden” when discussing his rating. Bell plays nearly every day, although his playing has slowed during training camp. He said he loses sometimes when he’s tired, and he does not like to lose.
The Jets are counting on that hatred of losing helping them climb out AFC East cellar this year. When you watch Bell run or catch this season, he said it will be as much about his mind as his legs and hands.
“[Chess] translates so much, people don’t understand,” Bell said. “I’ve got my natural athletic ability that God gave to me, but at the same time I’m using my mind. There’s a lot of strategic things that go into it when I’m running the football or catching the football.”
So is Bell a better football player … or a better chess player?
“That’s up in the air. I don’t know,” he said. “I feel like it’s rare that I lose in chess, and I feel like if I’m running routes or something it’s rare for somebody to stop me. I feel like more times than not I’m going to win. I’m human. I’m not perfect. I might make a wrong move. I might slip on a route or something. But I feel like as challenging as football is and as challenging as chess is, I take them both as serious. I’m a competitor. Even when I’m playing basketball, I don’t want to lose, period. Chess is something I take serious. I’ve been playing for a long time, so I take pride in that. If I play somebody, I’m not trying to lose at all.”