A Blaine Memoir – Part 3 by his Dad, Michael Newsom
Blaine and Chess
Blaine showed remarkable abilities at chess. He could see all move combinations 5 moves or more out. He was a master at the trap.
One day I took him to a group lesson from International Master John Donaldson. It was a group of about twenty people, mostly older adults, some playing at the master level. Everyone hovered around a small table. Blaine in his wheelchair was allowed to be at the table across from John. Others wedged in. John would play games illustrating different openings. He illustrated each opening with many games, some dating to the mid-nineteenth century. He would show the first 30 moves or so, then stop and ask, what did so and so play next. Immediately Blaine answered pawn to g4. John said that is correct. Then in a flash, John would reset the game to about the tenth move, then play the next 20 or so moves of a similar line of play, from a version of the game in a different decade. Again he asked, what was the next move, and in a similar flash Blaine answered, Knight to f6 (or something of that sort), and John said that is right. Then John reset the game again to some point further back. Now this is especially remarkable because John is playing all these games from memory. After about the tenth demonstration, all solved by Blaine, I heard whispers, who is this kid in the wheelchair. John knew Blaine but he was not letting on; his wife, Elena Donaldson, also an IM, tutored Blaine on a few occasions.
We try to describe intelligence using a variety of adjectives: creative intelligence; intuitive intelligence; native intelligence, etc. The history of the game of chess is closely tied to war. When chess players talk about intelligence, they talk about strategy and tactics, two English words taken from Greek words associated with military campaigns. Strategy is about planning, tactics about execution of the plan.
A common feature of the brains of spina bifida children who had complications due to hydrocephalus is the loss of the strategy function of the brain. The diagnosis is oddly called non-verbal learning disability. Somewhere deep in the cerebellum there is this instinct for cognitive planning. No one completely understands the processes, but the development of strategy intelligence seems to be closely tied to motor skills. Perhaps Blaine did not obtain the strategy ability because of his motor impairment. If chess was all about execution, Blaine could have been a grand master. But chess requires strategy above all, a plan associated with a particular type of opening. Computers that play chess dominate with tactics, but computers must be taught strategy by humans, in order to beat humans.
Blaine learned to cope. Without strategies Blaine played gambits. Gambits are a way of simplifying the game, of offering a piece in order to simplify a position. If Blaine could reach the late middle game or the end game, watch out, because there late in the game tactics dominate. He used these tactics to win the Oregon high school championship on 1st board, quite an honor for a kid with ‘half’ a chess brain.
Blaine placed second in the seventh grade OMSI tournament. First place went to a young boy from Roseburg. His team also won the team title. His father coached their team. I coached Blaine’s team. Winning teams throughout the country were invited to play in the national chess tournament. Each winning team could choose one player from another team for travel to the nationals. The Roseburg coach chose Blaine.
I accompanied Blaine to Chicago with the Roseburg team where approximately 1000 middle school kids competed for both individual and team titles. It was intense. In the evenings before the tournament the Roseburg team practiced. Then over two days they competed for the titles. The Roseburg team did not win a trophy; east coast teams dominated the team competition.
Each player played five games. In his second game Dad helped Blaine to the bathroom four times where Blaine vomited from nerves. I cleaned the vomit from his clothes and he wheeled back to the board. In chess you play against the clock as well as your opponent. Blaine’s clock ticked off valuable time each trip to the bathroom. Under time pressure he made a questionable move. His opponent who eventually tied for first place took advantage of the mistake and won. Blaine won his next three games. He ended with four wins and one loss and tied for forth place.
Blaine loved to play chess. He played people at work on breaks and at events sponsored by work. He played on the Internet. He taught and played with his brother Casey. We played regularly. He beat me often.