The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Six elementary school students got the chance Dec. 7 to take on a former high school champion in simultaneous chess games at the township library.
The fact that the former high school chess champion they played was Mayor Brian Levine was not lost on any of them.
This was the second year that Levine challenged members of the library’s chess club to the games, the mayor said.
The idea came to him last year, when he visited the club, Levine said.
“I said, gee, when I was a kid I played in a couple of leagues, maybe they’d want to do this against the mayor,” he said.
Levine was a high school and conference champion in his playing days, he said.
“Actually, I was undefeated,” Levine said.
“I always like doing things with the community anyway, but chess is a good even because you sit and think and concentrate and learn something,” he said.
The mayor said his strategy would be different than if he were playing a single opponent.
“When I’m playing one game, I’ve got the strategy of that game and what I’m playing in my head,” he said. ” Here, when I come back to the game I have to remember what I was thinking, and in a regular game, I might have a few moments to think. Here, I’ve got to keep moving and evaluate what I’m going to do. Sometimes I’ll miss something obvious.”
One of his opponents was Delilah Summerer,a 6th Grader at Sampson G. Smith School.
Summerer, who said she’s been playing chess for about a year, said she wasn’t terribly nervous about playing the mayor.
She said she agreed to participate because “I like playing chess and I’m friends with his daughter, so there’s a little competition there.”
