Maine School Worker Helps Champion Chess Teams

Maine School Worker Helps Champion Chess Teams

At a school in Hampden, Maine, David Bishop¹ works to keep floors clean and classrooms in good shape.

Bishop is a janitor². But he is also known as the coach of the chess teams at Reeds³ Brook⁴ Middle School and Weatherbee Elementary School.

The middle school students who play chess with Bishop's help recently finished 8th out of 52 teams at a national competition. The elementary school students participated in a national event for beginning players last weekend.

The success of both teams has some people comparing Bishop to a character from the Netflix television program, The Queen's Gambit.

The show came out in 2020. It is about a girl who learned to play chess from the janitor at the institution where she lived. She went on to be a great chess player.

Bishop said he understands why people compare him to the janitor in the television program. He said he enjoyed watching the show.

But unlike the character in The Queen's Gambit, Bishop is helping⁵ a lot of young chess players -- not just one girl.

Sometimes, the chess players beat their teacher.

Bishop is 61. At first, he did not like losing to the children. He called it "humiliating and demoralizing." But then he understood it was good for him to lose. That meant his chess students were getting stronger.

The children in Maine are part of a nationwide trend. Today, many more young people are interested in chess than were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of them started playing the game with others on the internet, using the website Chess.com. The website had about 1.5 million daily users in February 2020. By the end of 2020, it had 4.5 million users each day. And at the beginning of 2023, the number was up to 10 million.

Leon Watson is a spokesperson for Chess.com. He called the increase "unprecedented," or never experienced before.

Bishop said he was a good chess player as a boy but did not like to let his friends know. He did not want to be called a "nerd" and did not join his school's chess club.

He wishes he had.

But now that the game is more popular among young people, no one thinks less of chess players like Eli Marquis, who is 12. Marquis joined other players on a recent day at his school's library. All the students were either playing or watching chess.

He said he likes the game because he is always learning.

"You can never run out of things to learn and to practice and to do, and you can just keep on getting better as long as you practice. There's no end to it. Really," he said.

Eddie LaRochelle, 13, said chess is like other sports where you have to work hard and practice a lot. However, there are some differences.

"You don't need to work out every single day in the gym. To get stronger, you can exercise your brain with puzzles, chess and other things," he said.

The young people said chess helps them think ahead, consider strategy and think about the effects of their decisions.

"Chess is so good for them, and most of them don't know it," Bishop said. "They're just playing chess, but it's like a workout for the brain."

Bishop said he wants to see his players get better, even if that means losing to them more often. He is happy to see so many young people playing the game. But he is concerned there are not very many girls playing. There is only one girl on his middle school team, but he hopes that will change if players start when they are younger.

Words in This Story

janitor –n. a person who cleans a building and makes minor⁶ repairs

coach –n. a person who trains someone, often in sports but in this case, chess

character –n. a person who appears in a story, for example in a book or television show

humiliate⁷ –v. to make someone feel bad about themselves

demoralize –v. to feel bad about something

trend –n. something new that is happening often, that is currently⁸ popular

nerd –n. a negative term for someone who is interested in technical subjects, computers, etc.

practice –v. to repeat something over and over again under the supervision⁹ of a coach or teacher with the hopes of getting better

puzzle –n. a game or problem that requires a lot of thought to be solved or answered

strategy –n. a plan for achieving something over a long period of time

1 bishop   

n.主教，（国际象棋）象

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。

2 janitor   

n.看门人，管门人

参考例句：

• The janitor wiped on the windows with his rags.看门人用褴褛的衣服擦着窗户。
• The janitor swept the floors and locked up the building every night.那个看门人每天晚上负责打扫大楼的地板和锁门。

3 reeds   

芦苇( reed的名词复数 )； 芦丛； 簧舌； 簧片

参考例句：

• Our roof was made of dried reeds. 我们的屋顶是用干芦苇盖的。
• Oaks may fall when reeds stand the storm. 芦苇耐风暴，橡树却会倒。

4 brook   

n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让

参考例句：

• In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
• The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

7 humiliate   

v.使羞辱，使丢脸[同]disgrace

参考例句：

• What right had they to bully and humiliate people like this?凭什么把人欺侮到这个地步呢？
• They pay me empty compliments which only humiliate me.他们虚情假意地恭维我，这只能使我感到羞辱。

8 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

9 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。