Metro Detroit chess students learn winning strategy

He is gracious in victory, a 12-year-old tasting this first drop of celebrity and thanking his chess coach, his grandmother and all who made possible his title as Michigan junior high school champion.

The trophy is as big as Jordan Sweet's dreams for future glory. As a sixth-grader last year at Detroit's Ludington Middle School, he imagined stardom on the basketball court. Now he's into a different sport: At Redford's Washington-Parks Academy, he carries a worn chess tactics workbook, studies diagrams and talks about decision-making.

His coach, Kevin Fite, used to teach chess and math in Detroit, winning championships and inspiring kids. But four years ago, certain he'd be laid off over union rules and cutbacks, he left for Cornerstone School's Redford Township campus, which in this school year has become a charter.

As Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Robert Bobb makes changes, Jordan's championship is a timely reminder that great teachers are a district's most potent tool. New rules and standards can help change behavior, but great teachers do more -- they make magic.

Here in Room 215, Fite has replicated his Detroit success as a gifted math teacher and chess coach, winning championships and making math classes popular. He wound up in Redford Township, along with Jordan, who struggled in his previous school. Hoping for better grades and a happier son, his mother moved him to this school in September.

"What got Jordan into chess? Mr. Fite," says Diana Throckmorton, Jordan's grandmother, who is at school to pick up her grandson. "Mr. Fite's an inspiration to him. His grade average is going up. He spends more time doing his homework. He thinks more."

The kids here buzz about chess as more than a game -- as a pathway to a better future. "You can win trophies and maybe get a scholarship," one boy named Michael says, and the others nod. The group includes 42 members from grades four to eight; 62 in grades one to eight.

"You can travel all over," says another.

A Louisiana native who taught high school math, Fite moved to Detroit to work for Compuware and in 2000 got a job teaching math at Duffield Elementary.

Fite, 42, may be a gifted teacher, but he's not an accredited one, so he left for Cornerstone. Now in his fourth year, Fite pushes his players to practice and learn from each other. "It's been awesome," says the principal, Scott Cairo. "It helps our kids think strategically about much more than chess."

Fite's proteges are kids like Alexis Clements, 12, soft-spoken and shy, who started playing chess because her friend Micah Gooden liked it. "It teaches you a lot. It helps me learn to talk to other people," says Alexis, who helped the girls team win a medal in a contest last weekend.

Before Mr. Fite? "Nobody played chess here," says Micah.

They practice twice a week after school, then from 4-8 p.m. with the Detroit City Chess Club, which Fite founded.

On Sunday, Jordan promised his grandmother he'd bring home a trophy. His first match, at 9 a.m., went smoothly, as he remembered Coach Fite's advice: Keep your pawns. But Fite was at another tournament with the girls team. By the time Jordan got to his fifth and final match, he was worried.

Competitor Connor Linn, an Okemos middle school student, mowed down Jordan's pawns. At 7 p.m., they were down to a rook and king: "I thought I was going to lose for a while, but in the end we tied," says Jordan, who called Fite between matches for support.

Connor and Jordan each took home trophies as co-champions.

"Jordan's work ethic is unbelievable," says Fite. "I've seen what chess does for these kids and it surprises even me. ... I used to coach soccer and other sports, but I don't think I would again because coaching chess gives the kids more."

Their parents describe better study habits, more motivated students. The kids themselves mention sharper thinking skills and the ability to plan ahead. In a drop-and-drag, cut-and-paste world, they learn to quietly make decisions and to foresee the consequences.

How does winning at chess make Jordan feel? He thinks for a moment, the way he has seen athletes do on television when asked a question. "At home or at school, I don't necessarily have control, but on the chessboard it's just me," he says. A chessboard and a teacher have changed his life.

In a few short months, he has learned to think, to plan, to win. Chess may be only a game, but it has enabled a 12-year-old boy to imagine -- and plan -- a future where the moves are up to him.

lberman@detnews.com">lberman@detnews.com