By Joseph G. Ponterotto
This year is the 50th anniversary of the chess world’s Match of the Century, Fischer-Spassky, 1972, Reykjavik, Iceland. To mark this occasion, I wanted to look at the way Jesuit-educated chess champions changed the game.
As early as the mid-16th Century, the clergy and the game of chess have been linked and Jesuit-educated people have long made their marks in the history of the game.
There may be an overlooked explanation for that. The Jesuit mission, in many ways, is consistent with some of the challenges, benefits and ideals of chess mastery. Jesuit secondary and higher education promotes the expansion of intellectual development, steely determination and perseverance, and the application of competition to challenge intellectual growth and broach new interpersonal relationships. Jesuit education promotes multicultural and cross-cultural exposure and development, and chess is the world’s most multicultural game in terms of diversity across age, race, income, gender, religion and nationality.
In 1560, Fr. Rodrigo (Ruy) Lopez de Segura (1530-1580), a priest and later bishop from Segura, Spain, traveled to Rome on an ecclesiastical visit. While in Rome, he challenged and defeated Italian chess champion Leonardo di Bona, and was for a short time thereafter considered the best chess player in the world. In 1561, Lopez published Libro de la Invencion Liberal y Arte del Juego del Axedrez (Book of the Liberal Invention and Art of the Game of Chess), considered by chess historians to be one of the earliest definitive books on the game. Though Lopez was not a Jesuit priest, the Jesuit order, in time, would grow to have a historic presence in the “intellectual game.”
In addition to being a gifted chess player, Paul Morphy (above) was “president of the Thespian Society and prefect of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary” during his studies at Spring Hill College. Photo courtesy of Alamy Inc.
Historically, chess became indelibly linked to Jesuit higher education in 1850 when Paul Morphy, a chess prodigy from New Orleans, began his higher education at the age of 13 at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. Morphy was already one of the country’s best players when he entered college. At Spring Hill, he excelled academically and in theater. According to his biographer David Lawson, the school archives noted Morphy’s “conduct was excellent, application very earnest and unremitting and improvement very rapid.” He was proficient in math, literature, the arts, music and was multilingual with competence in Latin, Greek, and French. Upon graduating from Spring Hill with a Master of Arts degree, Morphy entered law school at the University of Louisiana, and received his degree in 1857 at the age of 20. After law school, but before beginning his law practice, he turned to chess full time. In 1857, Morphy won the U.S. National Chess tournament held in New York City and in 1858 he departed for England and France to challenge the world’s top masters.
While in Europe, Morphy defeated all chess challengers, culminating in a convincing win over European champion, Adolf Anderssen in December of 1858, thus becoming the world’s chess champion.
In the present century, another Jesuit institution was the training haven of a great world chess champion. Viswanathan (Vishy) Anand, who graduated from Loyola College of the University of Madras in Chennai, India, held the world title from 2000-02 and then again from 2007-13. Vishy continues to be competitive in chess and serves as a role model of intellectual brilliance coupled with a humble and service-oriented sensibility.
Viswanathan (Vishy) Anand, an alumnus of Loyola College in Chennai, India and a five-time world chess champion (above), contemplates his next move. Photo courtesy of The Indian Express.
Fordham University in New York City has a strong chess history. In 1954, Fordham’s chess team won the prestigious Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. One of the team’s best players was Anthony Saidy, a longstanding International Chess Master, a retired physician and a renowned author. During Saidy’s leadership of the Fordham chess team, it was one of the strongest in the nation. After graduating from Fordham, Saidy attended medical school at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He continued to play competitive chess and, in 1960, won the Canadian Chess Open. That same year he was a member of the U.S. team that won the World Student Team Championship held in Leningrad, USSR. As a physician, Saidy served with the Peace Corps and then devoted his medical career to public service as a tuberculosis specialist for the Los Angeles County Health Department.
After leading the Fordham University Chess Team to the 1954 Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, Anthony Saidy (above-left) continued to play competitively. In 1965, Saidy faced world champion Bobby Fischer in the U.S. Chess Tournament in New York City. Photo courtesy of Alamy Inc.
Continuing with the example of Fordham University, we can find in its mission statement some parallels of Jesuit education in the process, goals and cross-cultural connections called for in competitive chess.
“The University seeks to foster in all its students lifelong habits of careful observation, critical thinking, creativity, moral reflection and articulate expression. In order to prepare citizens for an increasingly multicultural and multinational society, Fordham University seeks to develop in its students an understanding of and reverence for cultures and ways of life other than their own.”
These values are echoed in different ways in the mission statements of Jesuit institutions across the world.
In various ways, chess promotes and advances these stated mission goals for all of our students. It is hoped that chess, as a vehicle for intellectual challenge and creativity, and as a mechanism to connect across cultures, religions, and languages, will continue to be a valued component of Jesuit school chess clubs and scholastic competitions across campuses internationally.
Joseph G. Ponterotto is a professor in the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University and is the author of A Psychobiography of Bobby Fischer.
The featured cover photo (above) is courtesy of Benjamin Dunkle, an associate professor of Digital Media Arts and Integrated Marketing Communication at Canisius College.