Episode 2: The Empire Strikes Back

[Note: Yes, I know Empire is technically Episode 5, but cut me some slack and allow me a bit of literary license. Besides, I've found it impossibly difficult to explain to my son that the first film released is now called Episode 4 while Episode 1 was the fourth film in the series.]

GM Larry Evans has fired back in the battle over whether the Oak Mountain Intermediate School in Shelby County, Alabama bans chess. As you may recall, Larry made this assertion in an earlier Chess Life column. Our very own J'adoube, finding the story implausible, did some research which he believed debunked Larry's contention. He penned a letter, a portion of which was printed in the December issue of Chess Life under the title "Evans' Mistaken?"

Now in the February issue GM Evans counters:

I'm glad that the principal of the Oak Mountain Intermediate School in Shelby County, Alabama, doesn't object to playing chess there outside of class hours. I reported the banning incident in my syndicated newspaper column well before she took over in October 1998, so perhaps she wasn't aware of it.

In 1998 Andrew@see.sig wrote on the Net: "Last year [1997] my kid's intermediate school principal forbade holding chess tournaments on the school's premises on the grounds that it was 'too competitive and does not foster the appropriate spirit commensurate with school principles.' The school also dissolved its newly-created chess club. Mind you, these were 9- to 11-year-olds trying to learn something new. Our son Trey came in second in his peer group at the State Scholastic Championship and did most of his training on the Internet Chess Club and Yahoo games."

I can't wait for Episode 3: Return of the J'adoube-i.