Friday, January 19, 2007

Using human chess to help the local economy

From "Live chess tourney proposed" at The Beacon:
...a Stockton businessman.... Fred Strackhouse plans to set up a human chess tournament on squares marked off in the parking lot of his Stockton Inn to help the town's businesses get over the winter slump.

High school students will move around the board as life-size pawns, knights, rooks, queens, kings and bishops. Participating schools would appoint their own respective chess masters to direct the moves of the "game pieces." Possibly they'll be costumed or wear their school colors or hold an emblem of the game piece they represent....

He is working out a plan to coordinate a months-long elimination tournament featuring schools from Bucks, Hunterdon and Mercer counties. If it works, he says he believes the weeknight games could be a boost for local businesses in the quieter winter months.
Does standing around a parking lot in New Jersey at night in the middle of winter dressed up like a chess piece sound like fun to you?

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