Inmates: checkmate

Every semester for the past three years, members of the Princeton Chess Club have met with burglars, kidnappers, rapists and murderers for a morning of chess.

On Friday, Brandon Ashe GS '04, Sam Benen '07, Aaron Pixton '08, and Josh Weinstein '09 took on 61 inmates at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton and suffered only two losses.

The event originated in 2000, when Doug Forrester, the Republican candidate in the recent New Jersey gubernatorial election and founder of BeneCard Services, a prescription drug distributor, invited Jude Acres, a chess player from New Orleans, to play 15 inmates of the New Jersey State Prison.

In 2002, BeneCard sponsored the first of what has become a biannual chess match between Princeton students and the prisoners. Students play 15 to 20 inmates simultaneously, rotating boards.

"Did you notice the inmates weren't as hostile this time?" John Marshall, Chief Actuary of BeneCard, asked the four University chess players and fellow BeneCard member Jon Forster over a post-match lunch at Lorenzo's in Trenton.

Students agreed that over the course of several years, the prisoners and the University students have begun to warm up to each other.

"They know who we are, so we have a rapport," Benen said. "They remember us. One of the guys ... always requests me."

Inmate Carl Gooding has asked for Benen since they first played at a bracket tournament sponsored by Sports Illustrated.

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Relations have not been so amiable in the past. "There was something of a standoff last time," Benen explained.

During the last event, several of the games remained close until near the end of the recreation period, and prisoners began to feel rushed. Benen sensed their annoyance.

This time, however, students and inmates managed to fit in a second round of games and avoid tension.

"Aaron [Pixton] sliced through his guys ... [he] was finished in an hour and a half," Marshall said, even though Pixton played the most inmates at one time.

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Pixton is ranked one of the top 50 chess players in the United States and is a senior master. The other students have a number of titles under their belts as well. Ashe is a national master, and Benen won two high school championships.

The boys' talent is well known at the prison. Weinstein recalled overhearing an inmate say, "Make sure you lose at least one, or we're not letting you leave."

Despite the increasing familiarity at the prison, however, the students still feel intimidated.

Marshall described playing "a blindfold game," in which one player faces away from the board and has a third person stand in to describe the opposition's moves. It is difficult to concentrate "when you're looking out at fifty murderers with your back to the board," Marshall said.

This is especially true, he said, because "Trenton State is where the worst of the worst wind up."

But during the chess match, "Everybody's equal, for four hours anyway," Marshall said.

"Then we go back to class, and they go back to jail," Benen added.

The inmates returned to jail, however, with 12 new books on chess. Most were given away as prizes, but several fell into the hands of "other mean-looking guys," Marshall said, with whom it was difficult to argue. The inmates also got to keep the 70 chess boards that BeneCard supplied for the event.

The prison's collection of chess books and chessboards has grown quite extensive over the years and is used by the prison's chess club.