CHESS UNDER THE TREES
On a warm evening in almost any park in the town of Westbrook, you will find small groups of people gathered around stone tables, quietly watching two players. Ten years ago, there was not a single chess table in the town's parks. Today there are forty-two, and at weekends it is hard to find a free one. The tables are popular with people of all ages, but they have become especially important for older residents. Many of them live alone, and the tables give them a reason to leave the house every day and a place where conversation starts easily, even between strangers.(lines 1–6)
Using the tables costs nothing, and nobody needs to book one in advance. Players can bring their own pieces or borrow a set from a box kept at the café nearest to each park. The project is run by a team of about thirty volunteers, most of them retired. Every week they check the boxes and replace any pieces that have gone missing. On Sunday mornings they also teach the rules to beginners, and each spring they hold a friendly tournament in which children and grandparents often end up playing against each other.(lines 7–12)
The idea came from Daniel Marsh, a retired history teacher. In 2013 he traveled to Spain to spend a month with his daughter, who had just moved to Seville for work. During his stay, in a shady square in the old city, he came across a sight he had never seen at home: retired men and teenagers sitting side by side at stone tables with chessboards painted on top, laughing and arguing over their games. Back in Westbrook, Marsh suggested building similar tables in the local parks. However, it was three years before the first one appeared, because the town council had to make sure that the heavy tables would not damage the roots of the old trees. It finally opened beside the lake in the town's main park, and within a month it was busy every evening.(lines 13–20)
Dr. Ruth Levin, a psychologist who studies aging, is not surprised by the project's success. "Board games keep the brain active, but that is only part of the story," she says. "Loneliness can be as harmful to older people's health as smoking. A chess table in a park brings people together without making anyone feel that they are being helped." One regular player, 79-year-old Peter Collins, knows this well. For a long time he spent most days alone in his apartment. "My doctor told me to go for walks," he says, "but walking alone wasn't enough. I come here because at the tables I'm a man with friends again, not just an old man."(lines 21–27)