Fifth-grader is no 'rook'ie

As his fingers grasp the pieces, Chad Speer's mind is working overtime. He deftly sets up the board precisely as it was three days ago, then moves the pieces exactly as the final moves in the game unfolded.

Then he's on to the second board on the table. From memory, he finishes another game that took place days ago, recounting every single move. On the third board, an elegant Stars and Stripes board, Speer demonstrates a two-move checkmate he uses on unsuspecting opponents.

Speer is always thinking strategy several moves in advance, like a good war general formulating a battle plan.

"You have to play defense until your offense gets there," Speer said. "And you have to control the middle part of the board."

Unlike most decorated war generals, however, Speer hasn't finished elementary school yet. He's a 10-year-old chess champ who can dominate just about anybody he sits across from, regardless of their age.

He picked up the game from his mother when he was three, and within a year or two, he was beating his dad regularly.

Now, his parents don't stand a chance and, according to his mother, his grandpa "has to find excuses not to play Chad."

Last weekend, Speer finished second in his division and first among all fifth-graders in the state at the Alaska K-12 Scholastic Chess Championship. It was his first organized competition, and he played five matches, dominating four of them.

During the scholastic event, Speer also played in an exhibition match against Bryan Smith, a Chess Master and the top-ranked player in Alaska. Smith simultaneously played more than 20 students during the exhibition.

While some of the students were eliminated in 10 minutes, Speer held his own and played Smith for two hours. He was the last student to be eliminated.

"I thought I had him once," Speer said. "I was going in for a checkmate, and I realized too late that I should have brought my king up. You can't make that mistake playing against somebody like him."

Speer played as technically a sound game as he could against Smith.

"My father had the game on a hand-held computer behind him, and every move Chad made was the move the computer recommended," said his mother, Pam Speer. "But the problem was Bryan made the exact moves the computer suggested, too."

Perfect moves come with plenty of experience, and despite only being 10, Speer has it. He plays whenever he can, including against himself when nobody else is available.

"He has an LED game he'll bring to the restaurant when we go out to eat and everything," Pam Speer said. "This kid is always playing."

Speer said he probably plays at least 30 games a week, against other kids his age and adults. He rarely loses. Mostly, he's self-taught -- he has a Chessmaster 9000 computer game he studies regularly, and he reads as many chess books as he can.

"At the tournament, one of the parents of one of Bryan Smith's students asked who his coach was, and they couldn't believe he didn't have one," Pam Speer said. "He's done it all himself."

Speer hasn't received an official ranking, yet, but he presumes that after last weekend's tournament, he'll have 1,143 points in his ranking, which qualifies as "premier" with the U.S. Chess Federation. When those rankings become official, it will put him approximately among the top 125 players in the country.

Speer said he just loves to play chess, and he'll keep playing until it stops being fun.

"I never thought I'd go as far as I have," Speer said. "But I really like it, and it's a fun game."

While some kids his age roll coins and save their allowances for toys, Speer buys something else -- chess boards.

The Stars and Strips board set him back $275 of his hard-earned money, but it was exactly what he wanted to spend his money on.

"I saw it and liked it, so I saved my money for it," he explained.

His family has seven or eight chess sets, Speer said, and it has turned into a collection of sorts for the family. Some of the sets are "new age" looking, while others are like the Stars and Stripes board -- colorful marble with crystal figures.