He didn't even have to say checkmate. I looked down at the board, realized I could save myself for only one more move and shook his hand. He knew he had me beat long before I figured it out. Realistically, I was probably beat before I even sat down.
Richard Wang, an 11-year-old chess master, put his skills on display at the St. Albert Community Hall this past Sunday. He took on eight players as part of a games day hosted by the St. Albert Community League.
I was the first of the eight players to lose and Wang was exacting in his assessment of my performance.
"Well, you ignored development. You had to get your pieces out first, which you didn't."
At the end of our brief game, I held two of Wang's pawns and one bishop, he had three of my pawns, my queen, two knights, a bishop, a rook and of course my king.
Wang has being playing chess since he was four years old and treats it as a real contest.
"It is also considered a sport but you don't actually have to move and get sweaty."
Walking briskly around the room, Wang started with the same first move on each board, but was quickly playing eight very separate games. In a little over an hour all of his challengers were either defeated or had resigned.
He said playing eight games was harder than one, but he kept focused.
"I was sort of thinking of the game over there, but mostly I was just taking it one game at a time."
Highly ranked
The title chess master is granted according to an international ratings system, which awards points for wins in sanctioned tournaments; a recognized master must have 2,200 points. Wang has 2,271.
Russian World Champion Garry Kasparov held the highest rating ever at 2,851, and was famous for his loss to IBM's Deep Blue.
Globally, only around 17,000 people have ever obtained that total.
Wang's father Zhixiang Wang, a professor at the University of Alberta, said his son first started playing with the board at age four, but really got interested at six.
At an international tournament last year he took a bronze medal. He has won both provincial and national tournaments.
With his pride brimming over, Zhixiang said his son just gradually kept increasing his skill.
"He became one of the best players in the province for his age and then he became one of the best nationally and now he is among the best internationally."
He said his son has been consuming information and strategy about the game since he started playing.
"We have bought a lot of chess books for him. We have over a hundred books."
Low attendance
Deanne Doucette, a vice president with the community league, said they were excited to have Wang at the centre of their games day.
Sunday was the second games day the group has held and is part of the league's efforts to boost membership.
The league primarily looks after the St. Albert Community Hall on Perron Street, a facility that will soon need some upgrades.
He said they had hoped more people would attend.
"Both of these events were very lightly attended and that was a disappointment of course."
The first games day in March also featured a chess challenge where players took on an adult chess master.
He said he is confident future events can be more successful if the league can just reach the right people.
"If we think there are probably 4,000 people in St. Albert who can play a decent game of chess, then we need to get more of those people out."
