A child's games are sugar-coated lessons in socializing. You learn to help the kid next to you, join the group sprint toward adolescence, be a part of the machinery of community -- as if life were mainly about teamwork. A chess child learns different lessons: that life is war by other means and that you must fight it alone, with all your wiles and no compassion.
Then again, it could be just a game -- a wonderfully complex game that absorbs a child without consuming him. "You can be competitive in chess," says teacher Bruce Pandolfini, "and still be a healthy,...
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