Arts & Entertainment
VIDEO: Chess Master Challenge Pits 15 vs. 1
Chess master Lou Mercuri played simultaneous chess against more than a dozen challengers during a recent event at the Hamilton-Wenham Library.
Inside the quiet confines of the , there was a war of the minds raging recently as Senior Master Lou Mercuri played simultaneous chess matches with 15 local residents.
Organized as a special event through the library, participants of all ages paid $5 to challenge Mercuri, a Massachusetts Chess Association instructor.
Librarian Rebecca Shea, an active supporter of chess, said she had worked previously with Mercuri at another library and wanted to bring him to Hamilton and Wenham.
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A grant from the Massachusetts Chess Association paid for the chess sets.
"[Mercuri] is just so approachable and he was all about the scholarship aspect of chess," Shea said.
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Sandra Stolle of Wenham teaches chess classes at the local library and the Gloucester and Manchester libraries, mainly to young children.
Stolle just completed a four-week class and plans to offer another class in the fall.
"It is the greatest game," Stolle said. "It teaches you so much about thinking and logic and consequences. If you make a bad move, then what happens? You can't take it back."
