The life lessons of Chess

They were on the Appalachian Trail when it happened.

Joanne LaJoice had never pulled it off before with her father, but this time was different.

“It was a long day of hiking, and after we set up camp and ate we were relaxing playing a game of chess on a miniature magnetic set,” LaJoice said.

“He was getting older, tired and it was getting harder to see the tiny set in the dimming light. But I could see that I was going to capture his queen. I calculated his next moves and what mine would be.”

LaJoice executed her carefully thought-out plan.

“I got his queen, and shortly after I won the game,” she said.

It wasn’t just any game. LaJoice had never beaten her late father, Tony Jeske, who had taught her how to play chess when she was barely old enough to attend school.

“My husband claims that my dad just wanted to go to bed, so he let me win,” she said.

“Regardless, I’m taking that win and cherishing it.”

Her father loved chess. Multiple shelves of a glass cabinet in their Germantown home stored a dozen chess sets in varied themes, including Roman fighters, Asian figures and stone-carved pieces from Mexico.

“I would take out the sets and play with the pieces — not chess, just play with the characters,” LaJoice said.

When it was game time, LaJoice remembers the trouncings courtesy of Tony.

“My handicap was his queen and a rook at the start of the game. After that, it was a full-on game. He always won,” she said. “I played many games against my dad throughout my life. I learned many life skills, and along the way that it’s OK to be humbled, build confidence and tenacity and still have fun.”

One of her passions over the past two decades has been passing on the passion she developed for the game. LaJoice, a special education teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Port Washington, has been the school’s chess club adviser for the past 22 years and has hosted an annual tournament the past 20.

“Teaching kids to play chess and having a safe space for them to play and to be themselves is a tribute to my dad,” she said.

It turned out to be more than that. Chess is more than a board game. It is just as much an educational tool.

“Chess is a powerhouse for development, strengthening logic and improving memory,” LaJoice said.

She has seen the game help students develop a number of skills over time.

“Chess is about impulse control, not immediate gratification. You have to look before reacting; it helps with classroom and real-life decisions, critical thinking, and accepting your own actions,” she said.

“After all, if you make a bad opening move and lose your queen right away, and you lose the game, it wasn’t because of luck; it was because of the logical choices that you made—no blaming anyone else. You have to visualize several moves ahead. Everything that you and your opponent do has a purpose and an outcome. It improves one’s spatial reasoning and emotional resilience.”

The school’s club offers a unique opportunity.

“Our chess club provides a niche for kids who may or may not fit into the sport, music or art circles. We have over 40 kids who meet every week and play, laugh, and socialize. We’ve had as many as 65 in the beginning years,” LaJoice said.

Players start with the basics, then advance.

“They learn tactics like a fork, a pin and a skewer,” she said. “Beginning game, developing pieces, middle, and end game. Can they see a four-move checkmate coming? You should castle early in the game. Remember, it’s touch-move (if a player touches a piece, they must move it), so sit on your hands and think, learn patience.”

“Our top players easily know (the chess rule) en passant and use it. It’s fun watching the accomplished players strengthen their skills on their own by learning strategy online, going to tournaments and playing with each other in their free time. They are very driven.”

Players have picked up other chess games as well, such as bug house, pawn wars and four-person chess.

LaJoice credited colleagues for help with the club over the years—Ryan Cowen, Kristin Levy and Jenny O’Neil—and high school math teacher Curt Sauer.

The club became so popular that LaJoice expanded it to summer school.

“The elementary-aged kids enjoy it, and then they’re ready to join our club when they start at TJ,” she said.

The school’s annual tournament run through the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation is a highlight and often draws more than 100 students from several schools. The organization has held in-person and virtual tournaments, as well as camps and workshops.

LaJoice wanted to start a chess club as soon as she got into education. She earned a psychology degree from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and worked in that field before moving to Colorado and learned to ski, climb and hike while working at a number of jobs, including as a general contractor and real estate agent.

LaJoice became an outdoors enthusiast who has backpacked on multiple continents, playing chess along the way—six months in New Zealand, three months in Australia, nearly three months in Tibet and one month in Malaysia. She has also rock climbed in Italy.

She moved back to Wisconsin in 1999 and earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education at UW-Milwaukee.

“As soon as I got into teaching, I knew right away that I wanted to have a chess club. Just to be able to teach the kids the game and give them a place to hang out with other like-minded kids. Over the years, I also would teach many of my students how to play.”

LaJoice has passed the game on to her son and stepson. “I didn’t give them a handicap, like my dad did for me, but if I saw a blunder I would point it out and let them start that move again.”

Beyond spreading the joy of chess, LaJoice has another goal. When her father was alive, they were able to thru-hike the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail over six and a half months. Her father, however, broke his ankle in New York State and couldn’t make the last 100 miles.

“I hope to re-hike those final 100 miles and up Mount Katahdin with my dad’s ashes so that he can finish the trail,” LaJoice said.