E. St. Louis Sr. Chess – 1978
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Craig Preston highlighted in the E. St. Louis Senior Chess Club photo.
There is a lot of hidden history in chess. Many stories often go untold because no one sees the importance of documenting obscure events. Recently, I was surfing the web looking for information on NM Howard Daniels and came across a webpage with an article copied from The Chess Drum. It was Gregory Kearse’s article titled, “A LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE: A Brief History of Black Chess Masters in America.” The poster received feedback Craig Preston using the pseudonym “Curtis Metcalf” from E. St. Louis (Illinois). He posted the following message,
When I was in high school, the East St. Louis Senior High School chess team (read all-black) dominated the greater St. Louis metropolitan area. That team finished second in the state of Illinois in 1978.
I remember there being strong black teams from the Philadelphia area around the same time. I also remember some teams from New York doing well. (see page)
The question is… where are these players now and why did they give up chess?
Excellent story. I am continually impressed with your love for the game! Keep the beat going!
It is unfortunate that many of students on scholastic teams do not continue to play. I recently looked up some of my old players on my best elementary team in 2002 and none had gone on to play any more tournaments since 5th grade, however their were several white players that they played against during that 2002 year and beat that were winning adult touraments now or achieving high ratings. It shows that the gap in chess ability deals more in continued training and support more than any group’s inherent intellectual ability. Furthermore, I believe that chess like a good vitamin can help stop social ills that plague black youth maybe it is time that Chicago reinvest more in chess than in assault weapons for their police force.
Mr. Shabazz, it an honor that you responded to my letter, I truly respect the work you have done here in the chess drum.
On a further note I tried to look up the original article by Gregory Kearse about Black Chessmasters from July 1998 in my collection of Chess Life’s but of the 8 1998 copies I have the July is missing. Since I had the 1998 September issue I thought it would be interesting to see who responded to the Black Chessmaster article and lo and behold it was you. Your letter was very illuminating, I didn’t know you were a junior state champion in chess whose academic ambitions slowed your progress, that was deep, I thought you were just a professor who loved chess. So in a spiritual twist you had already answered my above response 10 years ago in that letter.
I am positive that the person identified in the picture is Craig Preston. I was a member of the East St. Louis Chess team from 1979 to 1981. The mystique surround this team was incredible. We’d have most of the matches won before we even started the games. The toughest competition usually took place at practice.
I forgot to add. Playing chess for East Side was about pride and brotherhood. It was my opportunity to show white students, particuarlly those who thought we lacked discipline, that I was just as capable as any of them. Once we graduated, the need to prove myself became less of an issue and chess became less enjoyable.
Wonderful feed!, I see yall got the old school Dr.J wigs! Mr. Floyd thanks for sharing and being there!!! Peace.
Blast from the past reading this article. I played against these East St. Louis teams from 1978 thru 1981 for Edwardsville Highschool. As I recall 1978 was the high point for those East St. Louis teams. From 1979 thru 1981 the Edwardsville started becoming the dominant team from the St. Louis Metro Area. We finished 8th in 1979 at the Illinois state championships, 5th in 1980, and due to the National Highschool tournament being the same weekend as the Illinois State tournament in 1981, we decide to go to nationals and placed 3rd beat only by Stuyvesant out of New York, led by a kid named Joel Benjamin. In my humble opinion I believe had we played state that year we would have had an excellent change of winning it. Yes, I remember the East st.louis players, the Blackwell brothers, Ingram, Preston, Crisp, Spells, etc. and their coach William Grossball. They were a formidable bunch and we always loved the challenge to play them.