Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Navy Times

Navy officer playing in NATO chess tournament

Lt. Cmdr. Paul Choate tries not to let little things, like his deployment last year to Iraq, get in the way of his chess game.

Even as Choate served as an individual augmentee in Baghdad, in charge of a facility that installed roadside-bomb jamming equipment on Army vehicles, he played the soldiers he was with, or contractors, or anybody else who wanted a game.

“When you’re a chess nut like me, not playing in tournaments doesn’t mean I haven’t been studying and analyzing grandmaster games,” Choate said. “I’ll play anyone.”

He was able to tear himself away from the game enough to be awarded a Bronze Star for cutting down the time needed to install the jamming gear: from two hours to under 45 minutes.

Still, the spare-time preparation paid off: After reporting to his latest job at Fleet Readiness Center Southwest at Naval Air Station North Island, Calif., Choate qualified to give the Navy its lone spot on the U.S. military chess team, which is flying next month to Belgium for the annual NATO Chess Championships. He, one team member from the Army, one from the Marine Corps and three from the Air Force, will play military chess teams from 16 NATO allies, including Great Britain, Germany and France.

The American players have their work cut out for them, Choate said — no U.S. team has ever won the NATO Chess Championship. The Americans did finish second in 2002, with a team that included Choate’s only other trip to the tourney; he was stationed aboard the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis at the time.

This year, as every year, the team to beat is Germany, which has consistently finished at the top of the standings since the first official NATO tourney in 1989.

With an “expert” rating of 2,100 from the U.S. Chess Federation, Choate is one of the most accomplished players in the Navy. This is thanks, he said, to constant play since he was about 12. He had his rating even before he enlisted in the Navy in 1986, he said, and played for his 10 years as an enlisted sailor before getting his commission. But Choate said he hasn’t played in a tournament since 2004, partly because he has been moved around by different deployments and partly because he likes to give up-and-coming players a chance.

“If I played every year, I’d block somebody from having the opportunity to go do something unique,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of good deals, so, every now and then you should let some new players in, give them an opportunity.”

Choate pointed to two players he admires: Russian grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, a 77-year-old product of the old Soviet chess system that dominated the game throughout the 20th century; and 17-year-old Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen, one of the top-ranked players in the world. Korchnoi is “dynamic and aggressive,” Choate said, and Carlsen is “very courageous. He fights to the death every time.”

But even though Choate said he is looking forward to his trip to Belgium with the U.S. team, he is just as eager to get to the next phase of his Navy career, an assignment aboard the amphibious assault ship Makin Island. The game is important, Choate said, but it comes second.

“I’ve always tried to be a good military officer rather than have people say, ‘oh, he’s just a guy who plays chess.’”