'Chess guy' spreads gift for the game

Anthony Winn was a 13-year-old checkers whiz when he took on a chess whiz his own age and lost.

The other player knew the principles of chess. Winn knew only how to move the pieces around on the board.

It changed his life.

Understanding how he'd been defeated made chess more than a game for Winn. It became a cause.

Today, he sees chess as a way to do nothing less than transform his community.

"I believe the world outside of our being is based on our structure --or lack of structure --of thought development," he said. "If we have just physical sport in our community, what's happening to the brain?

"We have to develop thinking. By teaching them chess, I'm teaching them to think things through, to weigh alternatives."

Winn, who moved to Wichita, Kans., from Topeka in 2000, has set up clinics here, taught in afterschool programs, worked with high school chess clubs, and this spring opened the William Sanders Independent World Chess Championship center in Wichita.

Winn said he has taught 600 to 900 kids in Wichita and has produced young competitors who have won state tournaments.

On Wednesday, Winn will challenge students, parents and staff at South High in a simultaneous chess match.

At 6-foot-5, he cuts a notable figure. When people see him coming, they hail him as "the chess guy."

This summer, Winn returned to competitive chess, playing in tournaments around the county to raise money for the center and to show his students how the principles of chess are applied in action.

He already has written a book detailing "My 26 Best Games" in competition against other professional chess players and a couple of computers.

Winn said he is self-taught, with much of his learning coming in jail.

After losing his first chess game at age 13, he was intrigued by the game, and got into it. But he gave it up because he couldn't see a future in it.

In his late teens, Winn said, he joined the street life in Topeka and began getting in trouble, committing robberies.

He characterizes that part of his life as "being stupid, partying, joy riding, trying to get money to party, to get high. The 'hood' thing."

Winn, 47, was in and out of prison until his 40s.

But he had plenty of time to read up on chess, and he began to realize that if he was going to do anything with his life, he needed to get back into the game.

"Once I realized there was more to this than just moving pieces, that there were actually principles that reflect life, then I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life," Winn said.

After moving to Wichita, he started a chess center in Pawnee Plaza, then hooked up with William Sanders, father of football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders, to establish the center on Volutsia.

It opened in March, but closed this summer while he traveled to tournaments. It will reopen soon, Winn said.

Rent and utilities are paid by donations. Membership fees help pay for equipment.

Winn thanked the North Wichita Optimist Club, the Downtown Lions Club and Rusty Eck Ford for donating funds and helping him put on events.

Winn sells his book for $20, or $15 if people buy more than one. It is part of his effort to raise awareness about chess in the community.

He considers himself an ambassador of the game, a guy who wants to "disturb the peace," as he puts it, to get the message to parents that the values of chess can help kids, and the earlier the better.

"My sport can't survive if I don't open my mouth," Winn said. "I think ultimately it will change the structure of the community in which I dwell."