CHESS STRATEGISTS SQUARE OFF IN EXHIBITION

Chess and shopping have little in common, but they have been thrown together this weekend as the Southeast Missouri Chess Club conducts a small tournament and demonstration in West Park Mall.

Exhibition matches demonstrating different forms of chess were held Saturday and will continue today. John Elfrink, event organizer, said players will be holding blind matches, competing against groups of players and working in team matches.

Around the exhibition matches will be some serious chess as participants vie for trophies.

Elfrink said the event was to let interested chess players know there is a place they can go for a weekly match.

"There's a lot of people out there who play chess against their computer, or at home, and don't know of other people to play against," he said. "This is a way to let them know there are people who share their interest."

Elfrink said the six club members meet every Wednesday evening at Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Cape Girardeau.

On Saturday, Waldo Odak, the St. Louis Open champion and expert-level player, challenged nine people to a game -- all at the same time. The boards were arranged on table in a square with the nine contestants sitting on the outside. Odak, 36, prowled the inside of the square going from board to board.

He said he would allow himself up to 10 seconds for each move. Odak asked the players to refrain from making their move until he was watching. He said he didn't think he would have a problem unless he ran into an unexpectedly good player.

"I thought this would be a good way to bring up some interest and to entertain some people," Odak said.

The nine-way match was expected to last about three hours.

Elfrink said demonstrations of blind chess, where a player is only aware of their own move and not their opponent's, and Siamese chess, where teams of two players play against each other, will be demonstrated today.

Matt Seabaugh, who started the chess club less than a year ago, was at the tournament having driven from Paducah, Ky. His wife Rhonda Seabaugh said Matt got his two stepchildren involved in the game and the three of them were competing in the tournament.

Christian Rea, 8, and Natasia Rea, 10, were right in the thick of the tournament Saturday. "My son studies more than Natasia does," Rhonda Seabaugh said. "He watches that movie `Searching for Bobby Fischer' all the time."