Russell Davis, 24, learned to play chess in jail.

Now, the inmate at the Howard County Detention Center, facing an armed robbery charge, is hoping the game will help keep him out of jail in the future.

"It reflects life," Davis said of chess. "If you can learn to get over some of the obstacles on a chess board, you can get over some of the obstacles in life."

Davis has a simple explanation for why he is in jail: "Wrong place, wrong time, wrong people," he said.

Now, stuck in his cell, Davis plays the game every day with other inmates, he said.

"It forces you to think in difficult situations, you can't just react," Davis said.

He is aided in his study of the game by officials at the detention center, who in April began a chess program for prisoners in the maximum security wing.

Jack Kavanagh, director of the Howard County Detention Center, said prisoners in the maximum security wing have limited recreation opportunities because they're confined to their cells most of the time. Providing them with a game like chess focuses their minds and keeps them from causing trouble, he said.

"You've got to provide some activities here," Kavanagh said. "If not, they'll start their own activities and sometimes it's not what you want."

The advantage of chess is that it teaches reasoning and planning skills to the inmates, Kavanagh said.

"Basically it focuses them in on a game that requires strategy (and) thinking -- constructive thinking," Kavanagh said.

Chess a communication tool

The program began in April when Carolyn Young, a counselor and classification administrator at the jail, decided that the maximum security prisoners, in jail for violent crimes, had little to do.

She also saw the game as a useful communication tool, she said.

"I find that some people who never talk to each other, when they play chess, talk to each other," she said.

Young brought in a chess coach she knew from her church. He taught at the jail briefly and then recommended Ken Clayton, 70, of Columbia, as his replacement. Clayton is a master level chess player who previously taught chess in jail settings and as far afield as Vietnam.

Clayton began teaching at the county jail in June and now teaches a class every two weeks in the jail's library.

On a recent Thursday, Clayton walked the 11 prisoners in the class through a basic chess opening, showing them strategy and tactics that develop over the course of a game. He introduced them to the theories of Paul Morphy, a 19th century master who learned to develop his pieces quickly into lethal attacking arrangements.

The prisoners sat quietly during the 90-minute class, watching Clayton as he demonstrated the moves on a display board attached to an easel. Clayton also played two simultaneous games with two prisoners, pointing out errors in their games as they played.

Clayton said he volunteers at the jail to help the players turn their lives around.

"These guys made a mistake, they're going to have to pay for it, but they deserve a chance to do something differently," he said.

Jeremiah Lewis, 21, who was in jail on a violation of probation charge, said he had learned chess in school but was beginning to master the game through Clayton's lessons.

"It helps me use my brain more. I won't be so quick to lash out," Lewis said of the class.

Lewis, who was released from jail Aug. 7, said he plans on pursuing the game further.

"I've got to buy me a board, one of those fancy ones with see-through pieces," he said.

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