Frank Haight: Local author returns to children's series on chess

Duane Porter and chess have been inseparable since his father introduced the royal game to him as a youngster.

It didn’t take long for him to become enthralled with the kings, queens, knights, bishops, rooks and pawns that occupied his game board. As Duane honed his skills in moving the 16 chess pieces across the checkerboard and checkmating his opponent’s king, his passion for the thought-provoking game surged.

Hooked on chess and desirous for his classmates to get caught up in the game, too, Duane was instrumental in starting a chess club while a student at Hickman High School in Columbia, Mo.

His infatuation for chess didn’t end there. Years later, he was inspired to write his first fantasy novel, “Charlie and the Chess Set.” In this children’s adventure story, 12-year-old Charlie Noble magically enters the world of chess and learns about the game from each of the giant board pieces.

“Lots of people like the game of chess and want their kids to learn chess because it helps improve math scores and school grades, in general,” says the award-winning Blue Springs author, who penned his first novel in 2007 as a teaching adventure for fourth, fifth and sixth graders.

In “Charlie and the Chess Set,” fantasy and adventure lead the way to “historical and magical wonders,” Duane explains, as it does in his recently published sequel, “The Seirawan Factor.” Published by Buried Treasure Publishing. The soft-cover book sells for $12.99 and can be purchased from BuriedTreasurePublishing.com or Amazon.com.

In the recently published sequel, Charlie is two years older when he scores a come-from-behind victory over his arch rival, Hannah York, in the Midtown Junior Chess Tournament.

As a teenager, now, Charlie is more serious about chess and seeks perfection as a player. On the other hand, Duane says, Hannah plays by the seat of her pants, makes risky moves and takes gambles that Charlie won’t take.

“She is a good player but doesn’t think the way (Charlie) thinks.”

Following the tournament, Charlie and Hannah prepare to lock horns again in a side room. However, before play continues, something strange happens. The white king in the old magical set of Charlie’s father’s summons both Charlie and Hannah. And once again, they are sucked into the land of jumbo chess pieces.

“So now Charlie has this girl with him who doesn’t think like he does, and they have to work together to resolve their differences and figure out this Seirawan chess,” Duane says, explaining Charlie has no clue Hannah likes him.

Now they must face the unknown, find a way to deal with their own differences, ensure the game of chess remains safe and unravel the mystery of the new strange chess pieces wandering the land – the hawk, who moves as a combination bishop-knight; the elephant, who moves as a combination rook-knight.

“These ancient chess pieces continue to be revived by grandmasters past and present who prefer over-the-board play above memorization and computer-tested lines,” Duane explains, adding the sequel introduces Seirawan chess, which Yasser Seirawan, a chess grandmaster and four-time U.S. chess champion, and Bruce Harper, a close friend and FIDE master, invented in 2007.

Seirawan begins like a conventional chess game and is played on an 8-by-8 board using all the normal rules of chess. According to the rules, when a player first moves a piece from the back row, that player has the option of placing the hawk or elephant on the vacated squares. A player has eight opportunities to bring the hawk and elephant into play off the board.

Duane, who also wrote a trilogy – “Molly O’Malley and the Leprechaun,” “Molly O’Malley: Rise of the Changeling” and “Molly O’Malley and the Pirate Queen” – hopes readers of the sequel will experiment with Seirawan chess. He suggests they purchase some pieces, play some games, learn to play over the board and use their own intuition rather than relying on memorization.

“I want life to be fun for them,” Duane says. “I want them to learn more about the history of chess and to be educated in that, as well as taking life with a bit more optimism.”

Most of all, though, he wants to encourage kids everywhere to enjoy reading.

Says Duane: “There is no more important thing to unlock new minds or old minds than to get a book. I think that in terms of being very successful that I need to concentrate on just not writing books, but getting the message out through speaking as a Toastmaster.”

Duane plans to promote “The Seirawan Factor” at numerous book signings this year, beginning on Memorial Day at the Liberty (Mo.) Art Squared, followed in June at the Twain on Main Festival in Hannibal, Mo., and then the Blue Springs Fall Fun Fest in September. He will offer discount prices at these book signings.

Are there any more children’s books in the future?

“Absolutely,” Duane says, explaining he has already started on his next fantasy adventure entitled, “Stanley Bristol, Werewolf for Hire.”

“I have written part of the first chapter,” he says of the children’s novel about a young man bitten by a werewolf in Victorian England. “But instead of letting this terrible werewolf disease overcome and control him, he’s going to use his enhanced powers of strength, smell, sight and hearing to try to become the world’s greatest detective.”

Although a werewolf, Stanley is a gentleman. He is cool and collected on the outside, Duane says. But just under the surface, there is a werewolf raging and wanting to control him.

“So he’s going to be dealing with that internal conflict.”

For more information, contact him at DuanePorter@BuriedTreasurePublishing or 816-210-4314.