Grandpa’s Chess set
Posted on January 17th, 2001 by Ken Witt
My son Jared and I have been playing some chess on these long winter evenings. Jared is eleven. He learned on a plastic set of chess players. But last night I got out Grandpa van’t Slots chess set. It is impressive as well as very sentimental. Grandpa made the board by glueing up squares of walnut and a lighter hardwood. It is in a mitred oak frame. It has a shinny varnish. The wooden chess players are black and hand painted red. The are very chipped and worn. I played chess with Grandpa. Did any of you cousins play? Do any of you still play?
I happened to give my Dad a new computer chess
game for Christmas. He’s a very good player. I
guess that comes from Granpa Van’t Slot. I’m sure
he’s even played on the set you spoke about.
As for me I’m not such a good player. I’d like
to learn, so I think I will be buying myself the
same chess game to practice with. I had some fun
with it over the holidays while I hogged my Dad’s
computer.
Nothing like having a real human opponent though!
Grandpa was known in the neighborhood as a chess player. He usually had a chess board set up in his shoe repair shop. When we moved to the Atlanta area almost 2 years ago now we soon started attending the small CRC church here. Low and behold after a few minutes of Dutch bingo we found out that Jerry Cooper(brother of Rev,Dale at Calvin) new Grandpa as well as my dad. One of his memories of Grandpa was the chess board and in fact Grandpa taught him how to play right there in the shop when Jerry would visit him after school. So I think that more than the cousins may have learned the game from Grandpa.
My recollection about the chess board Ken witt has is that it was made by or the materials were supplied by Ken VanderZwaag of Holland, Michigan. Ken recently retired after many years as head of paint production at Repcolite. At the time Ken was working for Cris Craft in the pattern shop. Ken made a board as a “government project” and dad liked it and asked Ken to make or help make one for him. The “board” dad used most in the shop was made of leather with green and black squares. He folded it and kept it under the counter. One of his most frequent opponents was Duff Wade the manager of the bookstore at Hope College. Duff would stop in for a quick game on his way home for lunch at least once a week. Most games ended with Wade walking out the door silently shaking his head. In the early 1970’s I came across a Urologist who practiced in Irving, Texas and when he heard my name he related his chess learning experiences with Dad.
Note: I’m not really quite the chess player James would make me out to be.