The First Prison World Chess Championships in Wandsworth Prison!

I currently volunteer for a charity called chess in schools and communities. They are a charity with the mission to provide chess tuition and equipment for schools and communities across the UK. If you wish to support this venture please visit this page: www.chessinschools.co.uk. Without them, this experience would not be possible. 

On a sunny Tuesday morning I began my journey towards the South of London. I normally get a little nervous before competing in chess events but today I felt an emotion that was unlike anything I had previously experienced. The whole night before was very sleepless. I tossed and turned contemplating my mortality. What if something happens to me? What if I get seriously hurt today? Nonetheless I was excited at the opportunity to be part of one of the most ambitious projects I have ever been associated with. Volunteering at the first (ever) World Prison Chess Championships!

A poster created by the inmates to advertise that they were competing in the world prison chess championships!

That day I was travelling to Wandsworth Prison, a prison for male inmates in England. The prison stood like as historic monument to a bygone age of prison architecture and reform. First built in 1851, its clinical Victorian cream coloured corridors and brightly coloured blue doors, which housed its inmates, previously were resident to some of the most dangerous criminals in the UK. Notable alumni included; Charles Bronson, one of Britain's most notorious (and voilent) prisoners of all time, Ronnie Kray (one of the Kray twins) a criminal kingpin for one of the biggest East London gangs and Ronnie Biggs (who ended up escaping the prison till he was captured in 2001) one of the members of "The Great Train Robbery" to name but a few people... Wandsworth is one of the largest prisons in the UK, and remains an iconic traditional archetype for the British prison system. Footage from the prison was used for the infamous British sitcom "Porridge" and it also had a cameo in the Stanley Kubrick film "A Clockwork Orange" (the prison also featured in the book). The prison has the dubious reputation of being the site of 135 executions in its old Gallows (the last hanging taking place in 1961) and being the national holding stock of cat o' nine tails, a type of corporal punishment which involved a whip dishing out plenty of pain to inmates - thankfully banned in 1954.

An aerial view of Wandsworth Prison

Each cell was tiny and claustrophobic with pure white walls entrapping its inhabitants. Communication between prison guards and prisoners were carried out by moving a small flap at the front of the door, no bigger than a4 piece of paper. Their windows, small, gated up, provide a dreadful view of the other wings and the colossal fences that deterred any would be escapees. According to the main prison chess organiser, whom I was helping, depending on circumstances, prisoners could spend up to 22 hours inside cells.

A harrowing view of the prison from a BBC mini documentary

The five of us, the volunteers, stood in the centre of the prison. The prison had a Panopticon design, an idea first fronted by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham. The idea of the prison is that each wing is observed by a central control area where a prison guard will be able to observe all inmates with ease - Thus deterring inmates from committing any offences. A few minutes pass and the anticipation for meeting our chess team to represent England grew. One the volunteers was none other than Carl Portman, the manager of Chess in Prisons in England and author of the acclaimed book: "Chess behind Bars" which discussed his experiences of teaching chess in prisons.

A must read book before entering into prisons

Even for Carl, Wandsworth prison was a surreal experience. "I couldn't imagine being locked up in this prison" he said, "I think I would go stir crazy." Carl claimed to have worked in around 34 prisons across the UK. If he was getting goosebumps, what chance did I have!

A view of a corridor in Wandsworth

Finally, the prisoners began to trickle down the stairs. I fully expected to see 4 guys with fully shaved heads, scars and tattoos all over their faces and bodies, and large bulging muscled arms capable of snapping you like a twig. Instead I was surprised. On first appearances, it looked like 4 regular blokes (chessplayers even!). To avoid awkwardness, I immediately went to shake each of their hands and introduced myself. Immediately, the tension that I had built up over the course of the day had evaporated. These were just four very keen chess enthusiasts who just so happened to be entombed in prison.

As we walked to the library, one of the players was asking questions about getting certain chess literature on chess opening traps. In his hand, he carried a very tattered and tired chess tactics book, clearly a book which had seen a high demand amongst the prison population. Although I was unsure about what resources these prisoners had in this particular prison, I could imagine their ability to get hold of chess literature, apart from the monthly English Chess Federation magazine, being rather difficult. I was informed (although could be wrong) although volunteers could bring books in, they were not allowed to donate books as they were contraband to the UK prison system due to the potential of containing detrimental language:

One example of a chess opening book too dangerous for prisoners!

We arrived at the library where the event was being run. The library, although quite small and space restrictive, had a small meeting area with 6 computers surrounding the perimeter of the room. We set up our boards and our computers to play. The matches were a four board match with 15 minutes for each player (no increment). Unfortunately for our inmates, the prisoners were not allowed to access the internet at all. This was due to safety concerns around prisoners potentially contacting their victims over a social media platform. Each player had their own chess.com account, special accounts where all chat functions had been disabled. Unlike other prisons, it was us, the volunteers, who had to manually input all their moves. This put us at an immense disadvantage compared to other teams. In the 15 minute time control, there would always be a delay of around five seconds for us to play their desired moves. Pre-moves were impossible to do. This meant if the game reached an endgame, which happened quite frequently as prison players liked to play till a checkmate was reached, we could potentially end up flagging games where we may have been in a totally winning position.

A rough diagram of how we had to play the games online

Despite this set-up, in a 5 minute practice game with a random 1200 rated chess.com player, my board (board 4) would quickly dismantle his opponent delivering a checkmate in only 25 moves. I was excited by this prospect. My player had a highly aggressive attacking style, unphased and unnerved by complicated positions. However, in a practice game with myself he struggled against my solid QGD pawn structure, got flustered, and ended up blundering in the middle-game. He was great at getting his pieces out to good squares in the opening. However, if there was no clear attacking chances, struggled to formulate a robust middle-game plan (a problem shared by most players at around 1400 ELO).

In our warm-up before the match, I gave him a quick lesson on making plans in the middle-game but before I could show him anything, it was time to play our first opponent, Italy! 

Italy had a well structured chess program in their prison. Each of their classes was run by an italian FIDE master Mirko Trasciatti. Like us however, they weren't performing too well in this particular tournament and were sat near the bottom of the table.