Legendary Chess Coach David MacEnulty Retires

[Ed note: Upon news of his retirement, this remembrance of the legendary career of David MacEnulty comes from fellow chess coach Gary Ryan. MacEnulty is perhaps best known as the coach played by Ted Danson in "Knights of the South Bronx." Many fewer know that he was also the man who led a teacher training course and taught a much younger FunMasterMike how to teach chess.]

If chess players are heroes vanquishing foes and amassing spoils from their exploits, then chess teachers are the unsung heroes upon whose shoulders those heroes stand, and the Oracle the heroes come to that they might hear the future foretold to them in riddles. Certainly for young chess players this is true.

David MacEnulty is perhaps the most important pioneer of getting chess to be a viable curriculum subject worthy of inclusion during the school day.

I talked recently over coffee with David MacEnulty, who retired recently after a successful, storied career teaching chess in New York City. He began at CES 70, a public school in the Bronx, then later at Dalton, a private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

 Before chess, in the 80s, David sold real estate, and was doing fairly well.

“I was certainly making money,” David said. “But one day I realized that helping yet another millionaire secure yet another pied-à-terre wasn’t very satisfying, something had to change.”

During that time he had a friend who he played chess with a lot.

“I learned to play when I was five from my father, but I was never very focused about it.” He added, “With this friend who I now battled back and forth with, we also started reading the same chess books. First my friend read 'My System,' by Aron Nimzowitsch, and he started beating me, so I asked what was up? I bought and read it too, and my games got better.

“Then he read 'Complete Chess Strategy' (three volumes), by Ludek Pachman, and started beating me again, so I asked him what had changed, and he told me. After I read it, of course my games got better again.

“There were other great books after those,” David said. “That was the beginning of really learning about chess for me.” It was also part of the foundation he would later draw upon in his teaching, he added.

Around 1990 his friend Bruce Pandolfini [Ed note: ProfessorPando on ChessKid] asked him to fill in for him teaching chess at a school in the city as part of an outreach program of the Manhattan Chess Club, the precursor to Chess-in-the-Schools. Then sometime later he asked David to fill in for him again.

“I got bit by the bug,” David said, “I wanted to find a way to keep doing this.”

David MacEnulty and his students from The Dalton School, where he taught most recently before his retirement.

 

Lucky for him, a chess teacher position opened up at CES 70 (an elementary school) in the Bronx. While there, he led the team to its first national chess championship, then later to three or four more. He then transitioned into private school teaching at Dalton, where he coached that team to 30 or 40 national championships in various divisions.

Now he’s hanging up his spurs, as it were, but not before I asked him to share his sage advice with the broader community of chess teachers still working down in the trenches.

“The ingredients for a successful chess program are very simple,” he said, “but not always easy to get. You have to have good administrative support from principals and headmasters. With that, you’ll get what you need from the school. Without that, you’re sunk before you begin. Classroom use, permission slips, and budget funds all come from the main office.”

When asked about chess as a regular class offering as opposed to only being offered in after school he said, “Schools that don’t make chess a curriculum course are making a mistake.” Then he added, “Only the school administration can make that happen.”

“Parental support is also key. When parents see that this is good for their children, parental support will follow. With parental support, budget support will follow,” he said.

Winning national titles happened every year for David and his program.

In the Bronx there was little money for the chess program. However, when the CES 70 kids started consistently performing well in top tournaments, parents from private schools who we competed against began contributing to our tournament support fund, because they were so impressed with how our team members comported themselves and played with such determination.

“One year, believe it or not, this happenened...one of the middle school students who the CES 70 kids competed against from Chapin School made it her community service project to raise money for us. Her father who managed a hedge fund gave her his Rolodex, a desk, and a phone. She raised $27,000 for us.”

Because of his own history of being coached badly in school during a short stint senior year in football, David determined early on that if he ever coached anyone one day at anything, he’d be better at it than he was dealt with. “After thinking about how I was treated by that football coach, I think what is also key and essential, is to have a total commitment to your students. You have to support every single child under your care, despite her or his skill-level.”

He also still remembers the gentle encouragement his older brother gave him after making a point-losing error at a state band competition, “It’s okay not to be perfect,” my brother said to me, adding, “Let’s pick it up, and go from here.”

The Dalton School in New York City is also where famous chess player Josh Waitzkin attended. Waitzkin was featured in the Hollywood movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer."

“My goal has always been to turn out top performing teams. But the way you do this is not to pick the best players in a school for your chess team. The way you build a top level team is by focusing on teaching every child who plays chess at your school. Everybody gets a chance. If a kid is willing to put in the work, that kid has earned the right to play and to receive my total support.” Then he added, “I’d rather place midfield in a tough tournament with 30 hard-working kids, instead of winning it all at nationals with only four or five carefully selected whiz kids.”

As an example of this idea playing itself out in the real world, David elaborated:

“Be prepared to be surprised by the last student you would expect to come through. Once, before an important last round game, one of my boys once asked me how I thought he was going to do against a girl from another school rated 300 points above him. I thought for a moment, then said this: 'Well, I’ve seen you solve difficult mates in five, and I’ve seen you hang your queen. It all depends upon which of those players you choose to be in there, right now. He said, I want to be the one who solves mate in five. I said, okay, go get her.' That round, his game was the only game we won, but because he won, it was enough for us to take first place.”

“But behind all of this, don’t forget,” he said, “is the chess teacher who has to be completely dedicated and committed, and who has to have a clear sense of where he or she is going, and what is needed along the way. This requires vision, and a commitment to lead the way. Set the tone early,” he said, "and don’t allow selfishness to ever become part of what you or your team does. 'Team' meaning me, other coaches, the kids, school administrators, and even the parents.

“Also always remembering that though it’s not all about chess; at the end of the day it’s still chess we’re talking about. I’ve always taught my kids to play hard, to fight, to win honestly, and if they lose, to do so while fighting.

“And above all, to appreciate absolutely everything deeply.”

“It’s been a good career,” he said.

Indeed it has, indeed it has.