[OG Note--like the title for a Monty Python sketch, isn't it?]

Published: Wednesday, May 16, 2001

Pioneer Press

Chess hooligans? Library takes no chances

In Minneapolis, spectators can't keep tempers in check

DAVID HAWLEY STAFF WRITER

Unruly fans are at it again.

No, this time it doesn't involve the Minnesota Twins games. Nor overzealous prep fans, nor even pushy parents at peewee soccer games. No, the latest example of a local competitive event being marred by disruptive and abusive fans is chess.

Last week, the downtown Minneapolis Public Library placed a temporary ban on chess playing after several incidents in which spectators allegedly hurled abusive language in the direction of security guards.

The ban halted the activities of an ad-hoc, unauthorized chess collective that has been playing for months in an open area of tables on the library's second floor.

A library official said the ban may be lifted after measures are taken to discourage unruly fan behavior -- including the posting of signs that proclaim the library's ``rules of conduct.'' The library, the official added, had nothing to do with organizing the chess activities.

``Nobody organized it -- it just happened,'' said Moncena Rowley, who manages a copy center near the library's table area. Rowley said he and other workers in the copy center -- none are library employees -- bought chess sets and began lending them to players as the popularity of the chess-playing venue grew.

``On any afternoon, we would have five or six tables going up here, with little groups standing around watching the players,'' Rowley said. ``They even started organizing their own tournaments. The boys, especially, would check out old books on chess and use them to borrow moves from the past.''

The players, according to Rowley, were a diverse bunch -- all ages, all races. Many were low-income folks, and some were disabled, he said.

The players generally policed themselves, Rowley added. For instance, on one occasion, a chess set lent by the copy center disappeared.

``I told some of the players about the missing board and they said they knew who took it and that they'd take care of it,'' Rowley recalled. ``A few days later, the board was back.''

Until last week, library officials tolerated the chess players. ``As long as people abide by the rules of conduct, the library is not going to prohibit that activity,'' said Kristi Gibson, a library spokeswoman.

And it's apparent that fans, not players, were the source of recent trouble, Gibson noted.

``It wasn't the people playing, but some of the people watching,'' she said. ``It was boisterous language, not anything destructive. But this is a library, so boisterous language is not appropriate.''

Rowley said some of the regular players are disheartened that something as drastic as a ban has been imposed. ``When the library had problems with people accessing online porn, they didn't get rid of the computers,'' he said. ``They established procedures to identify the people who would do that sort of thing.

``I hope something can be worked out, because (the chess activity) is a wonderful thing,'' Rowley said. ``It's the kind of thing that should happen in a library.''

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2001