By Allison Kronberg
Murphy News Service
Many residents at Bloomington Friendship Village think it’s never too late to be taught a new skill.
But their teachers usually aren’t 17-year-olds.
Connor Quinn, a junior at The Blake School, started teaching chess classes to residents at the Bloomington Friendship Village senior living community in January. He’s learned a lot from older people about how to play chess, he said, and he sees this as a way to give back.
“To pass on chess, which I found to be such an integral part of my life when I started playing it — I feel like it’s the most rewarding experience,” Quinn said.
Quinn’s grandfather applied to live at Bloomington Friendship Village, Quinn said, but he wasn’t ever able to move in.
Surgical complications and a heart attack left Quinn’s grandfather with significant brain damage, so he had to move into a memory care unit that could meet his health care needs.
Quinn visited his grandfather at his former home weekly before his surgery.
“We were good buddies,” Quinn said.
Connor Quinn’s mother, Colleen Quinn, took her children to see their grandfather at the memory care unit every Sunday beginning in 2013, she said, but it was hard to come up with activities to do together.
Her kids weren’t able to play chess with their grandfather during visits because his complications wouldn’t allow him to learn the game, Connor Quinn said.
“He never knew how to play chess,” he said. “I would have definitely taught him if he had wanted to do it.”
But Connor Quinn’s grandfather passed away last year in the memory care unit.
After he died, Colleen Quinn said, the family tried to think of ways to help others with relatives in living homes have an activity to do together during visits. That’s when Connor Quinn decided to teach chess classes.
“What’s really cool about chess is it dissolves the generation thing,” Colleen Quinn said. “I mean, how many things can you really say a 15- or 16-year-old can do with and 85- to 90-year-old together?”
And although he’s young, Connor Quinn’s experience makes him a great teacher, his students said. He’s taught all age levels and competes in tournaments regularly.
The United States Chess Federation assigns number ratings to players that reflect their wins, losses and draws. The highest rated player in the world, Connor Quinn said, is rated about 2,860 internationally. Quinn is rated about 2,112, which qualifies him as a “strong expert.”
Including adults, there are only about 25 players better than him in Minnesota, according to ratings, he said.
Connor Quinn’s goal of helping residents have an activity with their visitors is paying off for the about seven residents who attend his classes weekly, he said.
Bloomington Friendship Village resident Peter Pappas is the only one of Quinn’s students who has played chess prior to the class.
He took the class because he wanted to get better, Pappas said.
His son has visited him regularly since he came to the community in 2009. The two usually play pool together, but they just recently tried out playing chess.
“He’s really good,” Pappas said of his son. “I think he’s more sharp than I am.”
Pappas has been getting more competitive lately though, he said, and he hopes to impress his son with some new moves he’s learned in class in the future.
Right now, the class is scheduled to end on March 10. But Quinn is hoping they will be able to extend its length.
“I feel like these people are interested in the game, and I’m interested in teaching them,” he said. “And as long as there’s interest, we want to keep it going.”
Reporter Allison Kronberg is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.