Chess Military - Col. David Hater and Air Force Master Sgt. Robert Keough plays a game of chess in preparation for this year's NATO Chess Championship, which will be held September 8-13 in Quebec City. Over the course of five days, every player on Team USA led by Ha... (Photo Credit: USA) VIEW ORIGINAL
FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. (August 28, 2014) -- Col. David Hater and Air Force Master Sgt. Robert Keough may be two of the most boisterous and outspoken chess players to compete at this year's NATO Chess Championship.
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Hatter, who serves as assistant chief of staff at the US Cyber Command, and Keough, who was recently assigned to Fort Meade, defy the stereotype of the introverted chess player, seeing chess as a highly competitive sport that unites international armed forces.
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"I started playing when I was very young," said Keo, who was part of the 2002 US NATO silver medal team. "I liked the competitive aspects. I liked winning tournaments."
11 countries and 66 competitors will compete in this year's NATO Chess Championship from September 8 to 13 in Quebec City. With third place, the US chess team plans to medal.
"We have two masters [ranked over 2,200] and four experts [ranked over 2,000], which I think is the strongest team we've ever had," Hatter said.
Regardless, Hatter said everyone on the team will have to play the "tournament of their lives" for the U.S. to win gold.
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"Most years, we wouldn't have had a chance to beat [first-seeded] Germany," Hater said. "We're certainly not expected to be this year, but it wouldn't be completely out of the realm of possibility. I think it would be an upset, but at least we can think about an upset."
The official NATO Chess Championship began in 1989 with only four countries, including the United States, represented in the tournament. The tournament was funded by the Department of Defense until 2011, but due to budget constraints, the U.S. is no longer sponsoring the team, Hater said.
Motivated by his love of chess, Hater decided to form his own team to represent the United States. He worked with representatives of the NATO Chess Championship, the Military Chess Committee of the American Chess Federation and to determine the appropriate protocol for the formation of the team.
"Everyone is traveling on their own this year," Hater said. "I worked through the military chess committee and we came up with a mathematical formula [who should be on the NATO championship team], and it was objective. I rated [the player's] national ranking the highest, although there were a few other factors."
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As a nine-time competitor in the NATO Chess Championship and captain of the US team, Hatter wanted the process by which he determined the team to be as objective and transparent as possible.
"[Hatter] actually put [the ad for the team] on uschess.org, the website of the United States Chess Federation," said Keough, a six-time NATO chess champion who recently finished second at the Atlantic Open. in D.C.
"If you're a military player, you don't have to be active, you can be a reservist."
"We might want to look at the plays their opponents have run," Hutter said. "Just like in the NFL, where they watch film of their opponents, we like to do the same thing if we're successful."
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Hater said that as a team captain, apart from preparing for the tournament, he has other duties, such as reporting the nuances of the tournament to his team and representing his players in disputes.
However, Hatter said he gives the impression to his team that "they are all ambassadors for the United States." in this tournament.
With the tournament less than two weeks away, Keough said due to the large number of participants in the tournament, there was only so much realistic preparation the team could do.
"We can't prepare for the [number of] players that will be there," Keough said. "We don't even know who we're going to play. So what we're going to do to mitigate that is we'll all have laptops with chess programs and chess databases. And we'll have access to information so that if we can win a couple of rounds early enough when we get an opponent , then we'll look for their games and try to find a weakness in their opening repertoire.
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Editor's note: To learn how to play chess, email Master Sgt. Keough at robkeo@hotmail.com.
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