The History of the Silver Knights Alzheimer’s Prevention Charity

As the founding director of the Silver Knights Alzheimer’s Prevention Charity I have played chess ever since I was a teenager. I played in numerous tournaments and as a young man earned the modest USCF rating of 1700. Through adulthood I played with friends and online but did not play tournament chess.

One day when my 82-year-old mother was in a nursing home soon before she passed away I went to see her and walked into the front office to see where she had been moved. I saw rooms and hallways lined with wheelchairs full of elderly people who all appeared to be asleep. To my surprise and shock a gentleman who was near me fell out of his wheelchair right at my feet as if dead. I quickly told a nurse what happened. That image of warehoused bodies ravaged by Alzheimer’s haunts me to this day and that is what motivates me to try to save as many of “The Greatest Generation” as I can from Alzheimer’s epidemic. I later found out that most of those people were just having their bodies stored for months or even years because they had Alzheimer’s disease. At the end stage of Alzheimer’s the person can’t move or communicate and are totally helpless before the disease kills them. Alzheimer’s is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States.

In spring of 2006 I had to have major surgery and during the long recovery period I decided that I would like to give something back to the community and teach children how to play chess. In the fall of 2006 I contacted the Chess Emporium that I helped to co-found in 1994 named The Chess Emporium and has since been in north Phoenix directed by Scott Freneaux. I started teaching chess part-time at 5 elementary schools (about 100 students in all) each semester. The job entailed driving about 4,000 miles per semester to schools all over the Phoenix-Metro area. While working for the Chess Emporium, I wrote the Coaches Training Manual that they now use to teach thousands of students each year.

At the end of spring of 2007 I was struck down with Fibromyalgia, a very painful muscular condition. I was no longer able to keep up with the children and all the driving that was necessary even with strong pain pills. I still wanted to teach chess but I needed to find a way to teach much closer to my house to greatly reduce driving time. I also needed to find students that were easier to keep up with than the children. I decided that there might be a need in nursing homes for seniors who might want to play chess, but had nobody with which to play.

I thought about how one day I too may be in a nursing home, and how sad it would be if I could not find someone to play chess. I found out that people who play chess are 60-75% less likely to get Alzheimer’s than those who watch TV. So in July of 2007 I decided to start The Silver Knights Alzheimer’s Prevention Charity, which is an informal nonprofit organization. We hope to get our 501(c)(3) as soon as we get a donation of $500 and a volunteer nonprofit lawyer and volunteer tax attorney.

But until then we are dedicated to saving as many lives as we can by teaching as many people as we can to teach chess to others. Because playing chess reduces the chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease by 60 to 75% percent--this means that we can not only improve the quality of life for the adults, it also can save potentially thousands of lives from a fate truly worse than death! 

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative disorder leading to significantly impaired memory followed by impaired thought, speech and finally complete helplessness and death. I can think of no sadder way to end a productive life. Family members who have to watch their parents slowly disappear into a nearly vegetative state suffer much of the pain. To see the memories of a loved one slowly disappear until they are not even recognized by their mother or father is extremely painful. When the disease finally overcomes their loved one there is often a feeling of release from the child. We recommend that everyone see the PBS Home Video: The Forgetting- A portrait of Alzheimer’s or reading The Forgetting- Alzheimer’s: A Portrait of an Epidemic. By David Shenk both available from Amazon.com.

There are now more than 5 million people in the United States living with Alzheimer’s. 1-in-10 people over 65 and nearly half of those over 85 have Alzheimer's disease. Typical life expectancy is 8-10 years from the onset of symptoms, which can start as early as in your 40’s. 14 million Americans will have the disease by 2050 unless a cure is found or prevention measures are taken. This is where The Silver Knights Alzheimer’s prevention charity comes in.

This year 438,000 people in the United States will be told that they have Alzheimer’s disease. If all of these people played chess it is I estimate that 262,800 people could be prevented or significantly delayed in getting this horrible disease.

In addition to preventing Alzheimer’s disease chess is a quality of life issue. Chess is fun to play and provides a connection to other people that words cannot convey. Seniors deepen their relationships with other seniors and even children who come and play chess with them. This social interaction has also been shown to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. The seniors enjoy beating their grandchildren in chess. A happier life often tends to be a longer life too.

I used to go to 6 different living assisted homes, nursing homes and senior centers within a 5-mile radius of my home near Bell and Scottsdale Rd. in Scottsdale Arizona. But the onset of my pain from Fibromyalgia has recently ment that I can no longer teach chess at a facility. I have had to confine my duties to organizational and training of our volunteers. Our Silver Knights teach a one-year course to adults from 18 to 108 on how to play chess. Each class is at least half hour of lecture and a half hour of supervised play. All of our chess courses are free. We also teach our Student Volunteers how to start their own chess club!

In time, we also hope we can have Silver Knight chapters in every major city in the United States if we can find the volunteers to train.  Silver Knights teach at Community Centers, Civic Centers, Parks and Rec. Centers, Libraries, Community Colleges, YMCA’s, Hospitals, Churches and other facilities and teach our chess class and help their volunteer students start their own chess club.

Our website at www.TheSilverKnights.org is a wonderful place for people to communicate with others like themselves. It is a place where people can get more information about the organization as well as share your experiences with chess club directors, chess coaches, chess students and caregivers like yourselves. It will tell the stories of some outstanding seniors and how chess and their coach have helped make their lives better.

We are working on the Chess Mind Newsletter, which will have lots of helpful tips for Chess Club Directors, Chess Coaches, Chess Students and Caregivers, which we hope to have our first issue, come out in May of 2009.

We are desperately in need of volunteers, funds and materials. We have an Online Gift Shop where more than 100 items can be purchased with custom made-to-order artwork and text is printed at no extra charge. A small portion of each purchase goes toward the charity. We also take donations of any size. Nobody in the organization is paid, as all are volunteers. We hope this year to raise $1,000 to help save the lives from the epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease.

Won’t you please if you are 18 years or older consider volunteering 1-2 hours per week or donating $5 a month to help save our adults from getting Alzheimer's disease?  Even children can learn to help save the lives of people like their grandparents my making donations and telling others about the charity. Won't you please consider joining the nationwide effort to delay and prevent Alzheimer's?  Don't you have a spare 1-2 hours per week to help save a life as well as bring joy to many?  We provide all the training!  To find out how just email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it