Since his first game as a kid at summer camp, Spencer Anderson has been infatuated with chess. He gravitated to the strategy and anticipation. Now, as a senior tackle at Maryland, Anderson applies his skills on the chessboard to the football field, where he anchors the right side of the Terrapins’ offensive line. Heading into another Big Ten matchup on the road Saturday against Indiana, winning in the trenches will be key as the Terps try to put the Hoosiers in checkmate.
A chess-playing tackle helps Maryland’s offensive line plot its next moves
“The way I see it, the O-line is like the pawns, the guys that get everything going. We’re out there in the front,” Anderson said. “I look at it as an offensive side, it’s like, you have 11 players against 11 other players, and you never know what the next person is going to do. It’s all just calculated moves everywhere on the field.”
Chess came with a steep learning curve for Anderson, which could be expected for an 8-year-old. He recalls constantly losing matches against older campers during the first week he played, trying to gain an understanding of the pieces and their movement on the board. But after taking lessons from his losses and watching others play, he quickly improved. A month later, Anderson participated in a camp chess tournament, competing against campers as old as 14.
“I placed third, which I wasn’t too happy with,” Anderson said. “But I was kind of shocked at the same time, like, I was able to do that.”
The experience sparked Anderson’s passion, but his chess career got put on hold when he struggled to find people to play against — until he joined the chess club in high school at Bishop McNamara in Forestville. Rumor has it, he never lost a match.
“I heard there was a group that played chess, and I was like, ‘I want to be a part of this,’” Anderson said. “I was just sitting there and they were shocked because they didn’t know how I was winning or what I was doing. Three-move mates and all different kinds of stuff.”
Anderson said he still utilizes a chess-like mind-set on the football field. He specifically cited the importance of anticipation, understanding what your opponent is trying to accomplish and knowing how they will respond to your actions.
“[If] you see the safety walk down or the corners are off a little differently than they usually are, you know some kinds of blitz is coming,” Anderson said. “You’re just anticipating the next thing because you always want to have the upper hand on your opponent in chess. I feel like it’s the equivalent on the football field because if you know, like, a blitz is coming, you can react faster instead of being behind the block or being delayed.”
While the Terps’ offensive line has put together solid stretches of play this season, there is still room for improvement. Entering Saturday, Maryland is tied for seventh in the 14-team Big Ten in sacks allowed, averaging 1.8 per game.
In this past Saturday’s loss to Purdue, the Terps (4-2, 1-2 Big Ten) allowed three sacks, and junior quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa was often under duress. The task gets no easier against Indiana (3-3, 1-2), which is tied for fourth in the Big Ten in sacks, averaging 2.3 per game.
“They try to play fast on defense,” Maryland Coach Michael Locksley said of the Hoosiers. “They’re a heavy blitz team. They’re a team that’s going to attack our quarterback. About 60 percent of snaps, on all down and distance, are pressure. That’s six-, seven-, eight-man pressures, which we’ve got to be able to handle with poise and confidence.”
To decrypt Indiana’s exotic looks, which are unlike any the Terps have faced this season, communication will be vital. The responsibility falls on the entire offensive line.
“There’s times where the center can only see so much because he already has his hand on the ball. He’s already down, so there’s already stuff that he can’t see,” Anderson said. “We can look at the rotation of the safeties or linebackers. You can kind of see the linebackers changing something or the weight in somebody’s hand and stance, just trying to anticipate the next move and anticipate what you’re going to do.”
While Maryland prepares for the challenge of Indiana’s pass rush, Anderson continues to work on his anticipation on and off the field. Though he does not get to play chess as often as he’d like, Anderson finds time to sharpen his skills against computer opponents. Moving forward, he said he will continue to pursue his hobby, hopefully finding more human opponents to play against.
“I want to play more,” Anderson said. “I feel like I’m going to be that old guy in the park with my clock and my chessboard.”
Source: WP
