If your second-grader discovered something other than soccer and a swimming pool that would pry her away from TV, you'd throw a party, too.
Chess, the 7th century game of India, has become the unlikely rage of the summer in Malibu. Chess clubs run by dedicated teachers have kept the game alive for years. But in 1994, Eric Hicks, a high school dropout from Hawthorne who found direction for his life when he took up chess in a serious way (he even went on to graduate with honors from UC Berkeley), started organizing after-school Academic Chess programs in schools in many parts of Southern California.
In Malibu, at the Knights by the Sea summer day camp, Kate Crocker is pied piper to the Academic Chess players, including my own 7-year-old Melanie. The soft-spoken "chess lady," as the kids call her, starts with the form and function of each piece. "This is ashtray head; he's also called the rook," she tells the kids. Her presentation is packed with rap, rhyme and disco moves. It's hard to say who's more enthralled, parents or program participants.
By the time the program is in its final weeks, several parents are ready to reward the kids with an end-of-camp chess costume party.
Our opening move is the menu. Malibu moms Annie Donnellan and Gabrielle Harris have just launched Indigo Cafe at Kanan Road and Pacific Coast Highway, and the chef there, Trudi Reynolds, has three kids and gets the concept. They will take care of a big portion of the feast, and we gather an army of possibilities, prepared to surrender pieces along the way. The Queen's Pawn Salad is banished from the buffet. A Marshmallow Moat sinks before the drawbridge. Ditto the Gingerbread Castle. Bishop's Havens begin as stuffed pita pockets and become turnover hats.
Scepter Satay (chicken wands topped with paper crowns a la rack of lamb) changes to Sweet and Sour Scepters when it's discovered that peanut and plum sauces aren't to kids' tastes. And the crowns don't seem to affix easily. For the Bishop's Hats, adults do well with puff pastry, but for the kids we decide to go with pizza dough.
Reynolds takes on cake tactics. Of course, it has to be a chessboard cake. Reynolds comes up with a plan that combines white cake with brownies, which provide a nice chewy contrast to the fluffiness of the cake. The problem is getting the brownies and cake pieces to stay in place, but frosting works wonders as glue.
