Chess aids DI-S quest to be king

Deer Isle-Stonington’s run to its first Class D baseball state title was rooted in the fundamentals of the national pastime – aggressive offense, steady defense, and quality pitching.

But another less obvious ingredient fueling the championship effort was several players’ success with the subtleties of chess.

Deer Isle-Stonington has excelled in chess for many years at the elementary, junior high, and high school levels – winning more than a dozen state titles in the last 11 years.

The elementary school team is the seven-time defending state champ, and the game has taken Deer Isle-Stonington players around the country to compete against the best in the nation at such locales as Portland, Ore.; Dallas, Phoenix, Kansas City, Nashville, and Orlando, as well as various New England cities.

“The island has always been known for chess,” said Nick Ciomei, a senior pitcher and outfielder for the Mariners and an individual state chess champion as a freshman and eighth-grader.

While chess lacks the overt physical demands of sports such as baseball, it places a premium on concentration, anticipation, and endurance – all qualities of a successful baseball player and team.

“Chess helps you think ahead in all sports,” said Ciomei. “In chess you have to think five, six, seven moves ahead to compete against the top players.”

Ciomei finds those chess skills particularly applicable to baseball when he’s on the mound. The lefthander went 3-0 this spring, including a 3-0 victory over Lee Academy in the Eastern Maine final before being relegated to designated-hitter duties in his team’s 3-2 state championship win over North Yarmouth Academy due to a shoulder injury.

“I’m so used to remembering moves in chess that it helps me recall what pitches I threw to a guy the last time he was up,” he said. “It helps me the next time I pitch against him because I can remember how I pitched him before and what worked against him or what didn’t work.”

Ciomei, who took up chess at age 5, played in the No. 1 spot on Deer Isle-Stonington’s high school team this year.

Baseball teammates Bryant Ciomei, Shane Eaton, and Collin Ciomei – Bryant and Collin are Nick’s younger brothers, and both are former junior high state chess champs – were the 2-3-4 seeds in tournament play. The Mariners tied for third at this year’s state team championships and went on to place eighth in their division at the national meet in Nashville.

Perhaps the best example of how the mental toughness required in chess aided Deer Isle-Stonington in pursuit of its state title came in the final game.

Collin Ciomei, one year removed from junior high competition, shook off the pregame nerves natural for a 15-year-old freshman pitching the biggest game of his life to take a no-hitter into the sixth inning against the three-time defending state champions.

To watch the righthander mix his fastball and breaking pitches while working the edges of the plate and keeping the ball low in the strike zone was to watch a pitcher setting up the batters – just like a chess player setting up his opponent across the table.

“You could tell how focused he was out there,” said Nick Ciomei of his brother. “A chess match at the nationals can last for four hours, so you have to be really calm, really focused. You could really tell that Collin was so focused on the mound, just so calm.”

Just score it one more checkmate for the Mariners.

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net