VALDOSTA — Anyone walking into the Lowndes Middle School lunchroom on a Thursday morning between 7:30 and 8:15 a.m., would be greeted by an unusual sight.

Five rows of tables filled with kids between the ages of 10 and 14 years of age sitting across from each other, quietly contemplating their next move, trying to outwit their opponents at chess.

The LMS Chess Club has taken on a life of its own. Bill Holt, a Lowndes Drug Action Council (LODAC) counselor and one of the prime movers behind the club, said his supply of chess sets is not keeping up with demand. Holt is seeking donations to purchase more sets so the chess club can continue to expand. He also needs chess clocks and other equipment, he said, to make the kids’ chess experience as close to actual tournament quality as possible.

The past two Thursdays, Holt said they have had about 85 LMS students participate. The chess club is a great tool for keeping kids off drugs and teaching them how to make smart choices, he said.

“Most people don’t understand prevention,” Holt said. “When you can have a meaningful relationship being built or a group where they can fit in, that is real prevention.”

Janice Touchton, an LMS teacher who also helps facilitate the club, said they have a growing number of female chess players, too. When she started playing chess with her students several years ago, she was told her class couldn’t engage in board games during academic time. Allowances were made when she explained that chess teaches her students abstract thinking and problem-solving skills, etc.

Students in the LMS chess club must be current on all of their academic and other work before they can participate, Holt said. They can’t use the club as an excuse to avoid other assignments.

Asked what he likes about chess, LMS student Zachary Massey, 11, said he likes the fact that “you have to think to win the game.” His partner, Jacob Duren, 11, concurred.

“You have to use your mind,” Duren said.

Touchton said you can never tell who will be attracted to, or excel at, the game of chess. There is no one type, she said.

“It’s not the ones you expect,” Touchton said. “It’s not just the gifted students. It might be the ones who hunt and fish, or the ones who participate in other team sports like softball.”

Holt said chess club members learn to adapt to changing conditions on the board. They learn to think strategically. Touchton said chess also teaches students patience. She and a student were engaged in an especially difficult match one time, and the student, growing impatient, asked, “Are you ever going to move?” Touchton said that particular game took two days to finish.

Holt also facilitates chess clubs at Lake Park Elementary School, and at Ora Lee West and Hudson Dockett. He has to shuffle chess sets from one site to another so all the kids who want to participate get the chance. Holt said he hopes to eventually acquire the equipment necessary to teach kids chess using the software program, “Think like a King.”

Holt said “Think like a King” is based on the movie “Knights of the South Bronx,” in which an inner-city school teacher, played by Ted Danson, teaches students to play competition-level chess. In the process, Danson’s students learn that, on the chessboard, it doesn't matter how much money they have, what clothes they’re wearing or where they come from; it’s the moves they make, then and there, that matter.

“Chess is about the quality of the mind, not the quality of the equipment,” Holt said.