Published: October 31, 2009 11:56 pm      

Founder: Chess-focused program ‘will save lives’

Three decades ago, Orrin Hudson was a teenager in trouble.

The seventh of 13 children, living in public housing in Birmingham, Ala., Hudson was a poor student who spent his spare time stealing tires.

But he found redemption and purpose in a chessboard. There are 64 squares, 32 pieces and – the way Hudson sees it – a single, powerful lesson that he has preached to thousands of kids.

“Everyone can be someone if they make the right moves,” Hudson said.

Now a motivational speaker, author and founder of Georgia-based Be Someone Inc., Hudson is scheduled to help kick off a new mentorship program this month in Johnstown.

He has high praise for those who are organizing the local effort. “I love it,” Hudson said. “I think it could take the nation by storm.”

That enthusiasm is typical of a man who declares that “I hit the lottery every day I wake up.”

Such a sentiment could be dismissed as standard motivational fare, but it’s clear that Hudson, 46, believes in his message because he has lived it.

His transformation started with English teacher James Edge, a white man working in Hudson’s all-black high school.

Edge taught Hudson about chess and about life.

“He told me, ‘Every move you make has consequences,’ ” Hudson said. “The lights came on when I learned that I was responsible for my own actions.”

After school, Hudson spent some time working as an Alabama state trooper and a car dealer. He also was working with kids – using chess, of course – in Birmingham.

But an incident in 2000 set Hudson on a new path: An armed robbery in New York City led to the deaths of five employees at a fast-food restaurant, with the robbers netting a mere $2,400.

“This was kids killing kids for money. I have a major problem with that,” Hudson told USA Today in a 2004 interview. “I looked at my life and I said, ‘What do I know how to do? What has made a difference in my life? What has helped me?’ ”

In 2001, Hudson made motivation and chess his full-time job by founding Be Someone Inc., which he characterizes as a “nonprofit crime-prevention program” based on the game of chess.

Hudson believes chess hones decision-making and analytical skills, rewarding focus and patience.

He tells kids that such skills translate into long-term success.

“You get paid for your ability to solve problems,” Hudson said.

“And the bigger the problem, the more you get paid.”

But the program also is about building a student’s character, not just his or her future earning potential.

“The greatest gift we can give our children is the ability to make good decisions,” Hudson said.

Even though Hudson’s program has reached 20,000 students in 15 states, Hudson calls himself a “work in progress”: His goal is to teach 1 million kids. But he also believes he has found his true calling.

“What I’m doing, it works,” he said. “And it will save lives, I promise you.”