dealers trade in a different form of death...bullets. Children break off from playtime to look on anxiously.

To a young black kid on the block, Maurice Ashley, the scene resembles a familiar wild west movie; a picture he has seen a thousand times before. And still the camera keeps rolling. Keeps rolling.

An unlikely passion has helped prevent him from becoming more than a bit-part player in the script...chess.

Today, a decade later, the imagery of New York's inner city street life is just as vivid for Mr. Ashley.

It also fuels an ongoing ambition: switching on the minds of young blacks to chess; using the game to teach discipline and the reward of concentration; and checkmating the powerful pull of crime and drugs.

The 30-year-old African-American -- in Bermuda last week to compete in a chess tournament at Mermaid Beach -- teaches the game to deprived kids at Harlem's Mott Hall Middle School.

He believes it's a lesson Bermuda's schools could learn from as the Island grapples with its own youth problems.

His team of Harlem hotshots, the Dark Knights, view him as a role model. After all, he is an international master, the highest-ranked black player in the world.

In 1995 he led the Dark Knights to the National Junior High School Chess Team Championship in America. And four years earlier he coached another team of Harlem youngsters, the Raging Rooks, to the same title.

The twin triumphs earned him national recognition as the media woke up to what was happening.

To Mr. Ashley, however, a greater victory was to follow: three-quarters of the Raging Rooks were to become college graduates.

"I am sure Bermuda could set up a chess programme in its schools,'' says Mr.

Ashley.

"It's easy. All you need are chess sets and interested kids. As long as there is a will you can do it.'' It's a view the Bermuda Chess Association shares. And there are tentative plans to raise the idea with Education Minister Jerome Dill.

Mr. Ashley, who speaks in a calm, educated voice reminiscent of his hero Arthur Ashe, highlights the essential armaments of a chess combatant: Chess still finding fans in the age of Charles Barkley `In chess, there is no affirmative action. The only way you deserve a title is by playing well and concentration, physical fitness and youth. In other words, the same qualities displayed by Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley or Mike Tyson. And the qualities helpful in life. The "chess is for nerds'' argument is dismissed by Mr.

Ashley. "Chess is like any other sport and you have to be fit. I work out in the gym because it's essential to how I play. Youthfulness is also an advantage. "If you look at the top chess players, most are in their 20s and 30s. Chess is physically demanding.'' He adds: "It's as aggressive as basketball and you make moves as in-yer-face as any slam dunk. "It's a game about crushing your opponent and dominating him mentally and hurting his ego.

"We use the same types of words as other sportsmen. We talk about blowing people off the board and destroying them. You know the kind of trash talk.'' Mr. Ashley's students, who come from the mean streets of Brooklyn, Harlem, Manhattan and the Bronx, eat up the imagery which such talk conjures up. And chess, with its modern image, is catching on like wildfire. "This is almost the 21st Century. It's not the age of lords and kings. It's the age of Charles Barkley. "That's not to say I don't teach the wonderful, cultural side of chess, because I do. I put across both sides.'' He adds: "When I teach I try to do three things. First, I show the kids that chess is fun. "Then I bring out their desire to win and finally I teach them values -- the deeper values of being focused and working hard. Chess has a positive influence on the way they lead their lives.'' It is not hard for Mr. Ashley to tap into the psyche of his students. His family arrived in America from Kingston, Jamaica, when he was 12, to set up home in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn; a downtrodden area where drug dealers plied their trade. "Gunshots were the norm. At times it was like the wild west and chess acted as shield for me. "I probably had a solid enough upbringing and a focus not to be a bad seed. Chess made sure I never got caught up in the drugs scene.'' He adds: "The kids I teach could very easily be now on the streets. One kid's mum could never stop her son from hanging out. Now all that has changed. "Mums are incredibly grateful for what I'm doing and are effusive in their praise. It doesn't get any better than that.'' Mr. Ashley played his first chess game when he was 14. Stung by a defeat, he was determined to get revenge. He studied the game religiously, reading book after book. In those early days, a big influence and inspiration was a friend, Willie Johnson, also a Brooklyn resident. Mr. Ashley graduated from New York's City College with an English degree. But his ambitions always lay with chess. In 1993 he reached a chess milestone, becoming an international master; a unique feat in a supposedly white man's world and in a country with no tradition for the game. Success, however, did not shelter him from the uglier side of human nature. "I remember one occasion where I heard someone laugh at his friend `you let a black guy beat you','' he says. "It was a stupid and dumb thing to say but such instances have been very few.

Chess is actually the least racist environment I've been in. In chess, there is no affirmative action. The only way you deserve a title is by playing well and beating your opponents.'' Nowadays Mr. Ashley -- who has produced a multimedia CD-ROM, bearing his name, for novice and intermediate chess players -- attracts only respect. His appearance in a calendar of famous African-Americans testifies to his growing stature. "I was shocked when I found out. It's good to know people are proud of me,'' he says. A chess commentator on the ESPN network, Mr. Ashley is confident more blacks will enter the top-flight of the game. "I think it's going to happen in the next ten or 15 years when I've retired.'' Before then, Mr. Ashley has a few more ambitions to fulfil: to become a chess promoter and write movie scripts. Oh yes, there is also the matter of becoming a chess grand master. He has given himself another two years to reach that pinnacle. It is a dream he is