Ryan Clayton is so good at chess, he can play the game blindfolded.

His opponents tell him each of their moves, and he sees the board in his mind.

"It helps my chess skill to visualize in my head what the positions will be, even including my opponent's next likely move," said the recent Central Catholic High School graduate from Genoa, Ohio, who is to go to California at the end of this month to compete in the 2010 National Denker Tournament of High School Champions. It is his reward for winning a state high-school championship in March.

Ryan can't recall exactly how long he has played chess, but he hasn't forgotten how well he did when he first played competitively.

"I've been told I've been playing since I was 3," he said. "Dad was teaching my older brother, and I got interested. In my first tournament, I finished second out of 107. I was a sixth grader; it was a junior-high tournament."

Now, he often plays online, mostly to find tougher competition than is available in his hometown - even his Dad can't keep up any more. He prefers human Internet opponents to computer programs because the latter usually have flaws and tend to seek the playing line that keeps the computer playing the longest, even if it's doomed to lose eventually.

Sometimes, he plays with his eyes shut - forcefully so - just to even the match.

"I once played two games live, blindfolded. I memorized all the positions," he said, adding that the Toledo area probably has only about 15 people who can play chess blind, "and I think I know all of them."

Winning the United States Chess Federation Ohio State Championship in Columbus followed an undefeated season with Central Catholic's chess team, on which he lost just four times during four years of play.

"Since Ryan's been on the team, except for his freshman year, he's been as much of a coach as I've been," Phil Kelley, the school's chess coach, said.

"He loves teaching chess. After beating an opponent, he'll go over the game with them to show what they should have done differently. He's honestly trying to help them play chess better."

A top-five finish in the nationals, to be held in Irvine, Calif., from July 31 through Aug. 3, would win him a college scholarship to the University of Texas at Dallas.

"My goal is to win, but I hope to at least get an offer for a scholarship," he said.

He also has amassed enough competition points to hold an "expert" rating from the United States Chess Federation, but he fell just short of a goal he had set for himself to reach the "master" level by the time he graduated from high school.

Ryan was an honor-roll student at Central, where he also played on the golf team and was a member of the Men's Club and Frisbee Club. Although a scholarship offer could change his college plans, he is enrolled for the fall semester at Ohio State University, where he plans to study either mechanical or industrial engineering.

"Very few people can play chess for a living, and that's mostly by teaching," Ryan said, expressing belief that his "straightforward, logical mind" should do well in engineering.

Mr. Kelley, meanwhile, has to figure out how he's going to replace Ryan and four other graduating seniors. Central's chess team had just one underclassman during the past school year, a freshman. "I'm totally rebuilding," he said. "Everyone I've got is a senior."

First Published July 7, 2010, 12:50 p.m.