Bringing camaraderie to the competition

Baltimore Kids’ Chess League will send three area high schools to nationals in Memphis following pandemic rut

Shawn Means still remembers his first chess game back in person. The senior at Bard High School Early College Baltimore sat across from his teammate Aavo McClafferty earlier this year after numerous missed opportunities due to the pandemic. Before COVID, the pair would play regularly play at school.

Despite losing to his counterpart during the reunion game, Means said the moment remains bittersweet.

The opportunity to regularly play chess over-the-board has been a signal of normalcy for these students. Rather than dragging a cursor across a screen to move a digital chess piece, Means now relishes feeling the smooth plastic piece in his hand and hearing it click against the board. He enjoys watching his opponents’ tells — some bounce their legs, others scratch their chins — as they ponder their next moves.

“It’s really way different than a computer. I can’t explain it,” Means said. “Touching the pieces, to me, it’s just so important. It helps me play better.”

Now, Means, along with six of his peers, will get to take their beloved in-person chess games to the 2022 National High School (K-12) Championships, taking place

Friday to Sunday in Memphis, Tennessee. The entire trip is paid for by grant funding secured by the Baltimore Kids’ Chess League, a nonprofit that works with Baltimore City to provide scholastic chess opportunities.

The chess league has not sent a team to nationals since before the pandemic. Teams that attended in the past were awarded “high honors,” and the league had its first individual U.S. Chess Federation National Champion in 2017 with Cahree Myrick,

12, then a seventh grader at Roland Park Elementary and Middle School.

Means isn’t the only one exhilarated by the thought of competing in Memphis in April. Two fellow Title I schools — Green Street Academy and Patterson High School — also accepted the same offer to bring seven of their student chess players to the national competition.

Patterson High School junior Jauan Bennett, 17, left, and senior DeShown Streater, 18, are part of the seven-member team headed to the National High School Chess Championships in Memphis, Tennessee, next month.

AMY DAVIS/BALTIMORE SUN PHOTOS Green Street Academy sophomore Marquel “Socks”Johns, left, plays a game with junior Javier Gomez, 17, as sophomore Jaylin Liggins, 18, standing second from left, and senior Kanye Carney, 18, watch.