Checkmate: Chess Club captures students’ attention
On Wednesdays, students gather in a room with chess boards and challenge one another to a game of chess. Their faces are often serious and contemplative, yet excited all the while.
Southwest High School welcomes the Chess Club back to its classrooms this school year due to a recent resurgence in interest in the intellectual sport.
Vice president of the club Jose Marcial said that the aim of the Chess Club is to teach newcomers.
“Everybody is accepted,” he said. He said that he had been wanting to play since middle school but only recently found that it’s easy to learn, though difficult to master.
Marcial said, “There was no club in here so we had to start it.”
Marcial said that he joined the chess club even though he didn’t know how to play very well. After Nathan Ostermann, president of the Chess Club, taught him how to play, Marcial was the first to join it and help recruit people to the club.
Senior Ismael Villareal said he joined the Chess Club because it was an opportunity to explore different clubs while having fun but also looking good for the college admissions process.
Villareal said that before joining the Chess Club, his knowledge on the subject wasn’t substantial, but he would watch content creators on YouTube or Twitch to learn.
Another member of the club, senior Raymond Vargas said that he joined because he had an interest in chess during the pandemic but had mostly forgotten about it until he discovered the club.
Omar Mungia, also a senior, said he joined the club because it was a small group of friends who played a game that wasn’t very popular among others.
Marcial said some of the best advice for new players is to “just play as much as you can, every change you get.”
Other players had similar advice.
Villareal said, “To the newcomers that want to learn how to play, don’t be afraid. Chess, like anything else, is a learning process. The more you do it, the more you’ll learn and the more you’ll have fun doing it.”
Some players found that lessons were helpful to learning how to play.
“If I could offer any advice it would be to take Nate’s lessons. They’re pretty helpful,” Vargas said.
“Like any other communities, there are friendly people and then there are people who are not accepting to newcomers,” Marcial said. “It just depends on what kind of crowd you surround yourself with but, overall, it’s a really good community. Especially when you find the right type of person who knows their stuff and doesn’t mind helping others”
Villareal said the chess-playing community could be described as very kind and supportive. Especially when someone wants to learn, the community welcomes new players.
He said, “They want to teach others how to play because it’s something people are very passionate about.”
The club members said they discovered their love for chess in different ways.
Vargas said he found this hobby when he was in the seventh grade.
“My cousin brought a chess set out and he taught me how to play whilst beating me really badly and I just wanted to get better since then,” he said.
Mungia said his motivation for learning how to play was “getting to play against other people and wanting to be better than them.”
But the club members said there is more to chess than winning the game.
“My favorite thing about the club is the different opportunities, like playing with other people while also being able to learn more about it,” Villareal said.
For others, it’s the almost endless possibilities within the game that challenges them.
“It’s really interesting because, I don’t know what it is exactly but, something by the fourth move, there are already 84 billion possible games,” Marcia said.