FRCC Westminster’s Chess Club

Check, is it mate? I think so! This is what millions of players say when they finally beat an opponent at Chess. This saying makes you feel so relieved that the game is finally over. After 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or even sometimes over 20 hours of Chess, you have finally beaten your opponent at the game. Yes, you heard me right, 20 hours of pure Chess! This was the longest-recorded game of Chess, played in 1989. Ivan Nikolic vs. Goran Arsovic. This game had 269 moves between each player and eventually ended in a draw. How crazy is that? But how did we get here? How did this once-ancient game stay alive? And how does it bring people together to play for a Chess Club, even one for a school?

Chess is a game that dates back so far that you wouldn’t believe it. It all got its start in the 6th century when the youngest prince of the Gupta Empire was killed. After his death, the mother was still grieving about it and his brother wanted to show her how he had been killed. To do this, he used the 8×8 Ashtapada board which was used for other things at the time. Because of his demonstration, a new game emerged. Chaturanga, and over the years to come, this game would see many versions of it before ultimately becoming the game we know today, Chess.

Chess has now been played by millions of people and is still considered by some to be the greatest game of all time. Some people think playing chess is hard and some think it’s fun and easy when you know how to move each piece. Some people think Chess is only for the intelligent. I was able to interview two students here at FRCC who are a part of Chess Club and I was able to ask them questions about Chess and Chess Club. 

Mitchell Meyers, a student at FRCC and a member of Chess Club answers my question, Why Chess Club? “I’ve been playing chess for a long time, I think it’s just really fun to just get to play with other people. There’s something about being able to play over the board, that you just don’t get that same kind of connection just playing online games against a faceless opponent. I guess that’s why.”  Chess is a game that can be played in person or online but most people would say they prefer playing chess in person, even when you have people at the same school, who are also interested in the game, it only makes sense to make a Chess Club. Meyers said, “There’s something about being able to play over the board, that you just don’t get that same kind of connection just playing online games against a faceless opponent.” playing online can sometimes feel boring. Sometimes you don’t think straight when playing online and that causes you to make the wrong move. Maybe you just lost your queen in the most embarrassing way possible all because of one silly move, all of this can be frustrating. Sure, maybe those same mistakes can happen in person but most of the time, you have a better vision of the board in person. Online staring at a screen, you could miss something that you didn’t see that you probably would have seen if you were playing in person. When I play online, sometimes I set up a board in front of me to make it seem like I’m playing the person online, in person. This helps me see the board better and it helps me lower the chances of making a stupid mistake, like losing a queen to a pawn. Mitchell also talks about the connection side of it. When playing in person, if it’s just for fun, you can help teach the other player on the other side of the board. You can help them understand why the move they just made isn’t good, and why they should make a different move instead. You can also share strategies, end games, openings, and much more. This is the connection you get when you play in person instead of playing online against a faceless opponent. Here you can see that even after a game, everyone at Chess Club was gathered teaching and talking about the game that had just been played against two opponents, and why a move that one player made on one side of the board was not a good move and why that costed him the game. It’s moments like these that you get when you are a part of Chess Club and why playing a game of Chess face to face in person is better than playing against someone on the computer. 

Everyone has to start somewhere, maybe you were taught by your dad or maybe it was your mom, maybe it was your grandpa that taught you. For some, they teach themselves. Very few people were born to play Chess. Some of the greats like Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, and  Magnus Carlsen, we all see them as people who were born to play chess. People that we think turned into some of the greats When they first touched the board. Even when they first touched a chessboard, it seemed like this was what they were ultimately going to do for their profession. Sure, some see it like that but, that is not totally true. Bobby Fischer was taught by his sister! Late nights when they would wait for their mother to come home from work, in their apartment, in New York City. In this apartment, this is where Joan would teach Bobby Fischer the fundamentals of Chess and how each piece works. Carlsen’s father was the one who originally taught Magnus how to play the game and from just the age of seven, Kasparov attended the Young Pioneer Palace in Baku. When Kasparov was now 10, Kasparov began training at Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school under coach Vladimir Makogonov. Everyone has their own way of starting off. “I started learning when I was 16 but I just knew how the pieces worked, I didn’t know how the game worked. I really started learning when I was maybe 20, I started learning tactics, learning patterns, learning principles, so pretty much taught myself,” Mitchell Meyers, member of Chess Club explains. Even if you don’t know how to play, you can come down and join Chess Club here at Front Range and the members of Chess Club would love to help teach you how to play!

What should people know about Chess? It seems like this game can be confusing at points or anyone just starting to play the game might get lost in some areas. Mitchell Meyers states, “I think a lot of people are really intimidated by starting it. In TV shows and movies, it treaded as the epitome of intelligence. You always think of the cool smart character who plays Chess. I really don’t think Chess is anything to do with being smart, it’s just pattern recognition and so I think people are afraid of starting just because they feel like maybe they are not smart enough for chess or it’s just for smart people, so I guess that what I like people to just realize that it has nothing to do with intelligence.” sure but can’t Chess hard? “It’s definitely hard, but the challenge is like intellectual challenge, I mean, in a sort of way but it just deals with pattern and creative thinking more so than solving a complicated problem.”  Chess is a game that does not require you to be smart. Anyone can pick up this game and start playing. All they need to know is how each piece works. They don’t even need to know any of the more complicated stuff like endgames and openings, they just need to know how each piece moves. Once they have that down, they already know how to play the game!

So my main question is, why Should people join Chess Club or consider joining Chess Club? Mitchell Meyers answers this question perfectly. “You should join Chess club because Chess Club is a lot of fun. You can learn how to play Chess, I’d be happy to teach you, I think our other members would be happy to teach you, even if you know nothing about the game. If anyone has ever been curious about it, you should join!” Chess club is still going strong and wants people to come join on Wednesday at 12:00 to see what it’s all about. If you’re interested in playing or trying to learn about the game and how to play then they welcome you to come down on Wednesdays!

Zain Wilson, a new member of Chess Club and a new student at Front Range Community College also describes why he plays Chess. “Generally I think when playing the game, I get a lot of Adrenaline and it kind of feels similar when you play a video game except there’s a lot more physical interaction in addition to it feels very stimulating to play and I know a lot of people think you have to be smart to play but you don’t. You don’t have to be smart to have fun with it, just moving randomly sometimes can be a lot of fun.”

Zain Wilson also describes when he first started playing Chess. “I started when I was very little with my dad, he introduced it to me when I was young. He showed me how to play and special rules like castling and from there I kind of self-taught and kept with it.” 

Zain Wilson thinks right now is the best time to play and learn Chess. “Right now, I think in this time, it is the best time to learn chess, not just because of age or anything its actually how well you can get the resources for it. Even 40 years ago the ability to play games with as many people as you can now was not possible. We have all these online places to play and all these online places to learn and with that there’s been a couple of awakenings of Chess where its just the best time in history to get started with it.”  

The game of Chess can also help you in real life, “it’s really good for building up skills like problem-solving, memorization and it’s also a very social thing, you can get friends with it or you can go to events with it and it just helps with getting comfortable in new places for example, the reason I joined this Chess Club is because I wanted to make some friends,” Zain Wilson, a new member of Chess Club explained. 

So with this being a game to help you get comfortable in new places, learn, and grow with new friends, and be a part of a Club at your School, then this is the right time for you to start playing and start learning about the game! It’s also the right time to join Chess Club! Even if you don’t know anything about it and want to learn how to play then this is for you! Chess Club here at Front Range wants new players to come down and see what they are all about. Come down to the meetings in the Rotunda on Wednesdays at noon to play chess with your new friends!