Checkmate: USU Chess Club hosts a chess tournament along with Edith Bowen elementary students
Two armies of equal size and strength are arranged across from each other on the field of battle. The lay of the land offers no advantage to either side. Only the skill and wits of their commander will decide the outcome.
This Saturday in the Sunburst lounge the Utah State University Chess club held a tournament to help raise local interest in the classic game of strategy. More than 20 people including 14 elementary students participated in the event.
Two long rows of tables where set up in the lounge with chess sets going up and down.
The tournament was divided into two categories, one for the kids and another for the adults. Both brackets held some closely contested matches and emotions ran high.
“I took his queen and now he won’t play with me any more,” complained Megan Cho, a 7-year-old student from Edith Bowen Laborartory School.
Fortunately, Dave Kerren, the adult leader over the Edith Bowen after school chess club, was on hand to resolve this and other more common chess questions.
On the adults’ table player were staring intently at the board, examining the game, searching for ways to take advantage of their opponent. Some games lasted more than 20 minutes, while others pushed the tournament’s one-hour-per-round rule.
“It looks like some of the matches over here are uneven,” chess enthusiast and tournament co-chairman Vin Tran explained. “But we actually have two levels that we had to combine into one so when you just look at player compared to their level, it’s really pretty good.”
After each round, tournament organizers would calculate who should play whom in the next round. All players got to play in all five rounds with the final winner being decided by number of wins and strength of beaten opponents.
The attempts to pair off equally matched opponent lead to some tight games.
“The best part is when you have a really close game, it doesn’t matter who wins or loses, it’s a blast,” said Keith Henderson, an undeclared sophomore playing in his first tournament since Cub Scouts. ” I like the challenge.”
The proceeds from the entry fees went toward helping the chess club buy some more equipment. “We have no funds because we’ve never charged dues,” USU Chess Club president Chad Keyser explained. “We don’t even have any our own boards. We had to borrow these from Edith Bowen.”
During the tournament’s lunch break, players took turns playing relaxed speed games. During this time, Tran successfully defended his title as the club one-minute game champion.
“I’ll give any one who beats me a present,” Tran exclaimed.
While the chess club has been around USU for years, many students haven’t heard about it.
“This is the first semester we’ve really advertised it,” Keyser, a senior majoring in biology, said.
Every Monday and Wednesday at 4 p.m., members of the chess club meet in the Sunburst lounge to play chess and build its skills together.
On Wednesday, some members of the club also go to Edith Bowen to help with their Little Aggies Chess Club.
‘They have over 50 kids show up some days,” Keyser said. “It’s pandemonium.”
“It’s a good opportunity for the kids,” Colette Felts, a chess mom, who stayed to watch her son Haydn play. “I think it’s good for them.”
In addition to regular chess, member also play blitz chess and bunkhouse chess.
In blitz chess each player only has between one and five minutes on the clock. Players can lose by being put into check mate or if their time runs out. Bunkhouse is a four-player version of chess where players play on teams of two with two boards and when you take you’re opponents pieces you’re teammate can place it anywhere on his board as one of his pieces.
Members of the chess club are at all different levels of skill, including both people learning for the first time and Tran, who is one of the highest ranked players in Utah.
“It’s a lot of fun, we have a lot of good players,” co-first place winner Bobby Smith, a junior studying chemistry said. “I got into chess when I was growing up in Denver, there was a place where all the bums and construction workers would play. I went a few times and lost really bad so I decided to read some books and learn to place really good so I could go back and beat them all.”
Also taking first place was USU student Serge Ballif.
The club hopes to host more tournaments next year including an intercollegiate tournament.
-steveshinney@cc.usu.edu
Tables lined the Sunburst lounge Saturday during the USU Chess Club´s tournament which had both college and elemenatrary school student participants. (Photo by Michael Sharp)
USU student Bobby Smith studies his options during Saturday´s Chess Tournament. (Photo by Michael Sharp)
Salem Karren, a student from Edith Bowen, eaches to move his rook during the tournament. (Photo by Michael Sharp)
Braden Hamilton watches as his queen is captured by Konner Karren, a fellow member fo the Little Blue Chess Club from Edith Bowen Elementary. The game was part of Saturday´s chess tournament in the TSC. (Photo by Michael Sharp)