The main point of the Verrado Chess Club is simple, play chess.
Owen, one of the top 3 players on the club, says “We usually just play against one another the whole meeting, that’s the only way to get better.” The members take turns going up against one another and sharpening each other’s skills, for competition and just for fun.
Chess has been around for over 1500 years and is one of the most well-known board games in the world. Chess was invented in India in the 6th century CE. It was originally played on an 8×8 board with pieces representing military units. While chess has evolved over time, the earlier forms of chess are very similar to the pieces and boards from today.
The rules of chess are rather difficult to learn, which keeps many people from experiencing the game. The goal of chess is to ultimately “capture” the opponent’s King. Each piece can only move in certain directions. The King can move one square in any direction, the Rook can move any amount of squares in its line or row, the Bishop can move any amount of squares diagonally, the Queen is a combination of both the Bishop and Rook and the Pawn can move one square forward. The Knight is the most confusing piece as it moves 2 squares in any direction, then 1 square to the right or left, making an “L” shape. There are also other situations where the rules are different, for example, the Pawn’s first move can be 2 squares forward instead of just 1.
To win the match your opponent must resign, meaning give up, or you must put the opponent’s King in checkmate. Check occurs when the King is in danger from another piece and must move or be covered by another piece. If there is no possible move to make the King safe, then it is ruled checkmate and the game is over.
The Verrado Chess Club is a small club of around 10-15 members. With most of these members juggling other extracurricular activities, some of the members cannot make it to every meeting but do their best to.
One Junior in the club, Hyro, says “During meetings, we sometimes talk about any tournaments we want to plan.” Hyro says that in the past, they had an idea to do a fundraiser where they collect plastics from football games and sell them to make money for the club.
With more fundraisers, the Club can earn more money. The members plan to use the money for things like chess club shirts, and different styles of chess boards and pieces. Through fundraising the club can also expand and meet new people who may be interested in joining the club.
The team even has a list on the whiteboard where any member can write any ideas they have. Some of their other ideas include using food places like the football and baseball teams to raise money. Other ideas are simply selling chocolate bars to raise money for the club.
Joining the chess club even has other benefits. Playing chess improves critical thinking and helps people tap into their competitive side to beat their opponents. Joining the chess club is about unlocking your genius side and building new friendships!
