By Christopher Wood and Takumi Torii
In the exciting world of sports around BCC, nothing beats the intellectual challenge of the Chess Club.
“Chess promotes a lot of higher level thinking,” said Jennie Mayer, Chess Club faculty advisor.
The club consists of “10 active members” that meet twice a week to engage in the game of chess on Mondays and Fridays, said King Liao, Chess Club president.
“There are a lot of members on the e-mail list,” said King.
On Mondays, a “play for fun” attitude is present at the meeting. While on Thursdays people show to play and get better.
Around a year ago, the chess club competed in an online chess tournament against other schools in America, said Kim.
“At that time, we did not have a lot of members, and we didn’t do so well,” said Kim.
The club will take all skill levels; the average skill level of the club is beginner-intermediate.
“There are a few advanced players in the club, and they help teach the beginners how to play better,” said Mayer. “They started out the same [as the beginners].”
The Chess Club also plays different styles of chess besides the standard form. For example, they also play blindfold chess. This variation involves shouting your moves across the room to your opponent and they move the piece in question.
“It’s really cool to see something like that,” said Mayer. “You don’t realize what your mind is capable of.”
The club plans to enter into more tournaments to gain interest among students. They plan to subsidize the cost for students with fundraising and ASG funds, but they encourage people to come if they just want to play for fun.