A 1500 year old board game that is still relevant today? Chess, a board game for two players, each with the objective to trap and checkmate their opponent’s king piece. With 64 squares and 32 pieces, this game has hooked thousands of people, including students at Rolla High School.
On Monday afternoons you may pass through the history hall and see students engaged in intense chess matches. Students meet each Monday to indulge in the love for chess. Senior Ben Choi serves as the Chess Club president.
“The Chess Club existed for probably decades before I started it, but over the pandemic, it got shut down simply because there was not enough interest and there weren’t people to play. So me and Thomas Emery restarted the club during my sophomore year, and I started it without knowing how the pieces moved. So that probably wasn’t a great decision on my part,” Choi said.
So what is so enticing about this old wooden board game? RHS Chess Club member, junior Pranaj Sitaula, has his own opinions.
“Chess really helps with building your confidence, your decision making skills and your critical thinking skills, all of these things, and they translate to real-world activities and your academic activities all throughout school,” Sitaula said.
Chess is a game like no other. There is no luck involved and is based solely on strategy. It forces you to think in advance about how your opponent will move, and how you should respond to block attacks and ambush their pieces. Will that move leave your piece vulnerable? Does the change in their position weaken their position or weaken mine? There are many questions chess players ask themselves before deciding which one of the countless moves they should make. This requires planning and visualization of the pieces, guessing what moves the opponents will play (not just one move ahead but several) and creating a game plan.
Chess players often use personalized tactics, openings, and gambits to improve their skills. Freshman Vahin Prasad talks about his favorite opening,
“I usually like to play the King’s Pawn opening or the English for white and when I play for black, I usually just play the Sicilian,” Prasad said.
Openings are strategies that chess players memorize to start the game on the right foot. Most are named after famous chess players but some are rather strangely dubbed.
“I like the bong cloud. The Bongcloud is an opening named after Hikaru Nakamura’s fart and how it was so colossal that they had to call it the BongCloud. I’m not kidding,” Choi added.
On March 16, the club competed at the state tournament at Battle High School.
“So the state tournament happens every year at Battle High School. I think last year was the first time we had won. But for the future, I believe that it’s going to keep being here. Last year, I think we placed fifth or sixth and we had a lot of fun. So we just decided to come again,” Choi said.
The tournament went well along, with Situala receiving a medal at board 4. Overall the RHS Chess Club has shown extraordinary performance during tournaments and continues to promote Chess Club. Whether you like chess or not, it’s clear that the RHS Chess Club emanates passion, one checkmate at a time.
