Chapman Chess Club: trading thoughts, pawns on Tuesday nights

On alternating Tuesdays, professors and students alike convene in Swenson Hall for a few friendly games of chess. Photos by JAKE NEEDHAM, Staff Photographer

As the clock struck 6 p.m. and Chapman chess club’s March 1 meeting officially began, there were already several members embroiled in thoughtful matches of the roughly 2,000 year-old board game. Conversations were littered with long pauses as the players studiously analyzed the boards that lay before them, slowly deliberating their next move. Others flittered about the room, greeting newcomers and friends alike with propositions for a quick game or two.   

Every other Tuesday, the club meets up to trade both thoughts and pawns in Swenson Hall’s fittingly titled Ideation Zone. Although one might think that a chess club would be a long-standing institution at a liberal arts school like Chapman, the current iteration of the group originated only two years ago. 

According to interim president and founding member Tristian Tran, a Ph.D. candidate in the computer and data sciences program, the club is “pretty much a bunch of grad students and professors who got together to have an over-the-board chess experience because a lot of them don’t like using online chess.”

A member of Chapman Chess Club pensively considers their next move against an opponent.

Tran said he has only been studying chess for less than two years, but his knowledge of the game, its history and the seemingly endless number of ways to approach it is vast. Thankfully, he is far more interested in sharing his knowledge than wiping the floor with hapless novices.

“We’re trying to accommodate as many levels of play as possible,” Tran said. “There’s different ways you can create advantages if you know you’re weaker than your opponent. There’s different ways to balance: time, material or even take-backs.” 

Alongside standard chess, the club offers a plethora of different play styles for members to further familiarize themselves with the mechanics of the game. The variety of methods ranges from Chess 960 — randomized chess where all of the pieces are placed in a bag and then put in random positions on the board — to in-depth studies of historic games.  

Despite lacking an official title on the club board, fellow Ph.D. candidate Jake Cohn told The Panther he also helps out with the meetings, bouncing from table to table around the room to observe games and set up boards for new players. 

“I made the joke that instead of being (called) interim (president), Tristan should be the ‘King,’” Cohn said. “Personally, I always thought it would be really nice to be a rook. The rook isn’t really one of the main pieces that everyone plays with. I’m the rook; I exist, I don’t technically have a big part, but I’m here.”

Tran said that chess is a fairly niche hobby, but the March 1 meeting drew quite a sizable crowd. Among those in attendance was Ryan Millares, a senior computer science major who had finally made it to his first meeting after his schedule had prohibited him from attending any Chess Club events last semester.

Having honed his skills with online chess, Millares said he had developed a number of tricky opening moves designed to fool his opponents. 

“My favorite one that I learned back in middle school and early high school was a trick where I make a bold sacrifice and then pretend to regret it,” Millares said. “After they’ve cast their attention aside, if they fall for it, they’re basically screwed within two moves or they have to give up a ton of pieces and keep playing.” 

Chess club also just so happens to be one of the few spaces on campus where professors and students from different programs are given the chance to engage with each other. Alexander Kurz, a professor of computer science, said he’ll frequently indulge in game after game with the club’s members.  

“I love chess, so I was very happy when Tristan started organizing this chess club,” Kurz said. 

So if thought-provoking conversations and plenty of chess sounds like a good time, swing by the next Chapman Chess Club meeting March 22, which will be held at 8 p.m. in Swenson Hall rooms 107/109.