If you are interested in learning to play chess, try out the chess club. Their meetings are held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays after school in English teacher Jared Smith’s room in A13.

If you wanna join the chess club you have to do two things:

“If they are willing to learn and play on a competitive level,” Mr. Smith said, “any student who would like to join the club can walk in.”

They plan to compete in a couple of tournaments this year. These tournaments will be held in person in Azle.
Whether or not chess is a sport is a debate still argued to this day; however, it is all about perspective. The International Olympic Committee considers chess to be a sport because it requires physical exertion as mental exertion manifests.

“In a competitive game you could burn as many calories as another sport,” Smith said, “There are some types of chess where it’s an indisputable sport, like chess boxing.”

There are many rules of chess, but for Smith, these rules can be summarized in a couple of sentences.

“It’s a complicated version of checkers,” he said, “Kill their king. Protect yours, attack and always be on the defense.”

There are 32 pieces, 16 for each player. These pieces consist of one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns.

Chess tournaments are different based on if they are online or local. The tournaments can have rewards from something small like a gift card to a restaurant to an entire scholarship.

“There are many online chess tournaments,” Smith said. “There are chess tournaments that give school scholarships.”

Chess can sprout a lot of emotions depending on how it went to how it ended. No matter the chess match, trying to keep a calm exterior is important.

“It feels rewarding to win and sucks to lose but it helps to grow,” Smith said. “Every game is different but it’s a rollercoaster depending on how it goes. Every emotion can erupt in the game.”