At South Windsor High School, students have been provided the opportunity to participate in friendly chess matches — and the occasional tournament — in the chess club.
The club was founded five years ago, and continues to operate well today.
Ayush Singh, president of the club, ensures that the club runs smoothly and that no member is without someone to play chess with, though his responsibilities don’t end there.
“I also have to take attendance to manage snack privileges and organize tournaments,” Singh said.
The club advisor, science teacher Anna Cotton, is happy to provide a venue for South Windsor High School students to play chess.
“I’ve seen so much talent,” Cotton shared. “You don’t see chess abilities and strategy within classes, but you definitely see it show up in the club.”
She has been the advisor since the previous school year, bringing snacks and a welcoming atmosphere to her classroom. This atmosphere has been appreciated by the growing number of members, including South Windsor High School senior Ioana Luangpraseuth, who shared her favorite part of the chess club.
“I would say meeting new people with new strategies and how they approach chess,” Luangpraseuth told The Prowl.
She also cites the intellectual benefits the club provides, with many considering chess a game that sharpens one’s mind and strategic abilities.
“I think the chess club is a very intricate and advanced club, especially if you want to improve your intelligence while having fun,” Luangpraseuth said.
Other members, like senior London Bascomb, credit the organization’s relaxing setting.
“It’s a great group of people and it’s a great environment. It’s a good thing to do after school and decompress,” Bascomb said.
As for chess tournaments, they have been organized in the past, both internally and externally.
“We’ve had about 4-5 tournaments and we took an unofficial chess team to a USCF tournament to represent South Windsor, and we got some good placements,” Singh said.
The USCF, or the United States Chess Federation, serves as the United States’ governing body for chess competition, also representing the country in The World Chess Federation.
The club’s representation of South Windsor on a national level is nothing short of commendable, and this level of prestige the club has taken on does not seem to be plateauing anytime soon.
“The vision for the chess club is probably compiling a bunch of resources that people can use to improve and perhaps developing a ranking system to keep score of our top players and then form an official team which goes out to tournaments to compete based on the ranking system,” Singh told The Prowl.
This will allow South Windsor to be represented by an official team at national chess tournaments, rather than an unofficial team as seen in the past.
Overall, the chess club has seen much success in its time at South Windsor High School, and the future is bright for the organization. Be sure to join the chess club by joining the Google Classroom with the code zorhpmg.
