Santa Fe Rooks, a growing chess club, entices new players
Sep. 30—Eight-year-old Anna Tang studied a chess board in front of her at DeVargas Center Saturday morning, patiently waiting for the 10th-best player in the state to make his way to her board before making her next move.
Everyone expected Tony Schroeder to best his opponents at the chess simul — or simultaneous exhibition — but that didn't stop nearly 20 people from ages 8 to 80 from trying.
Schroeder, from Albuquerque, and Santa Fe's Justin Skliar, the sixth-highest rated player in the state, took turns playing over a dozen opponents at once at the Santa Fe Rooks Chess Club's event, walking around a circle of tables with chess games set up.
Anyone who knew the rules was free to sit at an open board at the free event. Most players were adults, but Santa Fe Rooks Chess Club old-timers were happy to see a few kids sit down.
Skliar and a few others have re-energized the informal chess club over the past six months with new events and publicity, aiming to get more kids and beginners into the game, he said.
The chess scene in Santa Fe is very active, with informal practices three nights a week and people playing at the DeVargas Center every day, but it is "kind of broken in the sense that it's a lot of really established veteran players," Skliar said. "Because they're so advanced, it's very tough to get those beginners into it.
"I've seen people show up to their first tournament, they get crushed, and they never want to play again. So we're really trying to fix that," he said.
The group has started promoting their practices and tournaments and offering free weekly chess lessons for kids at the Santa Fe Public Library main branch. The club also plans to teach a class at Santa Fe Community College. Meanwhile, it's working to become a nonprofit to raise money needed to expand into local schools.
"We've really grown quite a bit in just a short amount of time," said Elisa Wrede, one person Skliar got hooked on chess.
After watching The Queen's Gambit, a fictional 2020 television series about a chess prodigy, Wrede started learning the game about five months ago and fell in love with it.
"For me, it's the complexity," she said. "Every game is different. And I'm really figuring out the pattern recognition," she said.
The Queen's Gambit and online play have fueled a "massive growth" in chess in the past few years, New Mexico Chess Organization vice president Daniel Serna said Saturday. Serna himself only started playing as an adult after watching the show, he said.
Chess has also become more accessible because while people needed coaches in the past to become competitive, now "you can get all the unlimited chess training you want for free on YouTube," Serna said.
One of the best parts of playing, he said, is the welcoming community.
"Some communities may not be so nice and friendly to newcomers," he said. "At a chess event, you'll say you're new, and you'll have five people say, 'I'll teach you things, come play.'"
Chess is also just a unique game, Skliar said.
"It's been around since before Columbus sailed. There are recorded games going back to the 14- and 1500s," he said. "It's a game of pure skill; there's no luck factor. So for people who are willing to put their minds to work playing a game, there's really nothing like it."
And it feels good to checkmate your opponent, Serna added.
"First time you checkmate an opponent and win a game you'll think, 'OK, I can do this. This is fun.'"
