West High Games Club to Host Interschool Chess Competition

   When Anika Agarwal (12) was a sophomore, West High’s Chess Club was nearly gone. A few years later, the Games Club co-founder is organizing the largest chess tournament the school has ever had. 

   No matter how you look at it, the pandemic easily could have wiped out West High’s Chess Club — there’s just something about face-to-face chess that a webcam and microphone can’t replicate. After the whirlwind of early-pandemic chaos swept up the club’s once-regular meetings, the group fell inactive. The only sign that the school ever had a chess club was the entry on ASB’s list. 

   While others might have seen another inevitable COVID casualty, Agarwal and other co-founders saw opportunity. She approached Mr. Kurashige, the Chess Club’s former adviser, with a plan: consolidate the Chess Club and an existing Dungeons and Dragons’ group to “broaden” its appeal, hosting an annual chess competition to retain old members and bring in new ones. They’d call it: Games Club.

   Since the change, the club has been doing better than ever. Head to room 5207 on Fridays and you’ll find two or three dozen members scattered about, eating lunch as they play through games of chess, checkers, and D&D campaigns. Every so often, the hum of mid-game banter and casual conversation is interrupted — a board member passes around a sign-in sheet or a jovial member will shout “Bingo!” — but most keep their attention on the game in front of them. James Jeong (9) and Matthias Kim (10), who were playing chess at one such meeting, noted that they had joined the club recently and looked forward to the upcoming tournament — Kim joked that he hopes to “crush his opponents.” 

   Set to be held in the West High library on Mar. 25, Games Club’s interschool chess tournament has been in the works since October of last year. According to Agarwal, the club had already run a successful West-only chess competition the year prior; they had no intention of inviting other schools until Vice Principal Mr. Eddy suggested it. Club tech coordinator Catherine Jonaris (12) spread the word to other Games Clubs from schools nearby. The 150-capacity tournament will be filled with players from seven different schools — a huge accomplishment for a tournament in its second year.

   For the hour of gameplay, competitors will duel without any bracket or matchmaking; the club will tally every win. Once the organizers have narrowed down the 16 competitors with the most wins, brackets will be formed — winners play winners until only one is left, crowned the tournament champion. The club offers prizes for those who win, pizza for those who don’t, and plenty of other games for the downtime between matches. Sign up here by Saturday, Mar. 11.