Chess at Riverdale Expands into a Club
A game of strategy, chess. To play to your top potential and level, you must center your whole focus on just the game and not be pestered by outside distractions. The decision of moving just one piece can determine everything. As time runs out, it is necessary that you make decisions quickly and corner your opponent to the point where they are immobile. While the game can be stressful, it also relieves the stresses that overflow our daily life. Playing a game every once and a while not only can engage your brain, but also can provide relaxation anywhere and anytime. Riverdale provides the perfect place and time for students who are interested to play among other students ranging through all different skill levels.
The chess club started in full last year and meets every other Monday from 12:05–12:50 PM in the Mayo Lab in Hackett. Mr. Michael Sclafani, the Assistant Head of the Middle School, is the club’s faculty advisor, and explained that before the club was created, all Riverdale would do is hold a chess tournament once or twice a year. Then about two years ago, there were two or three very skilled chess players who came together and decided to create the club, which is open to anyone in the Upper School, including beginners. As Mr. Sclafani told the Riverdale Review, “Some of the older players [are] willing to teach students how to play and teach strategies to beginners.”
The annual chess tournament, usually taking place in the winter or spring, is a chance for anyone at the school to participate in a low time requirement tournament. As the captain of the chess team, Senior Corwin Cheung explained, “the tournament is a Swiss format where each player plays five games against others around their level.” If you are unfamiliar with what “a Swiss format” tournament is, it is a format where there is no elimination, and everyone plays all of their five games. Points will be awarded to students when they win games and whoever has the most points in the end will win the whole tournament. Mr. Sclafani sets up the match-ups, and from there, the two players have the freedom to figure out when they will play and where. Additionally, the students have the freedom to choose the format of their game, change the time limits on each side of the board, and make any other adjustments they decide they want to make together. The tournament gives Riverdale students the ability to be independent and pursue a game they love without constant teacher supervision and input.
For the future, Mr. Sclafani hopes to make the chess club “a sort of thing that people can drop in and out of when they have time and [hopes that] they can have multiple tournaments next year.” Tournaments are both fun and grant Riverdale students the capacity to publicly play the game they adore, which also draws interest to the club itself. One thing that Mr. Sclafani has noticed is that “with middle schoolers, it draws an enormous amount of attention. When these tournaments come up, kids suddenly want to do it.” The future looks promising for the chess club because as these middle schoolers continue to gain interest and as they move onto the Upper School, the club gains members quickly because of the newly sparked interest.
