Whether students enjoy a logical board game or beating their opponent, the University’s new chess club welcomes a community for this environment to prosper.
Nicholas Parmi, a sophomore accounting major and president of the chess club, partnered with three other students to start this new organization in November 2022. Parmi said the club is open to players of all skill levels and new members can expect a welcoming environment.
“What we want to be right now is just a learning platform,” Parmi said.
Parmi said chess can even improve other aspects of a player’s daily life.
“It’s a game where you need to be willing to fail and I think that is something you can apply to everything in life—you’re not going to get it right away,” Parmi said. “Chess is a game of life.”
Jacob Girard, a senior accounting major and treasurer of the chess club, echoed Parmi’s statement and said the club wants to establish an educational yet competitive space where players can learn about the basics of chess and advanced techniques such as openings, endgames and situational puzzles.
“It was surprising that we didn’t have a chess club already,” Girard said. “We love the game, so we want to spread the game.”
Parmi and Girard said they developed a bond and friendship over their love for chess after they met through their fraternity, Phi Delta Theta.
Girard said assessing the knowledge of other players is a key goal of the chess club. He said they want to run fair chess tournaments between members and also hope to compete against other universities in the future.
According to Parmi, the chess club is estimated to have upwards of 40 members.
“A lot of people I know are just playing for the first time, so we want to have people playing others of the same skill,” Parmi said.
Robert Steiner, a sophomore journalism major, said he recently got back into chess in the spring semester but is hesitant to join the chess club. Steiner said students who are in a similar position as himself should stay motivated in the face of losses.
“For people in my skill range, they should definitely start playing more,” Steiner said. “They will get experience and can learn by playing people who are in a slightly a higher skill level.”
Mercer Santos can be reached at mercer.santos@student.shu.edu
