By Raena Doty
Arts & Features Editor
By Liv Dunleavy
Staff Writer
Chess Club hosted their opening night in the McCarthy Forum Nov. 15. The night was full of pizza, soda, and chess boards, as one might expect from this event, but it also saw a challenge - any student who could win a game against the club’s vice president would win $100.
The organization is newly formed and has the goal of uniting students with a love of chess and fostering interest in the sport for people who may not know about it.
Tony Sims, junior English major and president of Chess Club, said he wanted to start the club because he had his own ambitions to host large-scale events.
“But not only that, I wanted to use it as an opportunity to improve my own game, because that is something that has long been on my bucket list,” he said.
Sims said preparing for large events and making sure the club is organized has been a learning curve.
“We would like to make sure that we are prepared to serve and be ready for the first person through those doors. That’s where we would like to be, that’s where we’re trying to get to, and that’s where we will be in the future,” he added.
Brian Fintonis, sophomore communication arts major and social media manager for Chess Club, said they weren’t particularly interested in chess before Sims approached and asked them to join Chess Club’s eBoard.
“And it sort of revitalized my joy for chess. I mean, I haven’t played it in a couple years so it’s really nice to be in a setting where there’s a lot of people who are interested in playing it,” they said.
Fintonis said Chess Club is “crazy helpful” to the FSU community because for many people, it can help cultivate a community around a game that’s slowly getting “lost to time.” They added people come into the club and don’t know how to play chess, and teaching it keeps the culture alive.
“But the fact that they’re here helps us cultivate this environment,” they said.
They said their brother taught them to play chess, but “he taught me wrong when he played so he could cheat.”
Christopher Jorgenson, sophomore computer science major and secretary of Chess Club, said he has “a history with chess.
“I did chess club back in second grade. I was pretty infamous back then, because I taught myself the fool's mate and second-graders don't really know how to prevent the fool’s mate,” he said.
“After that, I’ve played a lot with my dad, my grandfather, and my Uncle Ned because my family has a history with chess themselves,” he said.
Lucy Forgit-Stringham, sophomore psychology major and Chess Club treasurer, said before coming to this club, she had little experience with the game.
“I had a friend at church, a bunch of us went over to one of my friend’s house and one of my friends was like, ‘Hey do you want to play chess?’ So I played one game with him,” she said.
“He got rid of his queen and played a game without his queen, and then we just played another game and that’s literally all the chess I’ve played before,” she added.
Tyrell Staples-Santos, freshman sports management major and vice president of Chess Club, sat on the stage at the Forum all night for the challenge against him - anyone who could win a game against him would win $100 of his own money.
Not only that, but any of the challengers would have 5 minutes of play time total, while he only had 1 minute before automatically losing.
Spoiler alert - he didn’t lose a game all night.
He said his rating on chess.com is approximately 2,500, and chess grandmasters have scores of approximately 2,600-2,800.
“My dad actually taught me how to play chess when I was 2 years old,” he said. “I fell in love with it.
“I just devoted all my time into it, and then, you know, eventually I picked it up and started getting really good at it,” he added. “I feel like a lot of people get it twisted. The game of chess, they feel like you got to be very, very smart to play a game like chess.
“But the reason why I started it here is because I feel that it could bring everyone together and it shows you don't need to be a mad genius to play chess.”