On Wednesdays, students at West Anchorage High School meet up in room 12 to hang out and perfect their chess moves.

Adam Mackie, English I and Mythology teacher, sponsors the Chess Club. He said that he has been sponsoring the club for about two years. President of the chess club (Morgan Tullos) has been in the Chess Club since the end of the first semester of school. So, the real question is, Why would you join chess club? Tullos said, “I was in chess club in elementary school, and they didn’t provide it at my middle school, so I thought that it was a good opportunity to jump back into it.”

Two regular attending members, Viktor Naslund and Albert Santana-Perez, also explain why they joined chess club. Naslund said, “I wanted to play chess, and I can’t play chess any other way, because I don’t have a chess board at home.” Santana-Perez said, “I joined chess club, because… I don’t have people to play with at home, so it’s a lot easier to meet new people who are really good at chess.”

What is the environment like in chess club? Many people would assume the room is quiet and boring. According to the people in the room, this is not the case. Mackie said, “It’s usually pretty vibrant and noisy.” Tullos had a similar opinion. “The people are fun. They’re pretty funny. Probably a stereotype about chess club is that it’d be super quiet, but no, they’re loud and proud for sure,” she said. So overall, Chess Club seems to be a good place to meet if you are interested in playing Chess.

There are so many games out there in the world. Why would anyone want to play Chess, out of all the games that exist? The Chess Club members each have their different ways of explaining why they choose to play Chess. Naslund said, “It’s a lot of brain… And I really like that you… have to think a lot.” Santana-Perez followed, saying, “It’s more about all the patterns. You can play differently… You could play aggressively, offensive, defense.” Tullos said, “Chess is one of those things that doesn’t have language. You can play it until you’re very old. It’s a nice skill to say that you can have. And you can have a lot of fun doing it, casually or competitively.”