Chess is a game with origins hundreds of years old, but the tradition is still alive and well here at the Kent School. Chess Club meets every Friday evening at 6:30pm. At Chess Club, students typically play chess while enjoying pizza for dinner, and spend time with friends bonding over a classic game.

Mr. MacLeod, whose house hosts Chess Club, is an active chess player and loves the game. He started playing with his grandfather, and has been playing ever since. “I play twelve or fifteen games a day,” says Mr. MacLeod.

According to Mr. MacLeod, chess is a good thing for students because “it’s a thinking process, there’s a certain amount of mathematics involved, and, in terms of each space or piece being attacked or defended, there’s a certain spatial aspect of it.”

Sydney Sykes, a member of the chess club, enjoys going to chess club to enjoy the food while having a fun time with her friends. She also loves to play chess, but she thinks that the chess club has more to do with friends and socializing than just chess. Sykes says, “I go because it’s fun. You don’t have to play if you don’t want to, and you can just hang out with friends.”

Players of all levels visit the chess club, and the club serves as a way for players to get to know each other and friends to spend quality time together. The club, which has existed since 1982, is open to anyone who wants to play or learn to play chess.