Checkmate: The Red Cloud Chess Club Saga

Jack playing chess against himself. Photo by Rhiannon White Eyes '14. Copyright Red Cloud Indian School.

Checkmate: The Red Cloud Chess Club Saga

By Rhiannon White Eyes ‘14

Chess. One board. Two people.

Mental jiu-jitsu at its finest. 

Every Monday and Wednesday throughout the year is Chess Club. Some of the best students come to challenge their minds and sharpen their strategies. Chess Club is run by the masters of chess, Mike Sunderland and Matt Campbell.

   

Campbell and Sunderland started Chess Club about five years ago. The last chess tournament here at Red Cloud was four years ago. Since Chess Club was introduced, more and more students have joined. Some of this year's best chess players are seniors Richard Brewer, Santana Red Feather, and Pedro Martinez.

A variety of students from all grades show up for Chess Club. The students put their minds to work and play against each other to see who comes out with the win!

The objective of chess is to get the opponent’s king in checkmate, where he would not be able to move out of check. If it is impossible to put your opponent’s king in check, then the game is simply a stalemate, in which there is no winner.

There are a lot of specific moves in chess for the different pieces. Pawns are only allowed to move forward but capture diagonally. The king is allowed to move in any direction but only one square. The queen can move anywhere. Bishops can move any number of squares but only diagonally. Rooks can move any number of squares but only up and down and side to side. Last but not least the knights only move in L shapes.

Chess Club is gradually getting more and more students each week. Some students are beginners and some are already on the path to putting the king in check. Hopefully by the end of this year, Chess Club will be filled with chess masters!

“Chess is like warfare for the mind,” states Kirkland Ross ‘14.