Angled at the end of one of the EMU’s many tables stood an easel draped with an oversized green and white chessboard. Attached with Velcro, chess pieces waited at their chosen positions, mirroring the latest game plan of the University Chess Club.
Letaw recently reinvigorated the club that, as one member recently told her, has been on campus in some form or another for the past 30 years. The current group gathers in the EMU Fishbowl every Thursday at 6 p.m.
Each meeting introduces a new strategy for members to consider and, if they so chose, a game to apply it to. With names like the Gruenfeld Defense and the King’s Indian Attack, the strategies ring more of a combat zone than they do of a game board.
“There really is a thrill of the battle with this game,” said club vice president and fourth year University graduate student Rob Fisette.
To both exercise their skills and indulge in some spirited competition, the club hosts at least one tournament per term. In addition, members often play in off-site competitions.
However, many of those contests are unrated and, as such, focus more on honing rather than glorifying a player’s skill.
The team spent the first part of its Oct. 15 meeting poring over this display, deciding what move to make next in a game currently being waged nationwide against the American Medical Association’s Chicago chess club.
“Correspondence games are slow,” said club president and University graduate student Alathea Letaw. “Each week, one team will make a move and e-mail it to the other, whose members then decide how to respond. Playing a game like this is just one of the things we thought we could add to the regular meetings.”
Stephen Lamb, one such player, is thrilled to have other players to learn from. Lamb once served as club president, and after losing touch with the group, used the e-mail list he compiled as president to send a message inquiring about its current state. It was Letaw who responded, and Lamb credits her with re-fueling the group.
“I think there’s a real sense of camaraderie here,” Lamb said. “(Letaw) has raised the level of motivation, and so the level of participation has also gone up.”
Letaw often stands alone when representing female chess players on the school’s team. It’s a role she said she’s gotten used to but wouldn’t mind losing.
“It seems that girls are less confident about their game abilities,” she said. “They seem to think there’s some stereotype against women playing chess.”
Such worries about skill level are ridiculous, Fisette said. Like many of the club’s members, he first learned the game as a child but only recently began playing it on a more regular basis.
“Most people who don’t come think they’re not good enough or that they need to get better before playing here,” he said. “That’s just silly. We encourage all skill levels and people with all sorts of goals to come participate.”
At the group’s meetings, more experienced chess enthusiasts often mentor newer members. It’s for that very reason that Sheldon High School chess team coach Phil Carson began bringing his students.
“They’re not so intimidated once they see that these players are students just like they are,” Carson said, who has spent five years as Sheldon’s chess coach.
Carson first fell in love with the game as a child when electricity power outages during the winter forced his family to rely on board games for entertainment.
“We played checkers, SORRY!, and, of course, chess,” he said. “Now, I don’t really play for the competition but more for, well, the artistry of it all.”
The University club not only includes high school and college students, but also includes members who originally played at the Eugene Chess Club. When that organization folded, many chess-loving Eugeneans began gravitating to the student-led Thursday
night meetings.
Letaw and Fisette wouldn’t mind seeing more student participation.
“I want more people to come to the meetings,” Letaw said. “I like to give
people a chance to play.”
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