BBCHS is known to have many different opportunities and experiences for students to enjoy. Some of these include different sports, extra curriculars, as well as clubs. Many students are aware of different clubs such as the different musical activities, student council, and best buddies. But there are also many clubs that people might not know a whole lot about such as Ecology, Natural Helpers, and Scholastic Bowl. All of these clubs could provide different benefits to members. But one club that can provide different things that are beneficial to people as well as being a club that is not super well known is the chess club. 

The chess club here at BBCHS has been around for a while now and is currently under the leadership of Mr. Bill Sadler and Mr. Craig Ryan. There are at the moment 14 students in the club, and they meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3-4 p.m. The group meets in Mr. Sadler’s room and have meets either at BBCHS or at opposing schools. The club goes over the rules of the game and different strategies you can use, and also has a lot of side benefits that people just taking a glance of the club from the outside might not realize.

At a glance chess may not seem like a game that everybody would enjoy, but there are many benefits to being in the club that most people might not know about. Students interested in joining the club but don’t know how to play should not worry about it at all. Joining the club will provide the opportunity to learn about and how to play chess. When asked about joining chess, junior Evan Lilienthal stated, “I never really knew how to play before joining, but after going to practices, I started to learn more and more about the game and how to play.” Joining the team also opens up different opportunities to meet new people. Lilienthal also said, “When joining the team I didn’t really know what to expect with not knowing a lot of the people, but after joining, I started to meet more people and some of them now are even good friends.”

Just like any other sport or competitive activity, chess has different competitions where they travel to other schools and face off as a team to try and win games. So if you still have that spirit of competition this is another great opportunity for you. Doing all of this also comes with great experiences such as getting to know others. Griffin Gund, another member of the team, when asked about his favorite memory of chess club, responded, “I really enjoyed going to other schools and meeting people on the opposing teams. They were always super friendly and supportive even if they were going against you.” 

A big side benefit to the game of chess is that it teaches a lot of strategy and patience due to the different aspects of the game. Chess includes different types of rules to make you think and be very strategic about your moves. Gund, when asked about how the game makes him think he stated, “It really makes you think. There are just so many different ways a game could go. It really teaches you patience and strategic thinking.”

So chess, with all of its side benefits such as learning strategy, patience, and a whole new game,  as well as providing the ability to meet new people, seems to be something that you would want to give a shot and learn. What should you do? If interested contact either Mr. Sadler or Mr. Ryan about more additional information about joining the chess club.