The Rise of the 64 Squares
One of the most satisfying feelings in the game of chess is coming back from a lost position. In one of my most recent chess tournaments, I was down material and starting to lose hope, but managed to secure a draw. The classical game of chess has passed the test of time and has become more popular this year than it has ever been. Chess.com reported an all-time high of over ten million concurrent users on January 20. Similarly, Lichess reached a peak of four million users. The World Chess Championship, in the last two weeks of April, had an average viewership of 148,000, peaking at 572,000 on the final day.
Isaac Collazo, an 11th grader at E&S and a strong intermediate player who has been playing for six years, believes that digitizing chess has been one of the primary factors of its growth.
“Chess used to be primarily over the board,” said Isaac. “Now, we just have more access to the game, which makes it a lot more possible for people to explore it no matter where they are or who they are.”
Isaac believes that another reason chess is becoming increasingly popular is becaue of how easy it is to learn.
“GothamChess is a very entertaining YouTuber,” said Isaac. “He knows how to kind of dumb it down for the folks and make it easier for chess noobs to understand what's going on, like these higher level games where people are ‘sacrificing the rook.’ He makes it easier to digest chess content and that makes it more alluring for people who are just exploring it to see whether or not they want to play the game.”
Alexander Hodgson, a high school sophomore of the Carver Chess Team, believes that while the game has reached highs the chess community couldn’t imagine, it’s unlikely that they see the same rate of growth in the future.
“I think that it'll probably keep growing in popularity,” said Xander. “I don't think it's ever gonna get back to the hype that it had in January. Maybe it will in spikes, but not continuously.”
No matter how much the game may grow in popularity, Isaac believes that there is one constant. The intellectual battle on the 64 squares will always be a great way to pass the time.
“I would absolutely recommend chess to someone who’s never played it before,” said Isaac. “At the end of the day, chess is just a fun game. I mean, fun is fun, and necessary.”