For the Love of Chess
Chess may seem like just a game to some people, but for others like Principal Thomas-El in Delaware, the game is 'the great equalizer'. Thomas-El has been teaching kindergarten to 8th grade students the game of chess for over 30 years and has seen how the game changes these students. "These are inner-city students in some very high-crime, high-poverty areas. These children are playing chess and graduating high school and going to some of the top colleges and law schools in the nation," Thomas-El told Good Morning America last month.
The principal was always looking for creative ways to teach his students math and chess was one of those ways. He continued to demonstrate how chess was not only teaching the students math, but also resilience, confidence, and how to move beyond their conditions and transcend their environment. The GMA interview states that 'over his career, Thomas-El's all-girls teams have taken on men twice their age and come out victorious. One of his teams at Thomas Edison Charter School even went three years undefeated.'
Principal El's students post with the first place trophy at the National Chess Championship in Indianapolis. Source: GMA
The game of chess is currently seeing a large peak in interest and sales of chess sets have dramatically spiked, in large part to the popular Netflix show Queen's Gambit that debuted in October 2020. If you haven't had the opportunity to watch the show, it is based off a 1983 book written by Walter Tevis' with the same name and follows a chess prodigy and orphan Beth Harmon. Although the story is not based on a true story the writing ties in many elements and personalities of real life chess prodigies and incorporates famous chess matches into the series.
Netflix has stated that the release of this show is the biggest limited series script ever and has had an effect that the team did not predict, such as:
The Queen’s Gambit novel is now on The New York Times bestseller list - 37 years after its release;
Google search queries for chess have doubled while searches for “how to play chess” have hit a nine-year peak;
Inquiries for ‘chess sets’ on eBay are up 250% and Goliath Games says its chess sales have increased over 170%
The number of new players has increased five fold on Chess.com.
A record-setting 62 million households chose to watch The Queen’s Gambit in its first 28 days
The show made the Top 10 in 92 countries and ranked No. 1 in 63 countries, including the UK, Argentina, Israel, and South Africa
Although Beth Harmon is a fictional character, Chess.com has dubbed Vera Menchik the 'real life Beth Harmon' because of all the gender norms she broke during her career. Menchik had started learning chess at the age of 9 in a time when very few women were encouraged to play chess. She was the first Women's World Champion in 1927 and dominated both women's and men's events throughout the 1920's and 30's.
A top Austrian player named Albert Becker was quite cocky before playing Menchik. “Gentlemen, I have a great idea,” Becker told some buddies before the match. "I suggest forming a club named after Vera Menchik. Those who will manage to lose a game to her will become full members of the club. Those who draw will only be considered as candidates for membership.” Becker became the club’s first member. Michael Rosenwald/Washington Post
The Queen's Gambit Netflix show was so popular that it has even propelled interest for a game show and movie on the Rubik's Cube. The popular toy has been sold over 350 million times and has created some epic social media content over the years like this one of a Tennessee teen solving a Rubik's Cube while playing piano. What a movie or game show about the Rubik's Cube would be like is still yet to be determined but the potential for intrigue is there.
Tell us what you think. Do you like chess, have you ever played, do you want to learn? Can you solve a Rubik's Cube, are you impressed by people who can, or are both of these games boring to you? Share you thoughts below.
