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PENINSULA STUDENT VOICE: Chess captures growing interest among youth

The number of youth playing the sport competitively across Canada is growing
student
Logan Pinard is a student at Parkland Secondary in North Saanich.

Today, chess is one of the biggest games in the world and has a newfound life among the youth of the globe. Chess’s popularity is at an all-time high due to growing popularity in TV shows, YouTube videos, and the growing number of kids who now have access to chess. Currently, there are 25 million kids who play chess at a competitive level according to the International Chess Federation. Here in Canada, there are over 5,000 junior chess players who play in Canadian Federation of Chess tournaments compared to the 352 in 2010. With today's technology, chess is reaching people all over the world who never would have had the opportunity to play in their lifetime. 

Chess originated in India in the 6th century AD as an ancient game called Chaturanga and quickly spread throughout the Middle East. In the 16th century chess morphed into the game we all know and love today. The problem at the time with chess was it was mostly reserved for the upper classes and those who had access to the boards and pieces. It wasn’t until 1575 that the first chess tournament was played.

The Chess Federation was founded in 1924 when interest was building but people still didn’t really know about any players at the international level. The overall international interest in chess started with Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. Bobby Fischer came first during the 1960s. With new things like the colour TV and news being watched by families and kids having time to play and go to school, chess boomed to a truly global level for the first time. The fight between Bobby Fischer and the Soviet chess players captivated the world. Then in the 1980s and 1990s we saw Garry Kasparov dominating the chess world like nothing we had ever seen before, with the climax coming when, for the first time, a computer went toe to toe against Kasparov eventually beating him in 1997 after years of play against him. Now chess had the world’s attention; however, there was still a lack of access. But that was about to change. 

With the advent of online chess websites, we saw for the first time widespread global play. So many people who couldn’t play or didn’t know how to play now had the opportunity to. This coupled with YouTube and the growing popularity of Chess YouTube, so many kids around the world started to learn chess. Now, almost every school has a chess club and some schools even have entire classes dedicated to learning chess. All of this created the perfect storm to lead to the widespread popularity of chess among students. Just this year Gukesh Dommaraju was crowned as the youngest Chess World Champion at just 18 years old. Kids are only getting better and better at chess and soon kids may dominate the chess world. 

Logan Pinard is a student at Parkland Secondary in North Saanich.