A handful of students have been staying after school on Tuesdays this year to play the age-old game of chess.

The club was started by senior Draven Rains and is supervised by English Teacher Mr. Eric Haas.

“I knew that there were others that wanted to play the game just like I did,” Draven said, “so I just went ahead and decided I asked Mr. Haas if he’d like to go ahead and start chess club.” 

Mr. Haas said he has loved the game since he was a child, when his father taught him to play.

“I’ve been playing chess since I was probably about six years old,” he said. 

He was in a chess club in college and continues to play now mainly on chess.com.

No experience is necessary to join chess club.

“The goal is to get students interested in learning how to play this game that has literally lasted centuries, and has millions and millions of different configurations,” Mr. Haas said. “It helps students work on their longitudinal thinking.” 

It also teaches them how to out-think people, he said. 

“Do you want to learn how to attack while no one’s paying attention? That’s the best way to learn how to do that,” he said. “And do you want to learn the easy way that your actions have consequences instead of the hard way?” 

Right now the club is just for fun, but the group would consider competing if enough people get interested.

“[Competing would provide] the opportunity… to have everyone learn,” Draven said, ‘because we’d get to go up against people who know what they’re doing, and people who have played for years, so we can figure out where we go wrong. We can build off of that. So I do think it’d be really nice.”

For now, he said he is learning a lot about the game — and life — through playing on Tuesdays. He’s learned the importance of “protecting the king. Protect the one on top.”

-Reporting by Ben Gilder and Jackson Martin