Chess is the new game that’s joined the list of games being played by Waynesburg University’s Esports athletes. Last Spring there were talks of a Chess team being formed towards the end of the Esports season. Just like any of the games played at Waynesburg, there had to be enough interest from students for the game to be pushed forward to become an official game for Esports. There obviously was and three months later the Chess team was formed. 

Ryan Cummins was named the first head coach of Waynesburg’s chess team. Cummins was brought in by former Esports director Mat Pioch as a commentator for Super Smash Bros Ultimate and League of Legends, so he is not new to the program. He was offered the coaching job for chess by Pioch after he gave his ideas of how the chess team should be run and how he can help those students in the program.

  “The whole point I got involved with this program was that I really believe in you guys (the students) and doing what I can to showcase your talents and help out how I can,” Cummins said. 

Just like the other games, there are team practices for chess. three days during the week, everyone will practice in games by themselves in the Arena. Then on two other days, Cummins will break down the strategies and pick games to review as a team to help everyone get a better understanding of all the strategies that go into chess. 

In order to compete, even though it’s a 1v1 game, you have to have 4 players on the team. In competition there will be a 4 player round robin against the other school. Each player will play everyone from the other team at once. At the end whichever team wont the most or has the most points wins. A win in chess is 1 point, a tie is half of a point, and a loss is 0 points. The National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) is the organization that the competition for chess, amongst other Esports games, is run through. 

Unfortunately, at the current moment, there are only three players on the team. One of whom is senior Josh Anderson, who also plays League of Legends for Waynesburg. He is excited for next spring when hopefully they will have enough players to compete.

“I was kind of surprised going into the semester because I didn’t think that we would be doing a team kind of thing,” Anderson said. “Now you’re not relying on your performance but your team as a whole. I think of it as the same way as track and field meets. You might be super good at your individual event but if you’re not encouraging your teammates, working with them or practicing then you’re not going to get a good meet score.”

Online Chess has grown so much over the past three years, similar to many other games that are popular on streaming services because of the COVID-19 Outbreak of 2020. Chess now joins Overwatch 2, League of Legends, Valorant, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, and Rocket League in Waynesburg University’s Esports program’s second year.