On Friday February 24 Rocky Mountain High School had the first round of chess tournaments at the 4 corners. There was another round on Monday February 27. The second round was also be held at the 4 corners at lunch.

I was able to talk to a couple of the winners from the first round. I talked to Isaac Madine, Thomas Hines, and Revery Smith.

The first question that these players answered was: how did you prepare for the chess tournament? They all responded with that they practice on chess.com and study. The next question they answered was when did you start playing chess? Isaac responded with, “I’ve been playing chess since I was six, but I started getting more invested in it as I got older” (Madine). Thomas responded with, “I started playing chess a decade ago it’s something I enjoy doing and I’ve recently gotten back into playing chess more regularly…” (Hines). Revery responded with, “I first learned chess when I was very young like in elementary school, but really started to play in middle school with my friends and family and after I kept winning, my friends quit so I got to play online” (Smith). The final question I asked these students was, what made you want to play in the chess tournament? Revery’s response was “I have just been playing online and I wanted to be in a real tournament” (Smith). Thomas’s response to the question was, “I signed up because I like to play chess and I haven’t gotten to play in an over the board chess event in about four and a half years, so it seemed interesting” (Hines). Isaac’s response was, “I’m competitive and I like to play chess” (Madine).

The advisor of this Chess tournament is Mrs. O’Rourke. She answered some questions about the chess tournament. The First question that she answered was What made you want to create this chess tournament? She responded with “When the email went out to teachers to see who would do it and no one signed up, I thought it would be fun to start it” (O’Rourke). The chess tournaments will for on for 10 more weeks. By the end of the 10 weeks, we will have a winner and the winner will get a trophy that will include their name and will get a t shirt. The top four will also get shirts and little prizes. The next question that Mrs. O’Rourke answered was: were you happy with the turnout? She responded with “I was ecstatic and very nervous. The first tournament had more people than Monday’s game did. I had no idea how it was going to go so I was very nervous” (O’Rourke). Mrs. O’Rourke also told me, “I wish that there were more female players, because I know that there are a lot of girls that play” (O’Rourke). She also added, “I think it is so cool to have people cheer and build the culture” (O’Rourke).

In conclusion, the chess tournament was incredibly fun, and the players had a lot of fun playing chess!