More than 100 people turned out to play chess — in public, with strangers — at the inaugural Community Chess Day Saturday at Naperville Crossings.
Naperville’s Elite Chess partnered with the outdoor mall to celebrate the board game a day before an annual high school chess tournament at the same location.
“A lot of really strong players showed up,” said Jeff DiOrio, founder and CEO of Elite Chess and dean of students at Naperville North High School. “We had a couple people give our coaches some challenges, which is fun.”
The game, he noted, is huge in Naperville. For about the past decade, all of the city’s five public high schools have finished in the top 25 at state for chess.
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“We’ve definitely seen a chess boom in the area and across the country,” he said. “Critical thinking has become such a big part of kids’ development now. It’s not just sports anymore.”
After Naperville Crossings put a life-sized chess board on its patio a few years ago, property manager Kathy Jemilo noticed many kids were using it to play matches. She asked around and learned they were local high school students, which prompted her to connect with the chess coach at Neuqua Valley High School, and the idea for a tournament was born.
Intially open to just high school players, about 60 players participated when it debuted. They decided to make it a community event when others expressed an interest in competing, Jemilo said.
“Every time we were doing the high school tournament, people kept walking up saying, ‘How do we get to play?’ So we were like, ‘Let’s try something,'” she said.
Mall tenants donated food and other prizes for Saturday’s players, who ranged from kids to adults. Because of the strong turnout, organizers plan to make Community Chess Day an annual event.
One of the players Saturday was Jeff DiOrio’s 10-year-old son, Blake, who has been playing chess since he was 3. The fifth-grader faced off against people he’s never played before and even ran into an old friend.
What does he like about chess?
“It helps the brain, and you get to meet a lot of people,” Blake said.
He recommends other people give the game a go.
“You can try it and if you like it, just keep on learning and it gets more fun as you get better,” he said. “It’s a good game in general. I like puzzles, and it’s like a puzzle game.”
Giles Bruce is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.