Chase Philpott just can’t seem to get enough chess.
The Chris Hadfield Public School student took up the game a couple of years ago through the help of his uncle. He’s since joined the club at school, another in Aurora, has an online tutor and pores through chess books, studying the different moves and styles of play.
“The opening I play The Spanish,” says Chase, a nine-year-old Grade 4 student. “I like playing it because it’s an aggressive opening … it really suits me.”
The Spanish, or the Ruy Lopez, is one of the oldest openings in chess history played by rookies and the world's top players alike, positioning the bishop right in front of the opposition’s players at the start of the game.
Chase, who was spotted at school last year hauling around his chess books and reading them at lunch, was invited to check out the chess club last year, even though it is typically open to students in Grade 4 and up. And he had a great season, winning in the Bradford-area tournament as well as the Simcoe County District School Board competition, allowing him to advance to the provincials.
And he’s looking forward to another active year.
The school’s chess club has just started another season and it looks to be a strong one.
“We had 57 kids show up yesterday for our first practice,” says teacher Nat Michaelis, who leads the club twice each week at Chris Hadfield with Kris Summers. “It’s pretty fun … we’ll talk about how to do some chess tactics.”
The school is hosting the regional tournament this year, to which four students from each grade in six different schools will be invited. The top two in each grade then move onto the county tournament.
Any level of player is welcome to come to the club whenever they like.
“We want it to be fun and we want it be an inclusive space,” says Michaelis. “We're just really excited that the kids are interested in chess.”
Chess saw something of a resurgence during the COVID-19 pandemic that may have been partially inspired by the hit television drama, The Queen's Gambit. Chess.com saw an explosion of users, with 102 million more people signing up between 2020 and 2023, for a 238-per-cent increase.
That increase was reflected when the Aurora Chess Club resumed in-person gatherings following the pandemic. Last year, the club, where Chase also plays, had to cut off registrations when it reached 130 members, says one of the organizers, Chris Topping.
"Over COVID so many kids got into chess," he says.
The club, he explains, is a tournament club, not a teaching club, attracting players from across the region. And about two-thirds of its members are youths under 20.
When members gather on Monday evenings, players are divided into one of three groups: one is for the younger children and features fast games, another is for more seasoned youths playing two one-hour games and the third is adults playing longer games.
“We have a number of really sharp kids who play a lot of chess,” says Topping.
As for Chase, well he just can’t seem to get enough. Although he is one busy guy as he juggles training for rep baseball in between all the chess games.
“I read a lot of books about chess and I played with my dad every so often. I would learn from him,” says Chase. “I like how it’s a very comp game, I’m very competitive myself.”
So he tries to play chess every day and is working to increase is Elo rating. He even attended the 2024 Candidates Tournament in Toronto last April. The eight-player chess tournament was held to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2024.
