Chess 'revival' comes to Findlay

Every Saturday morning, members of the Findlay Chess Club gather at Coffee Amici to sharpen their skills. A.J. Arriaga, who created the club last year, had played chess as a child, but not studied it extensively at that point. More recently, he began playing online. But he found "I play better chess in person than I do online." This, along with a desire to connect with others face to face, is why he started the club. "We are here to have fun as well as challenge ourselves," Arriaga said. The club is open to participants of all skill levels, as long as they come with a desire to learn. Arriaga said he knows there must be strong chess players in the area who haven't yet connected with the club. If these players have only been playing online, he encourages them to come on a Saturday — not only to play, but to interact socially with people passionate about the same thing they are. Beginners, meanwhile, shouldn't be intimidated. Arriaga said he's happy to guide less experienced players on what move they might consider. "It's to my direct advantage to have better players," he said, as if the other players improve their skills, he is likely to get better, too. "We can definitely promise a good game to anyone who comes," Arriaga said. Club members range in age, as well as skill levels. Some are decades older than Arriaga, who is 24. But there are also children, including one enthusiastic 13-year-old. "Chess is making a revival everywhere," not just in Findlay, Arriaga said. He said people may be drawn to the challenge, as it is "a very hard game." Modern technology offers a lot of resources to learn, however. He said it's possible to watch games on YouTube and learn from other video resources, and to study historical games online. "It is far, far easier to learn chess" today than it ever has been, he said. Arriaga said that, although people have been playing chess for centuries, modern chess is very different from the way the game used to be. In the 1800s, scholars were more likely to focus their strategy on attacking than defending, and games tended to be more "aggressive," he said. Today's players are much better than chess players once were, thanks to having had the advantage of using computers to study and prepare, Arriaga said. "They always know the best move," he said. And it's easy to go over your own old games with a computer alongside to analyze, telling you which moves were blunders and letting you retry others. Today's computers, too, are better chess players than computers of the past. When chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov famously played the computer Deep Blue in 1997, the two players were ranked roughly equally, Arriaga said. (Kasparov lost in a six-game match.) But the best human player today ranks almost 1,000 points below a computer, Arriaga said. He said psychology plays a role, "absolutely," as it's easier to identify the better moves when you're in the right mental state. "And sometimes you can see the right moves and sometimes you can't," he said. He said a player will also see the board differently the more that they play. "You can't win on pure intellect," Arriaga said. "You must practice." The club meets from 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays at Coffee Amici, 328 S. Main St. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own chess set. This fall, Arriaga intends for the club to hold official tournaments. For more information, email findlaychessclub@gmail.com