Maize chess team took third place at the Holy Cross Competition with senior Michael Nguyen, junior Noah hale, freshmen Andrew Ames and Joe Herter. 

Nguyen said to prepare for competitions he thinks of it as a mental game. He tries to think of three moves ahead and once he gets to that thinking level, even though it can be hard at times.  

Many of the students on the chess team have been playing chess for a few years now.

“Me and my friends in elementary school played chess, but it wasn’t really chess because we disregarded the rules because we didn’t know how to play,” Nguyen said. “I guess that is what really got me started. Then in sophomore year, my En-Cor teacher, Mr. Fisher, had a whole bunch of chess boards and that’s when I got started with chess club.” 

The chess team practices after school till 4:30 on Thursdays, but Nguyen said he practices outside of school and on his phone every chance he gets, so he can really perfect the game.

“How I play is usually without a strategy so it’s just responding to my opponent and how I deal with that,” Nguyen said.

There are many parts to a chess game.

“I just really love the strategy,” Nguyen said. “Like the complexity and all the different moves you can make and how it could explode from one simple opening to an explosion of a game and then at the very end, you could have no pieces, and you could either begin with all your pieces and at the end have no pieces and it be a stalemate.”