My son is a chess player. He started in grade school and plays outside of school now that he is in high school. He came up with this idea that he wanted to create a summertime chess get together colloquially called “Chess in the Park”. As the parents (and the responsible ones) we had a lot of debate about when, where, how long, what is your vision etc.

As driven as he is, some of those more etherical questions are probably a little more advanced then had been thought through. Still, we went for it. He did the talking (marketing) the asking to hang fliers (selling) the coordination with local supporters (management) and we had the first of six Saturdays last week.

Among the work that has been done was getting the city to sponsor (with a parks and rec grant), the middle school chess advisor is a sponsor, the library kicked in boards and timers. Local chess leagues from as far away as an hour promoted it on their social media sites. The city also did work to get the notice out to other groups within the town like Rotary and advertising on the website.

Since this occurred in the middle of my Covid, I was almost exclusively on the sidelines trying to stay away from people. I was there because I needed to be, not necessarily because I wanted to. Next week, I will help facilitate more and stand in play so that we don’t have people waiting for a game to end.

I think from a peak in the two hour session, we had twenty-two players. One guy said that he was taking the next six weeks off to do this. Not bad for a town that has a hard time getting participation in anything.

End Your Programming Routine: Chess is not really my thing. I respect the game and I know that there is some skill to it given that my son beats me every time. However, this has the makings of being something special. I could definitely see this becoming an Eagle Scout project if it gets to that point. And as much negative as I have to say about government, the city really did a lot to get the word out.