Chess the newest craze at Bigfork Middle School

Move over basketball, football and volleyball, there is a new activity taking the Bigfork Middle School by storm — chess.

When Sam Tudor started a chess club at the high school several years ago, teacher Derek Ford decided that younger students could also benefit from learning the game and got a club going at the middle school.

“I originally started the chess club to help teach patience and thinking before we react,” Ford said. “It also forces the kids to stand still for a minute and interface with each other, but it has grown into so much more.”

What started with just six students four years ago has grown into a club of 23 as chess tables fill the entryway to the elementary/middle school, with students from other grades now vying to get in on the action.

Ford said kids have really picked up on chess with it being on social media and more than ever after the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit.”

“Chess playing has really exploded over the past few years. During Covid, the kids were playing each other online, that’s how popular it has become,” Ford said. “I have had the whole fourth grade come down to learn how to play the game, and now I have younger kids coming in during their lunch time to play. I now have kids that have been playing for multiple years and we are starting to be able to move beyond the fundamentals of chess and start looking at theory.”

For those who doubt how popular the sport has become at the school, the students are more than eager to discuss their chess prowess.

Payton DeSpain, a volleyball and basketball player, says her friend talked her into playing at the beginning of this year and that chess has completely changed the way she looks at the world around her.

“It’s completely different from what I usually do and it makes me use my brain in a different way. I have to look ahead of each move and it is exciting to see how it all plays out,” she explained. “I’ve learned how to anticipate what my opponent is going to do and am starting to pick up on how my opponents think and am learning how to adapt to that. It is a lot of fun.”

Will Reichner also got into playing chess at the behest of a friend and now has aspirations of winning this year’s class tournament.

“Chess teaches you to see the whole picture. If you focus on just a single point, you will miss something and you will lose,” he said. “Chess teaches you to see everything from a whole new perspective.”

With clubs popping up around the Flathead Valley, Ford is hopeful that his students will be able to participate in some inter-school tournaments soon.