Online chess has taken the Loy Norrix community by storm, and it’s no surprise when some teachers use Classroom Relay to halt student matches, calling it their King’s Gambit.

Over the past few months, students have been engaging in chess in their classes due to the immense popularity of online chess websites.

Junior Arturo Pinto thinks that the popularity of the game is due to the progressive comprehension of chess’ rules.

“I think it’s just the game itself. As you start learning it, you start to like it more,” Pinto said.

According to The Growing Room, chess has assisted young people in making new friends and getting to know about the importance of being a good sport. In addition, every game they participate in is a new hypothesis waiting to be tested as they use critical thinking skills.

One important factor of playing chess online is the point system based on the players’ skills known as the Elo rating system, which can help calculate how strong players are in terms of playing with others worldwide. If a player wins by checkmate, has an opponent resign or abandon the session, or has an opponent run out of time, their Elo rating goes up depending if they defeat a player with a much higher rating or not, in contrast to their Elo rating being lowered when defeated.

Sophomore Erik Courtney thinks that Kalamazoo Public Schools shouldn’t block sites such as Chess.com. 

“I think they should just leave chess alone, to be honest, because even if they do manage to block Chess.com, there’s gonna be other websites,” Courtney said. “People are going to find ways to play chess and they’re going to play on their phone.”

In other words, Lichess is a French based chess website that shares some of the features found on Chess.com and students are able to have access to the website if some teachers block its more popular counterpart. 

A huge difference between the two websites is that the Elo rating system isn’t the same, because of Chess.com’s system applying to the rules set by the U.S. Chess Federation in comparison to Lichess’ system applying to the French Chess Federation.

Due to online chess having an impact on Loy Norrix’s learning environment, it can be stressful for not only students that are behind on missing work, but teachers who are instructing students as well.

While chess’ rising popularity is inevitable, many students use their time in class wisely, catching up on their classwork. By having students not play chess during class, they would benefit from completing work on time and reduce their stress levels.

History teacher James Johnson thinks that chess takes away from the focus of students’ engagement in class.

“Chess requires a lot of attention to detail and strategy,” Johnson said. “And so, that level of thinking takes away from being able to focus and think about schoolwork.”