As Salem finally made up its mind to participate in autumn this month, Willamette’s Chess Club woke up from hibernation. The third floor of Ford Hall, primarily populated in the evening by debate kids and the studious, is now the biweekly home of campus chess enthusiasts. Chess Club was active in 2022, but went dormant last year after its previous members graduated the university.
Enter chess enthusiast Garrett Thornhill (’26). “I kept looking for a chess club and there wasn’t one,” he said. “I saw it on the website but … it was inactive, so I wanted to start it because I wanted to play over the board, actually, and not just online.” As the new Chess Club’s founder and general manager, he’s getting the opportunity to do just that.
Thornhill started playing online chess last fall; he described it as addictive. “There’s these online chess sites where you click two buttons and you instantly get a game. … I got really, really into it over time.”
He’s not the only one. Following the release of The Queen’s Gambit in 2020, when, coincidentally, everyone was stuck inside, chess garnered quite a spike in popularity, especially online. Despite the easy access, however, online chess doesn’t pack quite the same psychological punch for players who prefer chess “over the board.”
The attendees of Chess Club’s first meeting are punctual; 6:00 p.m. on the night of the first meeting sees a healthy smattering of intellectuals across the room. Between them, five tournament-style chess sets line the tables, complete with digital timers. Balanced, near-monochrome and drawing the latent attention of everyone in the room, they’re reminiscent of M.C. Escher stairs.
Off to the side a sixth, timer-less chess set claims its own table, and the corner of the room houses an electric kettle and assorted teas. The picture of a classy university club is completed by Chet Baker instrumentals. A trumpet croons “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as Thornhill plays the role of busy host, eradicating imaginary misalignments in tables and chairs and shaking hands with his new constituents.
A smidge after 6:00, the club members are asked to introduce themselves with all the standard fixings— name, pronouns, and interest in the club— as well as their rating.
Chess players can receive ratings on popular websites such as chess.com and lichess.org, as well as through official channels like the International Chess Federation (FIDE for short — it’s French!). Ratings gauge the likelihood of one player winning against another.
At Chess Club and beyond, ratings serve to pair players up so they’ll both have fighting chances. “That’s when it’s enjoyable,” Thornhill says. “I mean, it’s not fun to just get beaten instantly or beat someone else instantly.” Players with no rating are invited to a separate table, where Thornhill runs through a demonstrative game.
Halfway through club, he’s relieved of mentor duties by Mitch Septoff (’26), a chess player since sixth grade whose leather jacket squeaks each time he reaches over the board. His biggest piece of advice? “Find people who are better [than] you and lose to them as often as you can.”
Occupying a seat at the beginners’ table is Lainey Hickman (’28), who laughs nervously as Septoff prompts her to consider her options. “It’s stressful!” she says, trying to decide how to develop her position. Hickman came to the meeting because she frequently plays chess with her dad back home, who always wins. She hopes that spending time in the club will help her improve.
Beginners at Chess Club are more than welcome, according to Thornhill. “We try not to make it intimidating. … Sometimes really good chess players can be a little narcissistic … even when they’re not playing chess, and we don’t have any of that here.”
The ratio of experts (relatively speaking) to beginners poses the question: how much of a microcosm is Chess Club to the larger chess world?
Chess Club’s attendees are, at present, predominantly male-identifying. This fits the global trend — FIDE’s rankings are even divided into categories of Open, Women, Juniors and Girls, presumably to compensate for the lack of recognition female chess players would receive otherwise in a historically male-dominated sport.
FIDE has also laid down a multitude of restrictions on transgender players, though Willamette’s Chess Club makes no such distinctions; one of Thornhill’s hopes is to make Chess Club an inviting environment.
Chess Club’s goals, once it has populated its board with an executive team and consistent membership, include a club tournament each semester, an annual campus chess tournament, and a couple of field trips. Off-campus, Chess Club would seek to participate in tournaments, possibly forming a team to play against other universities. Finally, Thornhill says Chess Club would like to get out into Salem elementary schools and teach the kids to play chess.
Despite these aspirations, Thornhill’s biggest emphasis remained how casual Chess Club should be. “I’m not going to lecture. I’m not going to give presentations when there’s a chessboard sitting in front of me. I’m just going to want to play.”
It’s easy to see at a Chess Club meeting how online chess might pale in comparison to the real event, for certain players. As concentration peaks, players leaning over the board in military-general fashion, there’s an audible cliff in conversation. Even the jazz has run out, in a moment of atmospheric serendipity — the only remaining sounds are the solid padding of plastic pieces on vinyl and gears turning in the players’ heads.
Chess club meets in Ford 302 on Tuesday and Thursday nights at 6 p.m.
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