Club diversity is as broad as its student population

Chadron State College is not having its annual chess tournament this year on campus because fund deficiency and the decrease of students’ interest in chess.

Past annual chess tournaments that CSC has had for more than 30 years have usually been organized and sponsored by the Northwest Nebraska Gamesters Association, a club consisting of CSC faculty, alumni and retirees. Therefore, students were not part of that initiative. The CSC faculty has been represented by Ron Miller, a former Sociology Professor at CSC, who has been doing most of the work in organizing and sponsoring the tournament since its very beginning. Along with him, during the last few years, Brad Wilburn, an English & Humanities associate professor at CSC, has been helping him in the organizational aspect.

“The chess tournament here at CSC was the brainchild of Ron Miller who was a professor of sociology here for many years, and he ran the chess tournament for more than 30 years, but he retired and a couple of factors were behind the end of the tournament. For instance: “Nobody else wanted to step up and run it partly because the attendance decreased a lot and last year we had only 4 entrants,” Wilburn said. “When I first got here we used to have about 20 people, and we could have nice tournaments with that amount of people, but with four or five participants it is difficult.”

Wilburn considered the lack of funds to be one of the main problems that they had have in each tournament.

“There were no source of fund other than the entry fee [$8] that would pay for the trophies and refreshments, but with few participants, Miller ended up most of the time paying from his own pocket,” Wilburn said.

Wilburn also welcomed the idea of having a chess club here at CSC as a solution for the funds problem and also to get students more involved in organizing the tournament, practicing, and having chess lessons for beginners.

“That is a great idea, and certainly if students have some sort of interest in forming a chess club I would be glad to be a faculty sponsor and participate actively in the club’s activities” Wilburn said.

Usually on Tuesday nights some students meet in Kent Hall’s Red Room to play chess. They all agree that they do not play as much as they used to in high school because there is no one to play with, or at least they do not know many students who know how to play at CSC. Moreover, despite the fact that most of them have never heard about the annual chess tournament that has taken place at CSC for decades, they were all disappointed that CSC is not having it this year, and confirmed that they would have participated if it was held.

Margaret Darnell, 20, sophomore of Chadron, who has played chess for more than 10 years, and participated in some chess tournaments said “I am disappointed, though not entirely surprised, that there is no longer a chess tournament. I would probably make an effort to participate if it was organized again. It is something I would like to see make a comeback. Nerds are in, you know.”

George Flores, 21, a sophomore from Honduras who used to play for his school back home had a similar reaction.

“I feel disappointed. I know American Football is the main sport here but diversity in competitions is always good” Flores said. “A competition of strategy which is what chess is about, would be fun, interesting, and would build our problem solving skills at the same time. And yes, I would definitely participate.”

Furthermore, most of the chess players who were interviewed about the issue of not having a chess tournament this year cheered the idea of having a chess club at CSC that they can run themselves; allowing them to organize tournaments, form a college team, and have a weekly open day for playing chess and practicing.