By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Young Library at Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, Kentucky played host to a collegiate chess tournament on Sunday, April 28. There were nine participants, made up of KCU students and faculty that competed, Assistant Librarian Josh Blevins said.
“It was something fun for the students,” Blevins said. “Most of them are regular participants in our chess club.”
Blevins said that KCU has a lot of clubs that revolve around hobbies and other activities across campus.
“We call them ‘Life Groups’,” Blevins said. “And they all have a Christian theme to them. With the chess club we start off with a devotional from the Word, and we try to incorporate chess into the lesson. I have a really cool chess devotional book that I use as well from time to time,” he added.
“Then we open up in prayer and have some friendly games with each other after that and even swap opponents,” Blevins said of the club’s regular activities. “This particular life group was born out of a need we saw at the library. And of course, libraries are always focused on providing useful activities.”
Blevins said the library noticed that there were a lot of students interested in board games as well as in chess and checkers. Unfortunately, a lot of the play activities began to cause a disruption due to the noise levels, which were less than ideal for a study environment.
But rather that stop the play altogether, Blevins chose to step up and organize the play so there was a more structured environment that improved, rather than detracted from, study. Along the way he was able to tie it back into KCU’s mission of helping to sustain Christ, Character, and Career for all of the Young Library’s patrons.
The chess club has been an organized ‘Life Group’ for three semesters now, and this is its third tournament, Blevins said.
The KCU Young Library serves the greater Carter County Community, Blevins said. And if enough community interest is generated then perhaps in the future nonstudents might be able to participate.
Blevins said that currently the Young Library has been working with the Carter County Public Library on several projects, which might even open the opportunity to start a sister club through the Carter County Library.
“That would be pretty cool to consider,” Blevins said.
Chess is a game that can be enjoyed as just a friendly competition among family and friends, or of course taken much more seriously with competition extending to the professional level. Blevins said that most of the members of the KCU Chess Club fall under the category of highly skilled amateurs and that most participate for the sheer enjoyment of the game, though some have participated in other chess clubs at their former schools.
“Some of them might have had a little formal training, but most of us play on chess.com,” Blevins said. “It’s the most popular chess app, and the most common platform.”
The winner of the first tournament was Jesse Heiser, the winner of the second was Yuriel Carrero, and the winner of the most recent tournament was Alaska Jones. All three participated in the April tournament. Blevins said that all the chess club members are looking forward to the next semester tournament.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com