Benjamin Geeting is serious when it comes to chess.
The Shawano Community Middle School eighth grader does not hesitate to inform his opponent when moves are incorrect or if anything is not in accordance with chess rules.
Despite the occasional seriousness, chess games are fun and enjoyable for the dozen or so students who are part of the school’s chess club. In an era where video games dominate the attention of teens, there are still some who enjoy sitting down with a physical battleground, assorted game pieces and occasional strategy.
Geeting first learned the game in 2020, saying his grandmother bought a chess set at the time, which the youngster thought was “cool.”
“I started learning, and I started playing games at chess.com,” Geeting said. “When I was in sixth grade, one of my friends said, ‘We should start a chess club.’ Apparently it had stopped or something.”
The chess club has been in existence in some form or fashion for more than 15 years, started by former SCMS band director Chad Bromeisl, although the club at the time was called the Game Club because students also played cribbage and other games. The chess club now has a different adviser in Dave Stuewer, who took charge three years ago.
“I’ve been coaching for about 13 years or something like that,” Stuewer said, clarifying a lot of that coaching was at Shawano Community High School, where he currently teaches math.
The students meet weekly on Tuesdays to play against each other, but they also play competitively against other schools through the Northeast Wisconsin Chess Association, according to Stuewer. The association includes schools in Neenah, Waupaca, Oshkosh and the Green Bay Catholic Schools, he said.
“Our conference schedule consists of six tournaments, and shortly after that is when we have state every year,” Stuewer said. “In the last few years, the state tournament has been one day at UW-Oshkosh, but beginning this year, it’s going to be moving around. This year, it’s in Middleton.”
According to the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation, playing chess has been shown to significantly raise reading scores. However, that’s not the only reason Stuewer believes youths should play the game.
“I’m biased, of course. I think it’s the best game invented,” Stuewer said. “There’s absolutely no element of luck in it. There’s no dice. There are no shuffled cards. These guys have argued this point with me: ‘You get lucky with whoever you get assigned against.’ The pairings just come down to who’s better and who’s worse. Sometimes the better player loses because they make a blunder, and then they’re not the better player.”
Stuewer said he’s played in chess tournaments himself, and it’s important to understand the battle aspects of the game. He said the adrenaline rush and excitement is what makes chess a great game, not the urge to beat somebody at the game.
“It is something where these guys can see their own improvement, from when they first started playing to now,” Stuewer said. “I tell them that when you get to a level where you have to work to improve, and work might not sound like fun, but winning is fun. If you put in the time, you have more fun, because you do more winning.”
Not everyone gets into the chess club solely because they’ve been playing the game for years. For some, it’s all about trying something new.
Kallum Neider, a SCMS eighth grader, got involved with the chess club because he was looking for something to do at school. He had a brother who played chess, even though the brother was not a member of the club.
“I’m the first member of my family to play here,” Neider said.
Hardcore strategy is not a part of Neider’s game plan when he sits down to face his fellow competitors, but he does have some ideas of what he wants to do.
“I just kind of move stuff around,” Neider said. “I make some plans, but if that plan goes to crap, then I make another plan until I get to plan Z, and then I’m stuck.”
For others, strategy can be a big part of chess; Geeting said he likes that aspect, as one errant move can provide an opening to capture the king. He noted that he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, so a game like chess helps him to focus when he develops mental fixations.
“It’s probably more about how you have to think about it,” Geeting said. “It’s about how much mental ability you have to have to play this well. It’s a mental thing.”
Geeting likes the rigid rules that are part of chess, but he said he’s not the sort of person who obsesses when he makes a wrong move. He does not employ specific strategies when he sits down to play, but he’ll plan when he needs to, like when there’s only a few pieces left on the board.
“I know the rules pretty well, because I like to play by the rules,” Geeting said. “If I don’t catch something, then I’m, like, ‘OK, it’s too late.’ It’s not like I’m going to go back 10 moves to fix this one move.”
Geeting likes that friends and others at the school enjoy playing the game that he’s so passionate about.
“I love playing at the chess club here,” he said. “It’s been a great time, and I’ve made a lot more friends than I had.”
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
