UA Chess Club Contributes to Food Drive

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama Chess Club is doing its part to checkmate hunger in West Alabama. The club will host a chess tournament t from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 8, in the Ferguson Center. Participants will contribute three cans as a tournament entry fee for the Beat Auburn, Beat Hunger food drive.

Jack Lyons, president of the club, founded the organization in 2014 during the fall semester of his freshman year. The club is now fully registered through the Source and receives SGA Financial Affairs Committee funding. It has about 15 members and meets twice a week at 7 p.m. Thursday and Sunday nights in the Ferguson Center.

This past spring, the club bought 22 tournament-quality chess sets. Lyons says meetings are very casual — the more experienced members teach some of the beginner players in half-hour training sessions. These sessions teach students how the pieces move, basic tactics and strategies.

This marks the first year the club has partnered with Beat Auburn, Beat Hunger to have an event collecting food cans to contribute to the drive.

“We’re still trying to sense the best way we can serve the academic and local community of The University of Alabama,” said Lyons, a finance and math major from Chesterfield, Missouri. “We’re hoping to eventually work with some of the local elementary schools as part of Every Move Counts to tutor or teach chess and eventually host tournaments for the whole city of Tuscaloosa, not just the university.”

In Saturday’s tournament, participants will play four rounds. Lyons will pair students based on estimated skill differences and winners will move on to a winner’s bracket while losers play each other in subsequent rounds. He hopes this is the start of a partnership between the UA Chess Club and Beat Auburn, Beat Hunger.

“I would hope this continues both to raise money for the local food pantries and bring chess to the Alabama community,” Lyons said.

The club is looking to bring in more members and grow to include all students who enjoy playing, learning and getting better. Lyons is appreciative of the help he has received from the Source and points to exceptional correspondence from Courtney Charland, executive director of BABH, as a key reason the event has come to fruition. He says he also owes credit for the club’s progress to Kristian Jordan, the vice president of the club, as well as Allen Parker, treasurer, and Tyler Rhodes, secretary.

For more information about the club or to find out how to become a member, students can contact Jack Lyons at jlyons@crimson.ua.edu.