In recent weeks, online chess has started to go viral in CFHS. This all kind of came out of nowhere and students are playing it all the time. Students at Chagrin are talking about how fun playing chess is, and how they wish they started to play it sooner. 

Online chess is all the rave at CFHS, and Senior Charlie Frederick wanted to talk about his times playing online chess. Frederick talked about how he never really played chess before this, but once he played once and learned the rules he loved it. 

“When I was younger I did play some chess in the intermediate school, but over the years I haven’t touched it,” said Frederick. “However this year I got bored in a study hall once and looked up chess games on my computer. I learned the rules again and I’ve been playing at least every other day.” 

Students are using websites like chess.com or chessgames.com. Anyone is allowed to play, all you need is the internet and a device to play it on. 

Senior Julian Hink talked about his new experience playing chess. Hink is a new player to chess. He talked about his first time playing and how bad he was. Hink then talks about how he got the hang of it and started to win games. 

“I heard about people playing chess on their computer during school,” said Hink. “I watched my friends play, I decided to turn on my computer and play a game. The first game didn’t go too well but I eventually got the hang of it.”

At CFHS students are starting to get a little competitive with these online chess games. Senior Jack Gaizutis talks about playing against his friends during lunch. Gaizutis stated that the games would get intense at some points. 

“My friends and I were bored during lunch one day and decided to play some chess on our computers,” said Gaizutis. “ We started off just playing against the computer, then later on we started to play against each other. That’s when things got intense because everyone just wanted to beat each other.” 

Online chess is actually pretty popular outside of CFHS. The chess Grandmaster Magnus Carleson even plays online chess. He would sometimes stream his games, beating his opponents with ease.