Colorado has a rich history of athletes accomplishing great athletic achievements, and some include chess in that history. According to the Denver Chess Club, the first chess club in the state was established in 1859 by William Byers, founder of the Rocky MountaIn News. Although the exact year of the DCC's founding is unknown, it was going strong by the 1940s, with games around the city.
Denver has hosted major tournaments featuring elite players, including the 1971 quarterfinal World Championship Match between Bobby Fischer and Bent Larsen of Denmark; Denver Chess Club hosts annual tournaments, too, including the Tribute to Martin Luther King and DCC Championship tournaments. But its focus is on weekly games, where everyone from beginners to grand masters can improve their abilities and test their skills against other players.
DCC historian Todd Bardwick saw a spike in chess’s popularity during COVID, with players learning the game alone and online.“I had a big advantage starting out that my dad was a very good player,” Bardwick recalls. “Today, computers have changed everything. Everybody's got a grandmaster on their cell phone or their desktop. So it's much easier now to get involved and learn a lot of stuff with videos and all kinds of things available today that weren't available back then.”
Even as the pandemic died down, interest in chess continued to increase. While new players are participating in more online matches, Bardwick has continued to see steady growth at in-person gatherings.“All the cities around the country that are decent size, even small ones, will typically have chess clubs and chess get-togethers of different sizes,” Bardwick says. “The Denver Chess Club and the Colorado Springs Chess Club are the two biggest in our state by far. The meetups have become very popular, too, recently.”
Earle Wikle, current president of the Denver Chess Club and the Colorado State Chess Association, believes that anyone can improve and learn chess with patience. “And the answer is yes, it's just a matter of time," Wikle says. “And it's a matter of how well the individual is receptive to learning. Because chess is going to be one of those games where it's not something you're going to learn or master right away.”
Denver Chess Club meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; find more information on denverchess.com.
