The Canyon High School Chess Club meets Tuesdays and Thursdays each week during activity period in room 2306. The club is still recruiting, and membership dues are $10.

During club meetings, members play games of chess against each other to practice and build skill. On occasion, Chess Club sponsor Wes Kirton will give tutorials relating to chess. Any student is encouraged to join.

“We need more members,” Kirton said. “Everyone’s welcome. Guys, gals, freshmen need to come in.”

Junior Marshall Blakeman said that he would also welcome new players.

“I’d encourage other people to join the chess club,” Blakeman said. “People get better at chess the more they play it. When I first joined freshman year, I thought I was really good but in all reality I wasn’t. But my friend Luke and I, we would play together, and we would get better.”

The chess club has been a part of Canyon High for the last eight years.

“Ms. Petruccione had it before I did, and she kind of had some boards and told people to play a little bit,” Kirton said. “I took it over a good seven, eight years ago. We started doing tournament play. We had a Class B player come in and train people how to play, and it kind of kicked off from there.”

Chess club members are presently focusing on improving the moves made in the beginning of the game, or opening.

“I’ve gotten a lot better at opening,” sophomore Jarvis Jordan said. “I used to have zero strategy on how to open, but now I do the same thing every time, and it usually works pretty well.”

Junior Dylan Knight said that he has also learned skills that apply outside of chess.

“Chess, it’s kind of like life,” Knight said. “You have to strategize in order to succeed.”