BOYLE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Chess may as well be in the "as old as time" category.
The game dates back as far as the 7th Century, evolved into a world renown game of patience and focus.
Ben Gilbert fell in love with the challenge at a young age thanks to his grandfather.
“I just love the variety. No two games are the same. There are so many possible positions and you can learn something new from each game you play," Gilbert said.
"I just love learning more and going to competitions and putting what I’ve learned about chess to the test.”
That passion landed him in the captain's chair for Boyle County High School as one of history's oldest games takes a leap into the modern age.
The inaugural season of Esports chess.
“I was excited to see it added because really of all the games we play, I’m probably more of a chess player than anything else. A couple of our players are actually much better than I am," Damian Laymon said.
Laymon doubles as the high school's computer science teacher and Esports coach, leading the program since it's inception in 2018.
“We started in what we call ‘Season Zero,'" Layman said.
“It was only League of Legends which is a team game. Every year since then, they’ve added more games such as Smite, Rocket League, etc. Then they expanded to some console games like Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation games.”
The rules don't change from the board to online.
Gilbert, alongside teammates Daniel Leber and Samuel Hackworth, play side by side against three opponents in a best of three match.
For some, playing on a computer screen is a strength more than anything else.
“I personally prefer to play online just because I can visualize moves better. I think it is honestly more fun to play over a board because you can interact with the other person more but if I’m trying to play seriously, I’d probably rather play at the computer," Daniel Leber said.
“I really like the opportunity for growth that there is, the depth and complexity that there is in chess. There’s almost infinite growth that you can accomplish.
Boyle County has enjoyed a lot of success in this first season, currently 7-1 losing only to the #1 team in the Eastern Region.
“It’s small in Kentucky right now. I think only 3-4 teams in Kentucky but in the Eastern Region, which is the entire eastern time zone, there are I believe 75 or 80 teams," Laymon said.
Samuel Hackworth was already a part of the school's chess club so hopping over to Esports chess was an easy ask.
He's enjoyed being able to connect with players all over the country.
“Yeah it’s great. I get to play a game and see where they’re from and it’s like Detroit and I’m like ‘okay, awesome.’ Just from all over the place, it’s really cool," Hackworth said.
"It is just learning different stuff and learning the systems of it. I already knew the game of chess, not very well but I knew it well enough to play it. It was just going with the competition and seeing that I need to do this strategy or that strategy. It’s just a lot of learning.”
The learning is one of the best parts for this team.
It's the combination of improving at the game, becoming closer as a team and winning along the way will hopefully keep this team going strong after this trio of seniors graduates.
“I just really love the competition and getting to play schools from all over the country and seeing different play styles and different ways of playing and just trying to sharpen my game and be the best that I can be," Gilbert said.
“I’ve definitely learned a lot more from these games. I’ve learned how to counter different openings I wouldn’t normally see and just learn better positional play. Just getting better at the game.”
