After years of being inactive, the chess club is back and better than ever. However, this time they’re under a whole new team.

The journey to becoming a full-fledged club started off with a couple of teenagers playing chess during lunch to solve their boredom. Now, the club has opened its doors to the public.

“I started up the chess club because I have a very large passion for chess,” President Mia Posey said. “I wanted to share my passion with other people, teach them and be able to have fun playing chess.”

The team recently chose a new club sponsor, the 10A math teacher, Michael Raby. 

“Benjamin Blume, the vice president of the club, asked me to become the sponsor,”  Raby said. “Ben is a great student and I’m happy to support him.”

A few years ago, there was a chess club at Lamar, unfortunately it disbanded for no specific reason. 

“I don’t have any affiliation with the previous team,” Posey said. “I was just disappointed that there wasn’t a chess club so I just felt that it was appropriate to start it back up since I know a lot of people like it as a hobby.”

One of the major setbacks the team is struggling to tackle is not having chess boards. Fortunately, they were able to turn to online programs and apps like Chess.com.

“The chess boards have been taking longer to come in than I was hoping,”Raby said. “I was able to get a few of them on my own, however it looks like it’s still going to take awhile.”

The process to obtain the required items for clubs is long and tedious. It’s taken longer than the chess club initially anticipated to obtain all the necessary items due to none of the HISD vendors selling chess boards.

“Getting all of the boards is taking so long due to the HISD process for purchasing items,” Posey said. “You tell HISD the item you want and they have a set list of vendors they buy from. Since none of the vendors sell chess boards they have to find another vendor for us.”

Although the chess club has a set schedule, they have no specific day. The club will always located in the lab at 10A during the second half of lunch on B-days. All further updates and information will be sent out through Remind.

“If you enjoy or want to play chess, come to the chess club,” Blume said. “Don’t stop playing, even if you think you’re going to lose.”