National Chess Day Preview: Puzzle Night in Shepherdstown, West Virginia

What are your National Chess Day plans? This year’s festivities, set for Saturday, October 11, are just one week away. This is a great time to find a tournament in your area or even consider running one yourself!

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In order to encourage affiliates to host events, US Chess is offering free email blasts and waived rating fees for tournaments hosted on this day.

On Chess Life Online, we plan on sharing some of the events planned for National Chess Day that have caught our eye. Feel free to email Click here to show email address with information about your event if you would be interested in possibly being featured in a National Chess Day Wrap-Up.

Casual players (or curious non-players) might be too intimidated to stop by a regular club meeting or to enter a tournament. National Chess Day provides an opportunity for local clubs and organizers to promote their event to this broader audience by celebrating our love of the game.

The question for organizers is how best to attract the chess-curious to an environment that will provide them with both entertainment and educational opportunities. For Anya Ellis, the organizer of West Virginia’s Shepherdstown Chess Club, the answer to this conundrum was to host a puzzle night on October 11 for National Chess Day.

The free event offers prizes such as coupons to local establishments, along with free coffee donated by The Daily Grind and sandwiches donated by a local Chick-Fil-A franchise. Hosted at the appropriately named Game Knights, a full list of participating sponsors is available here.

Ellis has been curating puzzles from a variety of sources — including the beginner-oriented Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess — to make sure players of all skill levels can both be challenged and have a chance at winning a prize.

While the club was only founded six months ago, Ellis has been working to organize more regular events for local players while also growing the game in her community. “The Shepherdstown Chess Club was founded to foster a vibrant chess community, in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia,” Ellis wrote in an email.

“Many of our players traditionally drive out of state for events. We hope that the club allows players who normally drive to Pennsylvania and those who drive to Virginia get a chance to play and compete in the Great Mountain State,” Ellis continued. “The club members also love the coffee from The Daily Grind, a local coffee shop that houses our Tuesday night meetings.” Readers can learn more about the club in this Shepherdstown Chronicle report from earlier in the year.

It is inspiring to see new clubs embrace the spirit of National Chess Day by working with club regulars to create and market an event meant to draw in new faces. It is also nice to see a club that is bringing in local businesses to help promote and grow their events. Follow the Shepherdstown Chess Club on Substack to stay in the loop for future events.