Yahoo News Ready your queen — Naperville has a new chess club, just for adults
It’s Friday night. The boards are out. Pieces are set. No clock, for now.
Let’s play.
Naperville’s Elite Chess center is launching a club just for adults. Free of charge and open to any skill level, the group meets from 5:30 to 9 p.m. every Friday at Elite’s 2916 W. Ogden Ave. facility.
Bring your wits, and your best icebreaker.
“Just being an adult, it can be hard to find social things to do,” said Jeff DiOrio, founder and CEO of Elite Chess. “We just want to open our doors … and provide a great space for adults to hang out and play chess.”
Getting players to the board is Elite’s forte.
“Like 20 people showed up,” he said. “It was kind of cool. … People seem really hungry for it.”
Between weekly classes, online instruction and tournaments, the center is a hub for playing — and learning — chess. But their programs are for kids, leaving adult players to duke it out on their own boards on their own time.
Easier said than done.
“Kids get to play all the time,” DiOrio, 39, said. “But there’s not always great places for adults to go.”
He kept hearing from adult players wanting a slot in Elite’s schedule. DiOrio saw an opening and on Dec. 8, hosted the center’s first adults-only chess club.
Chess is one of the oldest, most widely played board games in the world. For 1,500 years, the contest of tactics and risk has enticed contenders. Recently, though, the game’s attracted a new wave of strategists. Blame the pandemic.
“It saw a resurgence,” DiOrio said. “(Chess) really translates well … online. When everybody was stuck at home, we were all able to connect and play (virtually). Whereas, something like football doesn’t translate so quickly.”
Chess has been on the rise ever since. In January, Chess.com reported chart-topping traffic. A month later, the U.S. Chess Federation, the game’s national governing body, hit 100,000 members for the first time in its 84-year history. A record 1,745 players attended the federation’s National High School Chess Championship in the spring.
“Chess is just sort of exploding right now,” DiOrio said.
The upsurge has only added to Naperville’s already well-established interest in the game.
“The chess scene here,” DiOrio said, “is huge.”
“All five high schools in Naperville are all consistently in the top 25 in the state for chess. … Naperville is home to dozens of players who are in the top 100 for their age in the entire country. We routinely represent outrageously well at state and local tournaments. It’s kind of crazy.”
Despite chess’ local, and burgeoning, popularity, DiOrio said Elite’s adult club is the first of its kind in Naperville.
There’s a Fox Valley Chess Club, but it primarily meets in Aurora and is open to all ages. Downers Grove had a chess club up until last year. According to the club’s social media, it ended in March 2022. Otherwise, there are a few more all-age opportunities in Chicago, including the Knight Moves Chess Club and the Chicago Chess Center.
“There aren’t really chess facilities all around,” DiOrio said. To be able to start a club, it often takes community support — a library willing to host, for instance — or the means to rent out a space.
“That becomes hard. … Plus then you need someone who wants to take on the managerial role just for the love of the game,” DiOrio said. “Someone to navigate all the logistics without a lot of financial support.”
A tough sell, but DiOrio — a longtime, and formerly competitive chess player — took on the responsibility gladly.
“There are a few things I love about chess,” he said. “Chess is such a wonderful way to test your ideas. And it gives incredible feedback as to whether or not your thinking is sound, which is really hard to find in a world where information is right in front of us.
“I love the fact that there’s a set of rules, but then within those rules there’s incredible creativity and beauty. And then I’m also really attracted to things that you can’t master. I love that idea. Just the perpetual grind. It’s tortuous. But it’s also really rewarding.”
Really, Elite’s adult club is an extension of programming DiOrio has made available to Naperville, out of his own passion for the game, for more than a decade.
DiOrio started Elite Chess in 2010. It began as one weekly chess class out of the Naperville North High School library.
“We had a tiny group of like eight kids at first,” recalled DiOrio, who was both a teacher and administrator at Naperville North High School. He left the school this year.
“Eight turned to 12. Then it just kept growing. … We started doing tournaments and camps.”
As Elite grew, so did its reach. DiOrio started renting space every week from libraries, churches and schools across the city — anywhere that was open to a night of chess, he said. For 10 years, Elite Chess was a mobile operation.
“I bet we hit 40 locations in Naperville,” DiOrio said. “It’s been a fun journey.”
In 2022, Elite had garnered enough students to open a physical center. Having a devoted home for Elite, DiOrio said, “has been a dream come true.”
“I love education. I love teaching. I love chess. It’s been cool to have all of that come together,” he said.
Introducing an adult club was a natural next step.
“We just try to use chess to better people’s lives,” DiOrio said. “We try to give back to the community. That’s how it all started. … And over time, it’s become something pretty neat.”
