What began as a simple chessboard in a hallway has grown into a thriving club where students develop focus, discipline, humility, and perseverance.
It started with a chessboard in a hallway.
Two years ago, a faculty member set one out at The Avalon School, and lower school boys quickly flocked to it. Avalon parents Vidal Ayala and Traci Tang recognized something special taking shape and became pivotal forces in helping get the club off the ground.
Today, under the leadership of fourth-grade teacher Charles Lund, the Avalon-Brookewood Chess Club draws more than 60 students each Monday. Kindergartners, lower school boys, upper school students, and girls from Brookewood School gather to play, compete, and grow.
For Lund, chess is more than a game. It forms habits of mind that serve students well beyond the chessboard.
Chess builds focus, he explains, because distraction leads to mistakes. It teaches impulse control, because touching a piece means committing to a move. It strengthens abstract thinking, because every serious game requires students to picture several moves ahead—the same mental skill used in solving a math problem or anticipating the next turn in a story.
“All of these things translate into so many other academic subjects,” Lund says.
The club’s most dedicated competitors have also begun testing their skills beyond campus. This past fall, a group of members entered the Mid-Atlantic Chess Championship and came home as runners-up.
But Lund sees an even deeper gift in the game. Chess, he believes, is a natural teacher of humility, and humility, he says, is “the key to any kind of faith journey.”
Winning with grace, losing without bitterness, and persevering through peaks and valleys are lessons the board offers every week.
“Someone may not grow up to be a grandmaster,” Lund reflects, “but they can be the best Catholic they can be—just by persevering.”
The club has grown by simply saying yes: to kindergartners, to Brookewood girls, to upper schoolers stopping by during lunch, and to every student willing to sit down, think carefully, and make the next move.
A chessboard in a hallway. A mustard seed of a kingdom.