Impact Chess at the Norwich Public Library in Vermont

On October 22, Impact Chess made its way to the Vermont/New Hampshire area for the first time. Matt Chan, an Impact Chess member, avid and expert chess player, and Dartmouth College student, hosted a free casual play event at the public library in Norwich Vermont, a small town that is 5 minutes away from Dartmouth College. The event was open to anyone of all ages and backgrounds.  Chess boards were set up in the community room of the library at the start of the event. 

Waiting, waiting, and waiting……………………………………….

The event lasted for 3 hours; after the first half an hour, participants started trailing into the community room with excitement, all eager to play some chess. 8 participants showed up overall. There were 6 children ranging from ages 6 to 9 and 2 parents and they all knew the rules of the game.

Throughout the duration of the event Matt supervised games and played with different community members per request. He also assisted players after the game and gave advice on better chess moves.

Matt playing with a participant

2 parents are playing each other

Youngest participant (on the right side) is already crushing it at the board!

The event was an eye opening experience for everyone who attended. They really enjoyed it and most importantly, everyone had fun regardless of the outcome of the game. At the end of the event, a couple of parents reached out to Matt and asked him to host more events like this at the library in the future. They also offered to spread his poster about chess to Listserv, a listing of all major events in the Dartmouth and the Vermont area, in an attempt to attract even more community members to join in the future. It was a fun day for everyone and we look forward to having a greater turnout next time. It was also a fun opportunity to see members of the community get together to play chess. Finally, we would like to thank the staff and librarians at the Norwich Public Library for providing all the support to make this wonderful event happen. The next event will run at the same place on November 12 from 12 to 3 EST so stay tuned for that!

Written by Matt Chan, Published by Cindy Zhou