Rochester Chess Club annual tournament underway this weekend

(ABC 6 News) – The Rochester Chess Club is hosting its annual open tournament at the Mayo Civic Center this weekend.

With the help of Experience Rochester and the Mayo Civic Center, The Rochester Chess Club has doubled the number of ranked players from 81 last year to around 160 this year.

With more people in this year’s tournament, it brings a lot of first-time ranked players as well.

Ty Steiner, eight years old, only picked up chess eight months ago and got to partake in his first rated tournament Saturday.

“Playing chess is pretty cool,” Steiner said. “I think I should probably wait a little longer so I can see more things.”

Emily Klingbeil is from Rochester and brought her family in from Manhattan to have their 11-year-old son participate in the tournament.

Klingbeil says her son’s love of chess has brought their family closer together.

“It’s definitely a family sport. He’s got his seven-year-old, my son’s eleven, his seven-year-old sister is totally in on it,” Klingbeil said. “They play on the weekends, he teaches other seven-year-old kids to play chess. Then as a family, he’s gotten us into chess so I like to think that we’re building our brain strength and our longevity alongside him playing his chess skills.”

The tournament continues into Sunday with the final match set for 2 p.m.