On Wednesday, April 2, Jesse James, national chess master, arrived at Trinity for a showdown to compete against 20 Trinity students. With a match that started at 4:30 p.m., the national chess master played for more than 2 hours without defeat.
Jesse James is a seven-time San Antonio City Champion. He serves as a mentor and coach for Complete Chess, an organization he helped found to provide chess education to the San Antonio community. With the organization, Jesse partners with Title I schools and nonprofits to provide more accessibility to chess games to those from low-income backgrounds in San Antonio.

“Unfortunately for San Antonio, the scholastic scene for chess, for kids, has been lacking for many years. They don’t do many nationally ranked tournaments here for them since I started hosting them on a regular basis,” James said. ”So I saw that there was a huge gap there and by the time I finished high school, I knew I wanted to start a chess academy here.”

One of Jesse’s previous students, Tiernan O’Rorke, first-year engineering major, used to take lessons from the renowned chess virtuoso when he was younger. Due to O’Rorke’s prior history with Jesse, the Trinity Chess Club was able to request his presence on campus. When reflecting on his experience as a competitor in the event, O’Rorke said that he enjoyed the challenge of the match.

“It’s different. I’ve played in a simul before against a grandmaster and this one was more laid back. It didn’t feel as serious, which allowed me to enjoy it better. Even though it took about two and a half hours until all the games finished, it really didn’t feel like that,” O’Rorke said.

While chess players were directly involved with the event, a handful of spectators watched the game unfold. Josephine Samuel, first-year biochemistry major, was one of these onlookers. Samuel explained how she stumbled upon the chess arena.

“Actually, I was planning on taking a walk originally, but I went by CSI to get some water. That’s how I really found out about it. Whenever I saw it, I was like ‘Wow, this looks interesting, and everyone was really quiet and it was really suspenseful,’” Samuel said. “I know it takes a lot of patience. Definitely. It’s quiet and it’s intense, but you have to maintain a calm mind throughout a lot of it so it’s very cerebral in that sense.”

Ridge Holder, sophomore mathematics major and co-president of the Trinity Chess Club, said that he has been playing chess ever since he was four or five years old. Since joining Trinity, he has remained involved in the game and explained how its complexity draws him in.

“It made you think. It was like a giant puzzle in a sense. You’re kind of just always trying to figure out the best move for you to stop your opponent,” Holder said. “It was always a good brain game.”

James hopes that the audience and competitors walked away from the chess event feeling welcomed. His goal for the event was to inspire both participants and audience members.

“I really hope I inspired them to either play chess or even find something they love so much to do,” James said. “I’m very lucky or privileged these days that most people I talk to in the chess world are very, very happy to meet me. They never met a chess master.”