Young Minnesotans are getting into chess
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Younger adults are now more likely than their elders to play chess, according to recent YouGov data.
Why it matters: The centuries-old game is becoming a Gen Z phenomenon.
What they're saying: "Nowadays, kids come up to me who love chess and they look like they would've bullied me in school," 30-year-old chess master and educator Levy Rozman tells Axios.
😅 "I don't know if they could've beat me up in high school; I'm 6-foot-6," jokes Dane Zagar, president of the Chess Castle, which bills itself as Minnesota's largest chess club.
- Still, Zagar agrees that mainstream participation is on the rise.
The big picture: Chess play spiked in 2020, with online gaming and the Netflix series "The Queen's Gambit." Momentum continued with news of a major cheating scandal, the arrival of a chess bot called Mittens and an infamous table slam, Rozman says.
- The emergence of popular chess livestreamers — including Rozman, aka GothamChess — has also had an impact, Twin Cities-based coach and international chess master John Bartholomew tells Axios.
Plus: There are also chess dating clubs, chess nights at bars and even chess romance scenes on TV.
By the numbers: The number of Minnesotans active monthly on the popular platform Chess.com has grown 45% over the last year to an estimated 90,000 as of June.
- Over the past five years, the number of entries in the state's K-12 chess championships has more than doubled, with 383 entries last March, Bartholomew tells Axios — well above the 265 or so that was typical pre-COVID.
Zoom in: In the high school clubs Zagar coaches, he's noticed a healthier balance between "the typical chess-player type" kid and others, including casual online gamers and football players.
- "There's definitely more people," said Zagar, "that are realizing that it's good to have a mental and a physical sport."
The intrigue: More women are livestreaming and learning the game.
- Minneapolis' Alice Lee became the third-youngest female international master in history in 2023 — when she was 13.
If you're chess-curious: Zagar recommends his club's "casual nights" every Wednesday at 5pm at the Chess Castle's location in Southdale Center mall.
- Other clubs also offer similar friendly games.