It's Friday! Who's ready for Labor Day?

• ☀️ Today's weather: Sunny, with a high of 87.

Situational awareness: We're gliding into the holiday weekend with a special newsletter from Erin plus Axios editor Carly Mallenbaum and reporter Sami Sparber, about a board game renaissance that's bringing people together.

• We're off for the holiday on Monday, but we'll be back in your inbox on Tuesday.

Today's newsletter is 988 words — a 3.5-minute read.

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: "It was not the coolest thing in the world to be a chess player" when I was growing up, 30-year-old chess master and educator Levy Rozman tells Axios.

• "Nowadays, kids come up to me who love chess and they look like they would've bullied me in school," he says.

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, arrival of a chess bot called Mittens and an infamous table slam, Rozman says.

• Now, there are popular chess livestreamers (like Rozman, aka GothamChess), chess dating clubs, chess nights at bars and even chess romance scenes on TV.

By the numbers: As of June 1, there were 6.4 million active U.S. Chess.com players, up from 4 million on the same date the year prior, according to data shared with Axios.

• And there was nearly a 10% increase in chess experiences on Eventbrite nationally from 2024 to 2025, the ticketing platform tells Axios.

Women challengers are boosting the game's popularity, too.

• Rozman says women grew from roughly 1% of his YouTube audience in 2020 to more than 10% today. They now make up about 25% of viewers of his "How to Play Chess" video.

What we're watching: As chess grandmasters keep getting younger, we have to wonder if Generation Alpha will keep the game's popularity in play.

If you've ever wondered how creators make games fun and challenging — but not too challenging — there are lots of chances in Utah to get in on the process.

The big picture: Board games are wildly popular in Utah, which has the 6th-most game stores per capita and the 3rd-most Kickstarter campaigns per capita of any state for new tabletop games.

State of play: Board game developers around the state are always looking for players to try their games, give feedback and help make the rules and doodads more user-friendly.

How it works: Players of all ages are invited to meetings of the Board Game Designers Guild of Utah, which take place twice a month at four locations along the Wasatch Front.

• Salt Lake's playtests are the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month, at Demolition Games. One is set for next Thursday.

What they're saying: "Some (game) designs are just past the 'tried it out with my family' stage, while other designs are nearing publication," per the group's website.

Zoom out: There also are board game conventions around the state, throughout the year.

• Players can find many of those events — and each other — on the Utah Board Game Events Facebook group.

What's next: The SaltCON convention hosts new game demos, play sessions, sales and swap markets today-Sunday at the Davis Convention Center in Layton.

The bottom line: If a Pictionary-level board game craze emerges from Utah, you can say you played it first.

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Chess isn't the only game capturing young people's attention.

Zoom in: Compared to their elders, those under 45 are much more likely to have tried newer games like Bananagrams, Catan and Wingspan, according to YouGov data.

• And adults under 30 are more likely to care about winning, per the data.

Zoom out: Many Gen Zers are turning to analog activities as a way to reclaim time spent on screens.

The intrigue: Mahjong is nearly as popular among those under 45 and those older, per the survey.

🚗 Expect half hour delays today, peaking at 3pm, if you're heading south on I-15 between Spanish Fork and Lehi, per state transportation officials' Labor Day weekend traffic forecasts.

• Monday's gridlock is expected to be worse, with northbound delays up to an hour at the same spot, peaking at 5pm.

🫣 Utah agreed not to enforce the age verification requirement for Pornhub users another two weeks while a lawsuit over the policy is pending. (ABC 4)

• Enforcement had been scheduled to begin yesterday.

🌫️ Utah environmentalists are fuming over the Trump administration's proposals to allow data center and power plant construction to begin before air quality permits are decided — and lift the public comment requirement for permits. (KSL)

🦇 A bat infestation forced kids to evacuate from St. George's Little Valley Elementary yesterday. (FOX 13)

🌽 Cornbelly's is paying tribute Dolly Parton, whose face is mapped into the 2026 corn mazes at Lehi and Spanish Fork.

👋 Sami here. This summer, my friends and I took our weekly mahjong game to the next level — the pool.

Why it matters: We're far from the first to bring our tiles into the water.

• A black-and-white photo of four women playing mahjong in a pool recently crossed my Instagram feed.
• It was taken in 1924, right around when the game was introduced in the U.S.

Zoom in: My own floating set looks a bit different. It's bigger and made of hot pink foam.

• But a century later, pool mahjong is still just as fun. And now I have waterproof tiles.

💭 Kim wonders if she's the only person who has a hard time following board game rules.

🃏 Erin is taking a deck of cards camping this weekend at Great Basin National Park.

💖 Sami's playing mahjong, obviously.

🔤 Carly prefers word games. Scrabble or Bananagrams, anyone?

This newsletter was edited by Astrid Galván.