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Energy is contagious. Intensity gathers interest and before the climactic finish, a crowd gathered around the aged red picnic table amiable and interested. The game is chess and its players are far from shy, in fact, they welcome and invite spectators as well as potential players. “We ask anybody to challenge us,” said Allen Tsay, an onlooker of the current match and a member of the chess club at PCC.

The match included four players, not the number usually associated with a game of chess, but this was no normal game, they were playing an offshoot of chess called Bughouse, known for its faster pace and heightened intensity.

“Especially Daniel, he’s almost godly,” said Tsay.

This last portion was enough to elicit a response from one of the players.

“I’m not godly, don’t put that in, I get that a lot, but don’t put that in,” the player’s name was Daniel Kerpen, a 24-year-old philosophy major, and the vice president of PCC’s current chess club.

Kerpen stressed the fact that though some members of the club are quite experienced, it was in no way a group designated only for skilled players.

Bearded, and with the look of a grandmaster in the midst of some international tournament with his nation’s pride at stake, he pounded the chess clock and continued to talk through his match.

“There is a wide spectrum of players in the club, but most of them are beginners, this semester has been especially good for recruiting,” said Kerpen. Pound!

Kerpen explained that the current semester has yielded expedient growth to a club that is a staple at most colleges, but until this semester had lost popularity at PCC. Pound!

But if there was a chess club drought, then the rain has come, and the alley dividing the T Building from the V Building has been flooded by a downpour of chess pieces.

The actual days the club meets are Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon, but on any day at practically any time during this semester, the concrete tables on the side of the T Building can be seen stirring with players mastering their endgame, or simply remembering how the pieces move.

“Some days there can be anywhere from six to ten boards in action. This semester the chess club is far more organized,” said club member Katria Ehrman, a 20-year-old botany major.

Ehrman was the only woman present at the Bughouse match, but explained that she wasn’t the only woman in the club.

“There are females, less females than males, but that is typical in chess land,” said Ehrman. Meanwhile Bughouse was intensifying.

“This game [Bughouse] is great for developing an ability to recognize patterns on the board, it is important to be able to see patterns quickly,” said Kerpen.

“The moves are fast, high-paced, not like your normal game of chess.” Pound!

Opposite of Kerpen at the table sat another member of the club, and his current rival, 22-year-old literature major Phil Turner.

“Bughouse is crazy chess, but its not really crazy, there is a method behind it,” said Turner. Pound!

“Communication is also very important,” said Kerpen. Pound!

There was no lack of communication between the gang on this day. Friends among friends, they tossed around lighthearted banter and a little strategic heckling here and there.

There was a noticeable comfort emanating from the group, a certain physical camaraderie that isn’t easy to find in the contemporary days of virtual socializing.

“I don’t have any brothers, but if I did, I suspect this is what it would be like,” said Ehrman.

A hand full of fellow PCC students brought together through the passion of a game passed on through countless ages, through the desire to sit amongst fellow humans and throw a few witty jibes their way, and to catch a few aimed at themselves, and with fun like that there isn’t much else needed.

On Friday , at 11:00 a.m., the club will be hosting a tournament on campus in room V201 with a $1 entry fee.

There will be free food, and two divisions competing for a first place prize of $50.

“We are pretty much the coolest club on campus, at least according to us,” said Kerpen.

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