WASHINGTON — Two Missouri lawmakers who usually don’t agree on much came together Wednesday to host a kids-versus-politicians competition and to celebrate their hometown.
“St. Louis is the chess capital of the world,” said U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., in a video posted to X from the Bipartisan Congressional Chess Tournament, which he co-hosted with U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell, a Democrat who, like Schmitt, hails from St. Louis.
The event was less of an official tournament and more an opportunity for the children of the St. Louis community to come to Washington and celebrate their achievements in chess. All top players from the St. Louis Chess Club, they ranged between the ages of 8 and 15.
“You look at the young people here participating; in chess, they’re very good, Schmitt narrated on X. “I don’t play them because I will lose badly, like in the first 30 seconds.”
In addition to Schmitt and Bell, a number of Missouri lawmakers attended the event: Republican Reps. Bob Onder and Ann Wagner, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and a non-Missouri chess fanatic, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
Emmanuel Etuk, 14, said the club is a good opportunity to learn about chess and meet kids who like to compete, just not on the athletic field.
“It’s just a good place to learn,” Etuk said. “If you just spend maybe an hour at the St. Louis Chess Club, Saturdays, Fridays, maybe Sunday, you can learn so much.”
The young competitors are members of the Select Chess program, which is for K-12 students who show promise in the game. These children receive one-on-one lessons from chess grandmasters, many of whom also participated in the friendly bout.
One grandmaster, Irene Sukandar, said that bringing the future generations to the Capitol celebrates the diverse players the club has.
“Even though they’re only 8 years old, 10 years old, they’re beating everybody,” Sukandar said.
“It just goes to show that we care deeply in every single level of the competency here; not only the elite level ... but also for the kids of our future generations,”she added.
The club was founded in 2008 by Rex Sinquefield, who is the president and was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2020. He said that involving kids in chess is important because it “is very good for them in terms of cognitive development.”
“We take surveys,” Sinquefield said, “and the most common answer from kids is, ‘I like school most on the days we play chess.’”
Sinquefield, who is a major political donor as well as a chess enthusiast, said he hoped the children would up the lawmakers’ mental game.
“We wanted to get the congressmen and the senators’ minds to work,” Sinquefield said. “We brought the youngest kids we could to really challenge them and force them to think.”