SPORTS during the pandemic, the club has held weekly gatherings on Google Meet that last more than an hour. Bennett was one of the four players who competed at the Pan-Am Championship, along with Azeezah Muhammad and seniors Toni Anthony and Malcolm Wooten, the vice president of the club. Shortly before the tournament, organizers at the Pan-Am Championship contacted Nisa Muhammad about Howard participating in the virtual event. The club put together a team within a month’s time and called their former coach, Zahir Muhammad, for help. Zahir is a celebrity in the D.C. chess world. A Ward 7 native, his father taught him how to play chess when he was 3 by defeating him “like 500 times in a row,” Zahir recalls. His competitiveness motivated him to keep playing. Zahir’s singular goal at the time was to beat his dad and finally, four years later, it happened. He was just getting started. In 2018, the D.C. Council presented Zahir with a ceremonial resolution after he won the District of Columbia Scholastic Cup Chess Tournament the year prior. During his senior year at DeMatha Catholic High School, Nisa, a family friend, asked if he could help coach the newly re-activated Howard University Chess Club. Having grown up in D.C., Zahir enjoyed visiting the Howard campus during festivals or
homecoming and was familiar with the school. At 6-foot-4, he blended in with the college students. He happily agreed to be the chess club’s coach and soon became the expert voice that the players relied on. Zahir, a Class A–rated player with a rating in the 1800s, hasn’t been as involved this past school year but was pulled in to act as a “barometer” for the team in preparation for the Pan-Am Championship. He watched the games online with pride. Throughout the tournament, Zahir thought back to the weekly practices, where members would often ask him to stay longer so they could practice more. “It would be dark outside, cold and dark,” he says. “And we would be playing.” As Zahir has gotten older, his motivations for playing chess have evolved. It began with wanting to beat his father. Then, Zahir wanted to win tournaments. And now, the freshman at Louisiana State University hopes that he can inspire other Black kids to pick up chess to compete in an environment that doesn’t have many Black faces. Howard University was the only HBCU that participated at the Pan-Am Championship. The fact that the school exceeded expectations at the tournament gives him joy. Zahir believes it will inspire other Black students to pick up chess. “It makes me feel, I would say validated, but not for me personally, but for them, because
they’re all extremely talented. And they’re extremely smart,” he says. “And it makes me feel validated for them, because they can show on their level that, yeah, I’m Black, and I’m talented, and I’m smart.” Daaim Shabazz has been writing about Black chess players for 20 years for his online magazine, The Chess Drum. An associate professor of business at Florida A&M University, Shabazz is considered by some to be an amateur historian of Black chess. Being in D.C. gives the Howard University Chess Club certain advantages that other HBCUs may not have, Shabazz says. The chess tables at Dupont Circle have drawn some of the game’s most legendary players, and beyond that, the D.C. area has a chess culture that few cities rival. “You have a chess history in the D.C.Maryland area that is very well-established in terms of producing master-level players,” Shabazz says. “Particularly in the Maryland area, but D.C. as well. D.C. has a lot of pockets of activity. So Howard has an advantage in that they have the infrastructure. If they want to play in local tournaments, they can do that. It wouldn’t be a problem.” Members of the Howard University Chess Club hope that will be the case. Their success at the Pan-Am Championship
has led to a spike in interest from students. Fascination in chess has increased during the pandemic, and the recent popular Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit contributed an even bigger boost. YouTube and Twitch have also given the centuries-old game a modern twist when it comes to spectating matches. “One thing that chess players have been trying to do is trying to make chess look cool,” LeBlond says. “And so like, The Queen’s Gambit did a phenomenal job on that. It broke down that barrier that chess is boring, that chess is like for people that are strange or socially awkward. That’s not true. There’s cool people that play chess. And so that movie opened the door [to] what is chess.” Nisa looks to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as a model she hopes the Howard chess club can emulate. One of the team’s long-term goals is to give out scholarships for chess, like UMBC does. “We want Howard University’s chess club to be seen as an intellectual sport,” Nisa says. “We want the chess club to grow to where we have it endowed and funded so that we can offer chess scholarships to students who have the chess skills.” LeBlond has the same vision, and although he is no longer a student at Howard, he intends to stay involved with the school’s chess team. Bringing back the club was only the first step. He wants to see it grow.
WE’LL ALWAYS STRIVE TO BE YOUR ADVOCATE. DAY IN, DAY OUT. Every day can bring changes, challenges and opportunities. Some are big, others small, but all of them can also alter your personal or business financial goals and priorities. What can make it all easier is a true financial partner. Someone who really listens, understands and then creates solutions with you, from managing your personal finances to running your business. That’s real banking for real life. And real business. Call 833.987.REAL or visit sandyspringbank.com/real.
P E R S O N A L
|
B U S I N E S S
|
W E A L T H
|
I N S U R A N C E
|
M O R T G A G E
Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. Sandy Spring Bank NMLS # 406382. Wealth and Insurance products are not FDIC insured, not guaranteed, and may lose value. Sandy Spring Bank and the SSB logo are registered trademarks of Sandy Spring Bank. Real banking for real life.SM © 2021 Sandy Spring Bank. All rights reserved.
SSB-86 Brand Print_9.875x5.5416_WashCityPaper.indd 1
1/6/2021 12:47:43 PM washingtoncitypaper.com february 2021 9
