Students have a new club option this year: playing chess.
Marco Medina, dual enrollment support specialist in Pathways, has been passionate about chess ever since he studied here at Wonderful College Prep Academy. Medina, who graduated in 2020, used to play games with teachers Michael Wickensheimer and Angel Martinez during his time on campus.
“I used to come in during lunch sometimes to play them in chess, and I always felt like that was kind of a nice place to go to,” Medina said.
Medina, the director of the Chess Club, has been part of WCPA for a long time. He said one of his inspirations to be passionate about chess was the time he spent with Wickensheimer and Martinez while in school.
Chess is a universal game, Medina said. He recently bought five chess sets for the club.
“You could have a language barrier with somebody, have a chess board, and then just play with anybody,” Medina said.
Medina also plans on having a chess tournament starting soon, and he is going to be keeping the entry fee free for everyone.
The way the tournament will work will be by having the students with the most losses go against each other and those who have more wins will go up against one another and the winner will have a prize that has yet to be decided, Medina said.
“You don’t have to be the smartest or the strongest,” Medina said. “You just have to have a little passion for chess to have this kind of competitive urge to play against somebody and try to win.”
