318 billion. 

That’s the theoretical total number of ways to play just the first four moves in the game of kings. For over thousands of years, some of history’s greatest minds have waged battles on the simple eight by eight board, driven by rigorous study, theory and, more recently, insight from computers far more advanced than any human. 

Now, the students of Portola High have begun to carry on the storied legacy of chess.

Whether it be on a student’s phone in office hours or a fellow classmate’s laptop during a history lecture, keen observers on campus can see that the game of chess, recognized by the International Olympic Committee as a sport since 2000, has resurged in popularity, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Back then, it was really only me who played,” junior and chess club president Alan Shen said. “With a bunch of new people playing and learning, I feel happy that people are trying to learn, and I could help them learn how to play and teach them. This way I don’t have to just play against random opponents from online because I feel like playing against friends is more fun.”

However — both at school and within the wider chess community — accounts differ as to when and why the phenomenon began. Math teacher Samantha Jennings believes that she first began noticing students playing chess in her classroom after winter break.

“I think it’s good that people are starting to play chess here,” Jennings said. “It’s a good game where at least you use some logic skills. Better than taking pictures for Snapchat, you know?”

Chess.com, the world’s most popular online chess server and tournament host has nearly doubled its traffic from December 2022 to January 2023, hosting over 10 million active members for the first time in the website’s history on Jan. 20. The unprecedented level of growth has increased demand for chess games to the extent that chess.com’s servers are often unable to handle the demand during peak hours. 

Shen and chess.com both attribute part of chess’ recent rise in popularity to its ever-growing presence in media, beginning with the Netflix original show “The Queen’s Gambit” and now an online community of chess influencers on YouTube and Twitch. 

However, juniors and chess club members Bruno De Oliveira (who never played chess until attending a chess club meeting this January) and Vaughn Stanger (who began playing chess during the COVID-19 pandemic) said they believe chess’ appeal is intrinsic to the game itself.

“Once you start you learn about all these tactics and strategies, it gets you kind of hooked – at least it was for me,” Stanger said. “It’s enjoyed at every skill level, and I think just the ability to grow is just very enticing. As you learn more stuff, the more you want to play.”

Rather than there being a single, clear identifiable cause for the recent chess craze, it appears that a series of independent factors built on top of one another over the course of the past few years. These developments just so happened to eventually converge upon one another recently, resulting in the sport’s increased visibility.

So, is this growth going to last? Likely no, according to Jennings, who believes chess will come and go on campus in a similar fashion to Wordle last year. 

In that case, will chess continue to be played at school? Although trends may come and go, it is regardless doubtful that chess’ prevalence throughout thousands of years of history will end anytime soon.

Portola Chess club can be reached on Instagram with the handle @phs_chess, with plans to potentially participate in a district-wide tournament in the future, according to Shen.

“Anyone can join the club itself,” De Oliveira said. “It’s not something where it’s all these members who are already established and you can’t find your way with other people. It’s just a thing that anybody can do.”