In the world of chess, a player’s ranking fluctuates through competition. Games both won and lost are factored to create accurate rankings of player ability as well as a means of tracking players locally, nationally, and internationally.

NMSU features a wide array of highly ranked chess players. Players like Benjamin Coraretti; ranked 1st in the state of NMSU alumni, Philip A. Bauer ranked 8th in the state of New Mexico and a New Mexico State alumni, and Sophia G. Moore; ranked 27^th in girls under 18, in the 2017 New Mexico Girls Champion, are just a few individuals apart of the New Mexico State chess club.

New Mexico States’ chess club was formed in 2015 and has continued to grow, but current club president, Will Barela, hopes to be more active this upcoming year.

“With 5 events scheduled and plans for an intercollegiate league, we’re going to be more active this year than ever before,” said Barela.

New Mexico State’s chess club aspires to compete and Barela’s ultimate goal is to build a collegiate competition team as well as an intercollegiate league for that team to compete in.

“At first, the schools that would be involved in an intercollegiate league would be New Mexico State University, University of New Mexico, Dona Ana Community College, New Mexico Tech and Eastern New Mexico University. Eventually, the idea would be to compete against schools nation wide, possibly even hosting events here at New Mexico State,” Barela said

Aside from tournaments, Barela wants to one day create chess scholarships and grants for New Mexico students. There are no colleges in the state of New Mexico currently that offer chess scholarships. Colleges like Harvard and Stanford however, offer full ride scholarships to play chess. In a year’s time, Barela hopes to establish a chess scholarship at NMSU that chess players like Sophia Moore could hopefully one day benefit from.

Sophia Moore is a ninth grader enrolled at Arrowhead Park Early College High School and is also a member of the New Mexico State Chess club. Because Arrowhead Park lacks the proper support from administration and staff to form a chess club Sophia plays with the New Mexico State chess club.

Despite this, Sophia is currently ranked 27^th in girls under 18 as well as the New Mexico 2017 Girls Champion.

“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary” Said Sophia Moore. “It’s one of my favorite quotes because it’s true!”

Sophia’s father, Chris Moore, taught her how to play chess when she was 5-years-old. Since then, Sophia has been self-driven, playing and competing as often as possible, hoping to one day compete in national tournaments.

The chess club meets Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. in the Corbett Center. The chess club is hosting “The Rumble on the Rio” chess event Saturday, Sept. 2^nd, in O’Donnell Hall.