Pitt Chess Clubs fosters competitive space for friendships to grow

It’s an eclectic group. You might notice them while walking through the William Pitt Union dining area in the basement on a random weeknight. Some are younger, some are a bit older. All are huddled in a few rows of tables, one across from the other, staring down at crucial decisions on chessboards.

Congregating every Tuesday and Thursday night at 7 p.m., players of the University of Pittsburgh Chess Club are in the Union simply to do what they love to do: play, practice and study the game of chess.

The club started in 1962 when several students would gather in a Pitt dormitory on a regular basis to play chess. Since then, the club has held its meetings in the Union’s Schenley Cafe. Even when a 1980 remodeling phase in the Union disrupted the usual meeting spot, the club carried on.

“For a couple years, we would meet at a pizza shop about halfway between here and CMU. We also had to meet in the Cathedral for a couple terms,” Tom Martinak, head coach and organizer of the club, said.

Martinak, a 1974 graduate with a degree in computer science, admitted he was just a chess beginner when he started at Pitt, but has since become synonymous with the club, dedicating himself to the game and the University. A jovial man in his mid-50s with white hair pulled back to a short ponytail, you can find him at every chess club meeting walking around the tables or sitting in to observe and offer an occasional piece of advice.

Martinak estimates about 100 people are involved with the club. Meetings are not mandatory and players or curious onlookers are welcome to come and go as they please. The club has both its regulars and its occasional visitors.

“Much of our purpose is to just keep people active so they don’t totally lose [chess.] Because it’s tough when you’re an undergrad. There’s a lot going on. But being down here twice a week, kids can still keep up with it,” Martinak said.

The basement of the Union is the ideal location for such meetings because of the high traffic the area receives.

“We do it down here ’cause it’s a good way to get new people interested. People see it and sit down and play a couple games, and they might come back,” he said. “It was nice when the food was open until 11 [p.m.], then we really got a lot of people.”

Besides students, the club also draws members from all walks of life, regardless of age or educational background. For instance, Victor Semenov, a Russian immigrant, North Oakland resident and chess enthusiast, stops by often to play at the club’s meetings.

“I met him at the library and he was playing chess against the computer. I told him to stop by and he’s been coming ever since,” Martinak said.

“Culturally, it’s interesting. We’ve had people from all different countries and nationalities. We’ve had a guy from Germany coming occasionally. It’s really a good way to meet people from other cultures and become friends just through playing the game,” he added.

Based on his modest nature, one would never assume Martinak’s status as one of Pennsylvania’s best chess players. His current rating — which equates to a chess player’s overall skill level — is currently 2229, a number high enough to make him a national master. This number fluctuates for a player, rising after beating a player with a higher ranking and falling upon losing to a player with a lower ranking. The only two titles higher than national master are international master and grandmaster. But Martinak is perfectly content with his current standing and said his time is better spent teaching the game to others rather than trying to raise his own ranking.

“With chess, at each level, it keeps getting exponentially harder to get to the next level. And eventually you reach a point where you have to spend so much time to improve that you just can’t do it,” Martinak said.

Love of the game

One of Martinak’s current players — and a potential success story in the making — is John Ahlborg. At age 19, Ahlborg, a sophomore pre-pharmacy student, is already an expert, just a step below national master. Heralding from Ohio, Ahlborg became heavily involved in chess in middle school and by high school was placing in Ohio scholastic state tournaments, even finishing a personal best of second place in one of them.

But for now, he sits across from another player, hands rapidly flying between the pieces on the board and the timer on the side. He’s playing what’s called speed chess, where the two players must make a move in ten seconds or less. No matter the style of play, as long as the game is chess, Ahlborg is interested. In the midst of the chaotic play, Ahlborg’s opponent said, “I feel like there’s a weakness in here somewhere, I just can’t find it.”

Perhaps due to Ahlborg’s extreme dedication to the sport, it is difficult for opponents to beat him.

“I try and come here for at least an hour every Tuesday and Thursday. I’m probably the best player here, and I feel like I should show up and be here. I also play online probably about a half an hour every day,” Ahlborg said. “I’m pretty obsessed with chess.”

But he, like Martinak, understands the difficulty of improving as a player to attain a higher rank, especially while being a student.

“My freshman year, I made expert. This year, I haven’t gotten that much better. School’s been tough to deal with,” Ahlborg said.

The young talent also uses the game to relax. While some students may exercise, watch television or nap, Ahlborg says chess is his best remedy to relax during the week.

“I can always de-stress by playing chess. If you’re playing for fun, like here at chess club, it can de-stress. I can just turn off my brain and play since I’ve played so much and it’s so familiar. It helps me take a break from school,” Ahlborg said.

While Ahlborg’s skill makes him one of the best on the team, not every player is at such an advanced rank. Amateur player and Pitt junior Maria Bening has caught Martinak’s eye with her vast improvement over the past couple of years.

“As a freshman, I was about a 300. Now, I’m at 1022,” Bening said, referring to the rating system that assesses the strength of a player, with less than 200 being novices and 2,400 and up being a senior master. “I didn’t play seriously until senior year of high school, but I really began to like it and wanted to improve.”

“It’s nice to see people who come in who are just beginners and by the time they leave they might be 1,100 or 1,200. That might not seem like much for tournament play, but sometimes the absolute level isn’t that important. It’s about the learning process. For each person, it’s different,” Martinak said.

Bening admits her game is still a work in progress, but it continues to improve.

“I really started improving last year as a sophomore. I learned you can play a lot and still make the same mistakes. Chess is about discipline and focus,” Bening said.

League play

College basketball has March Madness. College Football has the Bowl Championship Series. And the Pittsburgh Chess League has its annual, once-a-month tournament.

One Sunday a month at 2 p.m., the Union assembly room morphs into a chess extravaganza. Long rows of tables and chairs fill the room. Hundreds of players from all walks of life sit across from one another.

They sit and stare at the boards in front of them in the hushed and open room, only occasionally getting up to stretch, walk around or take a necessary bathroom break. The only action is the careful movement of selected pieces. Everyone wears a face of deep concentration and concern. While the interaction between players is minimal, the level of focus each player possesses builds a climactic atmosphere.

The Pittsburgh Chess League, one of the oldest chess leagues in the country (Martinak said limited historical information has created this notion) is now in its 53rd year. The League is made up of an assortment of various chess clubs — 18 in total, including the Pitt Chess Club — throughout the Pittsburgh area. Some clubs field several teams.

Pitt Chess Club has five teams (Pitt I through Pitt V). Other local institutions including Duquesne, Carnegie Mellon and Central Catholic High School participate, as well. Some teams have no specific affiliation and are simply just a group of interested chess players.

For instance, the “Weenies” are a group of former Pitt-Greensburg students who decided to stick together and continue playing chess with one another in the League. The “Gallant Punxsutawney Phil-idors” represent the region east of Pittsburgh.

To play on any of the Pitt Chess Club’s teams, one does not have to be a current student. Alumni, professors and even those who might have only briefly attended Pitt are welcome to sign up.

The League tournaments contain four divisions, separated by skill level. There are eight teams per division and each team will play seven different opponents between September and March in a round-robin format. Each team fields four players, who each play a game against a player from the opposing team.

“That way, everybody —stronger and weaker — gets a chance to play, and it keeps people interested in trying to improve. And when there’s a team involved, it gives you more incentive than just doing it for yourself,” Martinak said.

Martinak, as chief organizer of the Pittsburgh Chess League, somewhat conveniently schedules each Sunday tournament at the William Pitt Union.

Ahlborg joked, “We never have to worry about traveling.”

Martinak, an alternate on Pitt I, said he won’t play unless a fill-in is needed. A team can have up to 19 players, but usually has around a dozen or so, as certain players can only participate on certain days.

Recently and historically, Pitt has met with much success in the Pittsburgh Chess League.

“Overall, Pitt has the most League Championships,” Martinak said. Based on archived records, Pitt has been winner of the top division 16 times — the first victory occurring in 1968 and the most recent in 2008. Also, Pitt has taken home the highest number of board prizes — the winningest player from any of the four divisions — a total of 88 times since 1982.

“The past two or three years, we’ve been just below the top. CMU has some really strong players,” Martinak said.

For what it’s worth

While the League tournaments are the culmination of practice and study for many, the biweekly Pitt Chess Club meetings are the bread and butter of the organization. While many use the meetings to practice and play, the time also serves for those who simply want to reminisce, reconnect and converse about the game they love.

“I remember the game, when we were all here, when Bill Hughes beat that international master. What’s his name, the guy from Penn State,” former Pitt student and chess club member Jason Maruccio asked Martinak and the others in his midst.

“We were all standing around that game. That was a huge upset,” Maruccio said.

Since moving on from Pitt, Maruccio said he still plays chess once in a while at another local club.

“This is actually the first time I’ve been here in a while,” Maruccio said. “Once you’re in a chess league, you’re never really out. People take breaks and might disappear for a while, but you know they’re still around.”

But there was another reason for Maruccio’s surprise visit. Maruccio played a chess match just two days prior at a tournament in Squirrel Hill. With a small group assembled around him, he recreated this game, turn by turn, completely from memory. He, like many others, sought Martinak’s expertise and advisement on how to better play certain game situations.

For many players, a large part of their time at Pitt Chess Club is spent reviewing previous games and seeing where they went right or wrong on certain moves. During a live game, players keep track of every move made by both themselves and their opponents. Maruccio, with a few more years of experience, can rely on memory.

“Looking at your game, that’s the way you learn, by finding your mistakes,” Martinak said. “On the Tuesday after a tournament, everyone will bring down their games and we’ll analyze them. When you make a mistake and someone explains to you what was wrong with your idea, that’s how you learn.”

Above all, the club facilitates a community. Albhorg said he was the only one from his high school to attend Pitt, but chess club has made it easy for him to create new friendships.

“For me, chess has always been a good thing to get to know people by. It’s something you have in common, and if you can find someone who understands it, you know they’ve spent time into it, too. I’ve been able to meet a lot of people here. It’s been good,” Albhorg said.

Being the steadfast leader of the club for so many years, Martinak said he’s happy to provide an opportunity for students and chess enthusiasts to meet one another and do what they enjoy.

“A lot of good friendships have been made here. It’s very nice to see that growth together,” Martinak said.