Welcome to Pell City Chess Club!

Welcome to Pell City Chess Club! We are a Chess Club local to Pell City, dedicated to learning and exploring the game of chess. Our club is entirely free and open to everyone who shares our passion for this timeless game. Chess is not just a game; it's an opportunity for personal growth and intellectual development. Join us in our journey to improve thinking skills, enhance our outlook on life, and experience the fun and excitement of chess. Our club stands out as a place that connects others, supports the development of critical thinking, problem solving, and provides students with curriculum that will apply to other areas of life besides chess.

Pell City Chess was a dream that started in a high school lunchroom, a dream that diverse people would meet and challenge each other to become better. Every loss is a lesson and every victory a proof of lessons learned. By demonstrating the similarity between chess principles and real world principles we believe we can use chess to develop our mental fortitude and learn how to solve life's most difficult problems and challenges.

About Me.

Hello! My name is Nash Kreitlein, I graduated from Pell City in 2019 and live in Pell City with my wife, Angel. We have two children, Ryker and Zhan. Chess has been a very big part of my life. My early childhood contained a lot of family separation and strife. I was lucky to always have great teachers and mentors to guide me. When I was introduced to chess, the great things I had already been taught and had learned were developed through my use of those principles on the chess board. I developed my patience and cognitive abilities with the help of my chess coach, Michael Ciamarra. Chess has positively affected my life for the better and it continues to help me hone my own skills and push past my limits. Now I strive to create a team of chess players to share those experiences with whether that's through competitive or casual success.

Benefits of Chess

Mental:

Concentration

Creativity

Problem-Solving

Bobby Fischer, one of the greatest chess geniuses of all time, said "Chess demands total concentration". A person can play perfectly for 50 moves and make a ridiculous blunder on move 51 that loses the game. This level of intensity is helpful for real world problems. Chess exercises both sides of your brain, making room for both creative off the wall thinking and logic based pattern recognition. Chess helps us learn or refine principles that teach us to be better problem solvers and thinkers.

Emotional

Winning and Losing

Confidence

Patience

Chess teaches us how to win and lose. Losing is frustrating and nobody likes to lose. However, losing in chess is necessary to a player's development. It shows your flaws, and each loss can be turned into a lesson. Chess teaches us how to fail forward and let our losses propel us. Winning is cool and everybody likes to win. Winning in chess can be deceptive, and even when you win there can be lessons learned. Chess teaches us how to evaluate what happened on the board rather than just the result. Chess requires patience, not only on the board but with oneself. Chess players have to be very patient with themselves as they learn lessons and get better at the game. Chess players also have to be patient and take their time when making decisions on the board. Chess is a single player game, no one can affect your play more than you. When you put in the time and effort to get better, even when you're dealing with difficult plateaus or down periods, it builds resilience and confidence.

Physical

Exercise

Memory

Community

Recent research at Stanford Neurology suggests that chess can help burn calories during intense games. Chess also refines memory function which not only improves your mind but has an impact on long term physical health. Chess connects us with other people, sometimes right next door to us and other times halfway across the world. This social aspect can help us improve our communication skills and expand our outlook on the world.