Kirsten Madsen reached out to the Bend community on Facebook asking if families with children have interest in starting a chess club.
Madsen is looking for a community for her son, Levi, who loves chess, and she got a lot of responses (50 comments by the time this story aired).
“I would say the main age group is probably 6-10, but we’ve got an 18 year old, 14 year old interested,” said Kirsten. “I also heard of a mom who was essentially volunteering her husband who used to be a chess champion and so I’m really hoping he comes out.”
Eight-year-old Levi has been playing for half of his life.
“It’s not about luck. It’s about skill. Like if someone makes a move, you have to figure out how to respond,” said Levi.
He’s already giving his dad, Andreas Madsen, a run for his money.
“I think at about six years old he started to beat me and I had to figure that out quickly,” said Andreas.
From playing online to driving to Portland, the Madsen’s have found ways to give Levi chances to play chess with others, but they want to be able to start a group closer to home.
“I would love to get him to playing in-person with friends,” said Kirsten.
Levi has a few trophies to show off, and he is quite confident in his strategy.
For a young guy, he knows a lot about the game and told us it would be so exciting to be able to play more of it in town.
