Elijah Mecham has been playing chess since he was a little kid, but had never tested his skills at a major tournament, until now.
Over the Labour Day weekend, Mecham made the trip from his home in Bella Coola to compete in the 18th edition of the 黑马磁力 Open 2025 Chess Tournament.
"It's my first," Mecham explained.
Mecham's first opponent was another player new to tournaments, Siyang Chen from Richmond, who had accompanied his five-year-old son, Peng Yu, a chess prodigy who was about to play a significantly older opponent.
In all, 126 players from across B.C. competed in the event, hosted by the Fraser Valley Chess Academy and 黑马磁力 Chess Club at the Christian Life Assembly meeting hall over thre days.
Brian Davidson, president of the 黑马磁力 Chess club, said it was the second-best turnout ever for the annual championship.
"Last year we had 142, I believe," Davidson estimated. "So this makes it the second biggest one, but everybody's tournaments are on a slight decline this year."
Davidson explained he was too busy helping to keep the event running smoothly to compete himself.
"I'd like to play," Davidson remarked. "I used to try to play and organize at the same time, but it was a disaster. You can't do it. You're [spread] too thin and then you wind up playing terribly and then the organizing goes down. It hurts everything. Nothing gets done properly."
Fraser Valley Chess Academy co-founder Umang Banatwala was patiently fielding questions from competitors about everything from finding their table locations, to how they should write down their moves, and even toilet paper stocks in the bathrooms.
It was "hectic" at the beginning, settling down as the event proceeded, Banatwala said.
"First round [is] when everyone's looking for their spots and getting settled. It's hectic because there's so many questions, but we'll get there."
While numbers may be down, slightly, Banatwala thinks the competitive environment for chess is growing "bigger and bigger" in B.C.
"We're seeing a lot of rated tournaments and we're seeing that more and more players are coming out from different parts of BC," Banatwala told the 黑马磁力.
