Despite its lack of high-tech graphics, sound effects and superheroes, a local youth chess club is swelling in popularity.  Barely six months old, the club already has 50 registered members and weekly meetings at the Reagan High library typically attract a couple dozen kids.  Still, the local mom who started the group hopes for more.
 
“We’d like to promote chess more in San Antonio…If San Antonio builds a strong scholastic chess program, the tournaments will come,” says Mariam Istafanous, who started the club after her son began having difficulty finding opponents at his skill level. 
 
Local adult chess clubs are not exactly child-friendly, she says, adding that groups catering to students are few and far between while chess centers are completely non-existent in this city.  Istafanous has already asked Grand Chess Master Susan Polgar to expand her Corpus Christi-based South Texas Chess Center to San Antonio.  According to Istafanous, Polgar turned down the suggestion because the Alamo City lacks a strong scholastic chess program.   
 
“I am surprised,” Istafanous says of the shortage of chess clubs, considering the size of San Antonio.
 
Istafanous 10-year-old son began playing chess seriously nine months ago.  “He likes it,” says his mom.  “I don’t play professionally.  I would still consider myself a beginner and he beats me all the time.”
 
As her son began playing chess more seriously, Istafanous searched for clubs and competitors to build on that interest and encourage the hobby.  “I think it’s very beneficial for the kids,” she says, noting that chess not only improves IQ, but also pulls her son away from the television and video games. 
 
Her son began participating in a chess club at his Canyon Ridge Elementary School.  Yet, while grateful such an extracurricular activity is offered, Istafanous says the teachers were unable to instruct her son in more advanced levels of play.
 
The club at Reagan’s Bannwolf Public Library has not really offered the level of competition Istafanous had hoped for either since most of the participants are elementary-age children just learning the game.  Still, Istafanous attends every week she is in town and her son volunteers to help coach new players.  The library even pays for a chess expert to instruct club members once a month. 
 
Though supportive of the group, the library has also issued chess club members severe warnings regarding their noise level after receiving complaints by library patrons.  “It’s becoming more difficult,” Istafanous says of the club’s meeting place.  Ideally, she would like to see a chess center opened in San Antonio and is currently looking for companies to either sponsor local tournaments or donate a better space for their chess club to play.
 
In the meantime, Istafanous revels in the group’s recent successes.  The Bannwolf Library chess club has already competed in two tournaments, winning one and coming in second at the other, even though competing teams came with twice as many players.  
 
“The kids are improving,” she says.
 
The Chess Club meets at Bannwolf Public Library, located at the Reagan High School campus, at 6 p.m. every Monday.  All ages and skill levels are welcome.