A growing number of NFL players are turning to chess as a way to unwind, sharpen their strategic thinking, and compete off the field. Chess.com's BlitzChamps tournament features current and former NFL players battling it out for bragging rights and charity donations.
If you squint your eyes as an offensive line sets for a play, the outlines of the players resemble chess pieces being maneuvered across a board by an unseen hand. Some run in the straight lines followed by a rook, others traverse the diagonals of a bishop, and a select few hold off opponents like a pawn.
This age-old notion in American football, that the sport is akin to chess played on a field, with its intricate strategies employed to outmaneuver an opponent's defense or stifle its offense, holds a surprising amount of truth. 'Before a play starts, the pieces are set, this is the position on the chess board,' explains Tennessee Titans cornerback Chidobe Awuzie. 'When the play happens, it's now the execution part of it. It's chess to an extent, but once the play happens, it becomes football.' Awuzie represents a growing contingent of NFL players who have embraced chess as a means to unwind, enhance their strategic thinking, and channel their intense competitiveness off the field. Even on Super Bowl Sunday 2022, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was engaged in a chess match before the big game. The allure of chess is so pervasive among players that Chess.com organizes a tournament specifically for current and former NFL players – the subject of a recent documentary by NFL Films. Now in its fourth year, BlitzChamps pits NFL players against each other in a battle for bragging rights and a $30,000 prize pool, which is donated to a charity of their choosing. 'As we pulled back the curtain, we realized there were a lot more NFL players playing on Chess.com than even we knew,' Danny Rensch, the chief chess officer at Chess.com, tells CNN. The genesis of the NFL chess tournament can be traced back to Rensch's friendship with Larry Fitzgerald, the legendary former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver and a passionate chess enthusiast. 'We were sitting in (Fitzgerald's) Tesla one night,' Rensch recalls, painting a picture reminiscent of a movie scene, 'We were … pulling this stuff together and he was actively texting and calling people right then.' Following 'a lot of work,' which involved fellow NFL players Amari Cooper and Awuzie, Chess.com hosted its inaugural tournament with the league in 2022. Athletes accustomed to clashing on the field found themselves seated behind screens, orchestrating their moves on a digital chessboard. Seeking respite from the high-pressure world of professional sports, athletes often, ironically, turn to other competitive pursuits for entertainment. Eight NFL players participated in last year's BlitzChamps, with Kansas City Chiefs safety Justin Reid emerging victorious as the league's top chess player, dethroning the reigning champion, Awuzie. The interest in chess extends beyond the confines of the tournament. 'A lot more people (on the Titans team) have an interest and are starting to play,' Awuzie shares, 'or they have played in the past and are trying to get back into it.' Every year, the tournament has 'only gotten more competitive' as the level of chess continues to ascend, Rensch notes. And as the chess skills have sharpened, so too has the football IQ of some players. Awuzie attributes his improved ability to discern formations on the field and anticipate shifts within them to his dedicated study of chess positions. 'Little things like that happen in my head at a faster pace now,' he says. 'When I made my leap, when I left the Cowboys to go to the Bengals, things were just happening and I was able to respond so much quicker. But at that same time … I had gotten better at chess so it was kind of simultaneous.'Leveraging these chess-derived insights, the game has evolved into a thriving industry, with high-performance coaches like Seth Makowsky employing it to train athletes, including Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. His efforts have been featured in publications such as the New York Times, The Athletic, and the LA Times. For Rensch, the most common error chess players make – 'getting married to their ideas … versus being able to react' – translates directly to the NFL. 'There's a real analogy there in … what is asked of not just the quarterback … but the safety or whoever to really react and read as to what's being executed in any given play,' he says. These comparisons even extend to basketball. Luka Dončić is a well-known chess aficionado, Victor Wembanyama engaged in matches with fans on a rainy December afternoon in Washington Square Park, New York, and Derrick Rose claims to play chess daily, even during a Drake concert. 'There's clearly something about the fact that chess is simultaneously an unsolvable puzzle, yet in every position, there's a best move, whether you find it or not,' Rensch observes, explaining the allure that chess seemingly holds for professional athletes
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