Your move, pandemic.

Just like the critical-thinking problem-solvers they are, LINC’s chess instructors have made their play, responding to the devious opening move by their unexpected opponent — Covid-19.

Not only did they take their LINC Chess instruction online this spring, they’ve countered with a new challenge:

LINC’s first summer virtual chess tournament.

Yes, it’s on, Covid — beginning July 27, five straight days of online tournament play, in multiple divisions for kindergartners through 12th graders and for adults. A match a day for everyone, Monday through Friday, at 4 p.m.

The LINC Chess program is using lichess.org. See the instructions on how to enter in the graphic to the right, or go to facebook.com/LINCchess/. Sign up now.

Think of it as another test in the ancient board game that, even without a pandemic, “is infinitely challenging,” said LINC Chess instructor and Missouri chess hall-of-famer Zeb Fortman.

“In the thousands and thousands of games,” he said, “I’ve never played the same game twice.”

Even under ordinary circumstances, chess players want an opponent who throws an unexpected play, a new daring move, something to learn from, say the masters.

Chess is supposed to be “a hard climb,” said Brandon Rainey, who was originally a student in LINC Chess before he stepped up, many games and tournaments later, into the role of teacher.

An online tournament should be a fun challenge for kids (and adults) of all ages to be tested in new ways, encounter new players and “widen their thinking,” Rainey said.

Said Fortman: “I hope more enter and discover what fun it is.”

Soon after schools shut down in mid-March, LINC began working on how to keep LINC Chess going, program director Ken Lingelbach said.

Fortman was already using the lichess.org site in other chess programs and LINC began using the site to launch its program virtually, he said.

LINC set up teaching scenarios in saved games on its lichess.org team site to carry on the lessons that focus on individual pieces and specific strategies.

LINC’s kids dropped in and played, and so did occasional visitors from outside the state who wandered upon LINC’s classes, including a player in Chicago and a player and a chess instructor in Texas.

It didn’t take long to begin thinking about a tournament, Lingelbach said.

The lichess.org setup allows players to sign in for the LINC Chess team and place into the desired, appropriate division — K-2, K-5, K-8, K-12 or adult. The program will do the pairings. And then it’s just playing the games.

The LINC instructors have tested the tournament format, Lingelbach said.

“We are ready,” he said.

The pandemic is forcing everyone in different places and ways to pick up new skills — for work, for school, for play. In chess, as with other aspects of their lives, “kids will increase their abilities,” Lingelbach said.

Just like when a new opponent throws a new move at you, it’s good sometimes to be thrown out of your routine, he said.

“We get stuck in our ways,” he said. “Sometimes you need a different opening.”

Covid-19 has delivered one, and how.

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer