By Deborah Arellano

Deborah is a Cooperative student at FOCUS MEDIA ARTS CENTRE

Chess crosses cultural and societal boundaries, and has become a cherished game recognized universally by its distinctive pieces, its board, and objectives - to checkmate the king. Although Chess has worldwide popularity, each place has a different culture surrounding the game. Despite this differentiation, chess has retained its appeal, uniting people in a peacefully competitive manner.

With this understanding of the togetherness, Healing as One, a grassroots organization located in Regent Park, hosted a chess tournament for the residents and the youth of the community. The tournament was held on the third floor of the Daniel Spectrum Arts Centre and many residents showed up to the tournament prepared to win one of the three prizes. If the competitors placed within the top three they would receive one of three gift cards depending on their place - third place would receive a $25 gift card, second-place winner would receive a $50 gift card, and the first-place winner would receive the ultimate prize of a $100 gift card. While the gift cards represented the recognition of a player’s skills, the real prize was “bragging rights”!!!

Many attendees were excited and determined to put their chess abilities to the test against their peers and neighbours. Among the finalists were Yaah, the brother duo-Ismail Afrah and Ibrahim Afrah- and their uncle Abdella Ali. The match became intense and each opponent was determined to win. With a shocking turn of events Yaah, a youth of Regent Park, beat Ismail Afrah to claim third place and Ibrahim Afrah won the match against Abdella Ali to receive the $100 gift card.

Despite the excitement of winning his first tournament, Ibrahim was most proud of his accomplishment of winning against his uncle for the first time and he reminded viewers of the importance of chess saying,“Games like this are very important because they bring the community together, it brings different ages together. So we had a lot of folks who came out who are young, who are old and we need to do more types of these games.”

To sum up, the Regent Park community fostered camaraderie and solidarity through the chess tournament put on by the community organization Healing as One, which aimed to promote togetherness. This enjoyable competitive game enabled residents to connect with their neighbours and families, demonstrating that even modest events like a chess tournament can profoundly improve community solidarity.