Chess Tournament

[Carter Bell, Des Moines] We're at the Iowa State Fair, and we're doing a chess tournament. It's very casual.

[Leviathan Freerksen, Des Moines] Yeah, I think chess is really fun, and you guys should try playing it. 

[Tyson Vande Hoef, Clive] Yeah, I just kind of like the atmosphere where there's a bunch of different games going on. And if you're in between games, you can just go watch one. It's kind of cool to play at the fair.

[Fatima Gamarra, Altoona] I just like the game. It's really fun because you have to think before you do, otherwise you'll end up losing all the time. 

You have to look around the chessboard to see anything attacking or a good move to do, because if you don't, they're going to get an advantage. You can still win, but they're going to get advantage and take most of your pieces, and you'll probably lose.

[Carter] My dad brought out this chess board, and he taught me how to play chess. And so I played him a bunch of times, which I lost a lot. But then one day I won. 

I've played two tournaments before, and they were in a lot more formal spaces. I had to wear a suit. 

My favorite part about playing chess at the Iowa State Fair is probably the fact that it's so casual and it really doesn't matter if you win, but I still like to win.

[Leviathan] So I like just hitting people with sacrifices. I, like sacrifice my bishop. When they take with their queen, I fork their king queen.

[Tyson] I like just the strategy and getting to play against people I don't normally get to play against. I play against my mom a lot, and I beat her most of the time.

[Leviathan] I've been playing chess for about six years now. 

[Carter] I've won my section, the blue ribbon, 1st place, two times in a row. Yeah, I'm going for my 3rd year in a row, winning a blue ribbon. I'm friends with half the people here with all of the chess stuff that I do. 

Just try my best. I don't care if I win or lose, but at least I'll be able to say that I made it past the group stage. 

I think it's definitely one of my favorite things. Along with cheese curds and a few other things.