His daddy taught him the game when he was eight.
“It was just kinda like a hobby, but I was really into football,” Brother K’Ren Spain said. “I ain’t really care for doing too much of nothing else.”
Having survived isolation and financial hardship, more than 20 years later, Spain is now growing into the game of Chess.
“It’s something that makes me be more mindful about the way I’m using my time.” Spain said.
Spain is one of dozens of players who convened at Prescott Market in West Oakland on Aug. 16 for the Black Men’s Chess League’s (BMCL) first anniversary.
Using chess ‘to teach, connect, and fellowship’
Three Black men founded the BMCL “to teach, connect, and fellowship.”
Alton Kennedy, Chris Morgan, and JaColbrian “Profhit” Benard started with less than eight brothers in an Oakland backyard, looking for shared space and refuge from the world outside. They outgrew garages, living rooms, and lounges across the East Bay. Through relationship building, the event grew. More than 200 people signed up for the anniversary event, Kennedy said.
“It’s not 100% always about the game,” Kennedy said. “It’s about that person sitting in front of you. It’s a bonding experience. That’s why we started.”
He added, “What was lacking was just the community; the brotherhood, and we cultivated that.”
For men like Spain, the tenets of delayed gratification, emotional restraint, and ability to anticipate consequences are immediately applicable beyond the pieces.
Black men and the ‘Game of Kings’
For over 100 years, the game has been a cultural phenomenon for urban Black males like Bro. Spain and myself, who see the 64 squares as kindling self-mastery and brotherhood.
Theophilus Thompson, born into slavery, became one of the earliest documented Black chess prodigies. The teen prodigy competed against adult white men and published a chess book in 1873.
The “Game of Kings” thrives inside Black male subcultures; within prisons, Hip Hop, and Black cinema, including films like Fresh (1994) and Life of a King (2013). Perhaps the most enduring symbol is the king; the ruler who cannot be sacrificed. The most consequential yet disempowered by the very structure of the competition.
Spain returned to the chessboard three or four years ago, at a moment when severe setbacks converged. In the wake of the pandemic, he experienced housing insecurity, lost his car, and was unexpectedly laid off. Chess became an outlet for tension and a means to stay productive. He remembered the themes his father taught him and applied the lessons.
“The match ain’t over until the king is down, not when you lose your queen,” Spain said. “Just because you lost another piece in your life that could have been prominent and important …You can always keep pushing.”
BMCL began as a space for Black men, and Black men continue to steer the league. But when they posted online, families – especially single moms – would soon ask if their sons could join.
Benard said to the others, “We gotta do something with this; we gotta turn this into something where people can enjoy our brotherhood.”
So many Black boys joined during the first year, BMCL created a youth chess program. Kennedy said that group meets monthly in Oakland, and is packed with young people drawn to the game.
‘It’s important for us to be able to be competitive … and still be able to shake hands’
At Prescott Market, mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters from diverse cultures and backgrounds came to appreciate and take part in what the founders built. Kennedy, Morgan and Benard acknowledge the breadth of ways that people can fellowship, but in scattered corners and tables, the familiar sharpness between brothers clashing wits is still strong in the air. The tension, vulnerability, and challenge presented when two men meet on the board is the type of experience Spain loves to engage in now.
As Spain left the event and returned to the sure challenges that await us all, he’s armed with strategy, humility, endurance, and an emergent certainty of his connections to brothers of like mind and spirit.
“I’m a competitive person by nature. Competition does something for your spirit,” Spain said. “Just being a man, that masculinity is just in there. It’s important for us to be able to be competitive, and at the same time still be able to shake hands.”
To connect with Black Men’s Chess League, contact the founders or complete the application for the youth chess program.
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