Chess Comes Alive on NYMC Campus
NYMC Unveils New Life-Sized Chess Board
"It's a great huge game of chess that's being played—all over the world—if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is!” said Alice in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll. It is appropriate then that the new mega-chess board outside of the Medical Education Center lies just a few feet away from the Fish-Footman and the Frog-Footman, characters from Alices’ Adventures in Wonderland that once adorned the pillars outside of Sunshine Cottage when it was a children's tuberculosis hospital during the 1930s. The whimsical statues were set to raise the spirits of the sick children who were being treated there. The board measures 16 feet by 16 feet while the pieces stand three feet tall. Chess pieces can be found outside of the Office of Public Safety and are available to members of the New York Medical College (NYMC) community who wish to play except for during official chess tournaments and other events.
Members of the Chess Club and students from the School of Health Sciences and Practice, joined Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., chancellor and chief executive officer, for the official unveiling on August 22.
“The chess set really beautifies the campus and provides a lovely place to play some chess and get physical activity in during downtime. The location is perfect—nice and shady and surrounded by greenery, with lots of foot traffic to hopefully get people to join in. The Chess Club is loving the latest addition to the NYMC campus. We know it will be used often,” said Daniel Furhang, School of Medicine Class of 2025 and president of the Chess Club.
“I am excited for the giant chess board in front of the MEC. I’ve already noticed some of my classmates learning how to play chess with it and I encourage classmates and peers of all levels to use it,” said Yanping Soong, SOM Class of 2027 and vice president of the chess club, who once had a provisional chess rating around 2000. “Chess has taught me how to plan ahead under pressure, act decisively when it matters, recover from setbacks even when I am caught off guard, and if necessary, how to dust myself off from a loss and try again. Of course, I also think it is great fun.”