South Oak Cliff High School is known for excellence on the football field, but there’s another activity where students excel…chess.

“We’re on the football team, we’re also on the basketball team,” SOC football player Criston Ivy said as he played chess. “We’re trying everything!”

“These are the people that are playing,” Chess Club Coach Tyne Thompson said. “It’s not just the nerd with a book. Chess is a very inclusive sport, because it is a sport.”

Athletes, actors, and artists all sat across from each other with chessboards between them; all of them ‘speaking’ this universal language.

“Like I don’t even know the language that well, but I even understand what they was doing,” Gabriel Vecchionacce, one of the club’s best players, said. “It was like a form of communication for me that was beautiful as an immigrant.”

Vecchionacce was playing one of SOC Chess Club’s best alumni players, Xavier Mathis, who now plays on SMU’s Chess Team.

“So just coming back here, giving back to my community, and showing other people that look like me that they can do it well,’ Mathis said. “Chess, it really gave me the opportunity to critically think about how to problem solve.”

That applies beyond the game of chess.

“Yes, we’re playing the game of chess, but you’re also playing the person,” Thompson said. “So if you can play on this board, you’ll better learn to assess situations and people.”

Chess is one of the most popular programs in Dallas ISD, with about 6,000 students across 200 campuses.

“To be in a tournament like this, I would like to be an inspiration to other people who may be watching,” Saffyjah Douglas, one of a handful of young women playing, said.

“Everybody’s not gonna be a football player. Everybody’s not gonna want to be in the band. Everybody’s not gonna want to act or dance or sing, right?” Thompson said. “But they can play chess!”

“That’s checkmate,” Ivy said, reaching to shake his teammate and opponent’s hand. “Good game. Miss T., I got him!”

South Oak Cliff had its first chess tournament of the season last weekend. A couple of students took home bronze.