The Kwan's Gambit has taken over the Guardians clubhouse.
The home clubhouse has featured myriad available pregame activities for players over the years, as is the case in every ballpark around the league. For a while, ping pong was the contest of choice, with former reliever Dan Otero stirring up a few rivalries with some heated games.
Then there's Mario Kart, sitting near a corner of the clubhouse, which is Jose Ramirez's kingdom.
Rookie outfielder Steven Kwan has brought a quieter but more intense addition: chess. And it recently picked up some new players thanks to the show "The Queen's Gambit" on Netflix.
It really started with Guardians outfield prospect Will Benson in the spring of 2021. Benson brought a chess board from home, and Kwan was instantly hooked. He had played before, of course, but dove into it and helped Benson along the way.
"I roughly knew how to play, and then just competitiveness took over," Kwan said. "We just started grinding with it, in the same kind of way like [the video game] Call of Duty. We'd play like 15 games a day and it just grew from there."
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Fast forward a year, and Kwan is breaking camp with the big-league club, which preceded his record-breaking April. But along with a historically low number of swings-and-misses, Kwan also brought with him his own board. And the Guardians now have their own chess club set up in the clubhouse.
The most common opponents have been starting pitchers Triston McKenzie and Konnor Pilkington and catchers Austin Hedges and Bryan Lavastida, who has since been optioned to Triple-A Columbus.
Kwan has tried to help some of them along, giving them tips and pointers along the way without trying to be condescending. But the competition quickly ramped up, and the playing field was mostly evened.
Now, this mini chess club is as much about pride as it is about strategy. And the trash talk never stops.
"There are so many different levels to it," Kwan said. "I think the ones that stick out are pride and ego. I like to say I'm probably one of the best in the clubhouse, but you can't just say that, you have to prove it. You talk this big game and then you can easily blunder your queen, and right there you're losing because of a dumb move you made. Then you lose another piece and it just crumbles."
Baseball, too, is a sport that requires a short memory.
"You swing and miss at a ball that was 10 feet in front of you, you look terrible and then you chase another pitch," he said. "It's the same thing of being able to say, 'OK, I lose there, let me reset and keep a straight mind and keep going.'"
Hedges was in a chess club in elementary school, even to the point of entering chess tournaments, but hadn't played in years until this spring when he saw Kwan in an intense game against McKenzie.
"I was like, you know what? This is better than cards and some thoughtless games," said Hedges, who also plays 2-3 games on his phone every day. "I love strategy puzzles, things that get my brain working. I think that's kind of what it started going into ... it gets my wheels turning and I love the way it makes my brain feel."
McKenzie even likes it simply as a way to get his mind into a competitive place before his starts. What better way to prepare to face Mike Trout or Tim Anderson than figuring out how to take his opponent's bishop three moves from now?
"I'd say I use it in the mental aspect in terms of trying to lock in or get to a certain place," McKenzie said. "And in a way it can help me clear my mind and help me process a lot of information that I see on the chessboard logically, and I think I try to take that onto the mound with me."
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The ultimate goal for Hedges, McKenzie and the others? Beat Kwan. And if you do, you get to sign his personal board.
McKenzie has beaten Kwan a few times. Hedges has only done it once, but it doesn't stop him from constantly reminding Kwan.
"Oh, every day," Hedges said with a big smile when asked how often he reminds Kwan of his one win.
Kwan wants to keep the board as long as possible. Some day, it'll be a piece of memorabilia.
"Probably like 20 years from now, 30 years from now, I imagine I'll still be playing chess and I'll be able to just kind of flip it over and see the signatures," Kwan said of his board. "And in the moment, it obviously hurts, but I think the reward later on, it'll be cool."
But what's better — beating someone in chess or driving in a run? Is it better to line a go-ahead double into the right-center gap or take your trash-talking opponent's queen, setting them up for doom in the near future?
"I mean, I'm gonna say driving in a run," Kwan said, before adding, "but if you were talking smack to that person and they were talking smack back, [beating them in chess] feels pretty good. One hundred percent."
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Guardians at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/cleveland-guardians. Follow him on Twitter at @ByRyanLewis.
Royals at Guardians
Time:6:10 p.m. Tuesday
TV:Bally Sports Great Lakes
Pitchers:Daniel Lynch (2-3, 3.92 vs. Cal Quantrill (1-3, 3.42)
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Steven Kwan starts trash-talk-fueled chess club in Guardians clubhouse
