On the same day the State Board of Education signed off on allowing high school athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, or NIL, a Gainesville chess team received thousands of dollars in sponsorships.
Sixteen-year-old international master Bach Ngo and his teammates Abhiram Pothuri and Jolie Huang received a $2,500 check from College Hunks, a national furniture moving company.
Ngo also got an individual $2,500 sponsorship. According to his coach, Ngo is the fifth-highest ranking 16-year-old in the country. He started playing the game when he was 5 years old, and he’s working his way up to grand master, the highest honor in chess.
“When I was young, I just liked how the pieces, figurines looked cool,” Ngo said. “As I get older, the strategy and the tactics and such, they’re just very exciting.”
The State Board of Education on Wednesday ratified a Florida High School Athletic Association bylaw that clarified students’ eligibility for NIL deals.
College Hunks Franchise Partner Peter Roghaar said one of the company’s values is fostering leadership.
“Traditionally, NIL money has gone to football players, basketball players, baseball players,” Roghaar said. “We like to raise the profile of these students that maybe don’t typically benefit from NIL money.”
According to Roghaar, College Hunks was the first company to sponsor a college athlete in an NIL deal, a University of Miami quarterback named D’Eriq King.
Team coach Britt Ryerson is a national master in chess and a teacher at the Frazer School in Gainesville, where Ngo’s team plays.
“A lot of times, the recognition goes to the star athletes, but it’s really cool to see that chess players are also recognized as athletes,” Ryerson said. “It might be a bit of a more mental sport, but I definitely consider chess to be a sport and these guys to be athletes.”
Ryerson said chess tournaments can be expensive – the entry fees alone can be hundreds of dollars, plus hotel and travel costs. He says the sponsorships will go toward these costs so the team can compete in more tournaments.
Ngo said he wishes more people knew the amount of work and strategy that goes into succeeding in chess competitions.
“I would consider myself more of a positional player, which means I play safely, more passively at times,” Ngo said. “Then I like to fight back and counterattack, or put pressure on the opponent.”
The whole team has won seven state championships and four national championships since they were all in second grade. Ryerson said this group may be the “best chess team in Gainesville’s history.”
The team’s next tournament is in December.
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