WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — The game of chess is more than 1400 years old, and it's played by millions of people around the world. And one of the best of them lives right here in Iowa. Her name is Irene Fei, and despite being only eight years old, she has some serious skills.
Irene is currently the number one ranked female chess player in the world under age nine, according to the International Chess Foundation. The Ames native has been playing for nearly two years, and she found out she had a knack for it pretty quickly.
"It was very easy," Irene said. "I kept on winning. So then I just got into it and playing and playing and playing."
But finding new opportunities to play means that Irene and her family have had to start looking outside of Iowa.
"All the tournaments, especially national or international tournaments, will help her to improve her chess," said Zhe Fei, Irene's father.
Those travel expenses add up quickly. So on April 30, the Des Moines Chess Academy hosted a fundraiser at Valley High School, featuring workshops and tournaments to help others up their game, with all the proceeds going to Irene's family.
"I sometimes feel nervous but when I go out, I get more excited to get my rating up higher so that I can find higher-rated opponents," Irene said.
Irene's father said that he'll support her in chess as long as she wants to compete. And while the medals and trophies she's collected are nice, he's happy to see how the game has changed her.
"We can see that from her eyes every time where she analyze some games, play some games, she'd feel a bit excited. And she's actually quite a very quiet girl, shy girl, actually doesn't want to talk too much. But whenever she gets some chance to talk about chess, she gets excited," Zhe said.
The workshops may be done, but you can still donate to help Irene's family with expenses. The link to that can be found here.