Chess matches have been key to this Kentucky basketball offseason. Here’s why
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope uses games of chess to bond with his players.
- UK sophomores Collin Chandler and Jayden Quaintance have played chess against Pope.
- There’s also basketball-related benefits to playing chess, according to UK’s players.
During a summer session with reporters at North Laurel High School in London, Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope was asked about star transfer forward Jayden Quaintance.
A prodigious talent who played his freshman season at Arizona State, Quaintance sustained a torn ACL in February and underwent surgery for the injury in March. Talk surrounding Quaintance’s recovery from the injury has filled Kentucky’s offseason.
This June media opportunity with Pope was a natural spot to ask UK’s second-year head coach for an update on Quaintance’s return timeline, which now appears pointed toward early January.
But back then, Pope wanted no part of this conversation. Instead, he talked about chess.
“I don’t want to talk about Jayden Quaintance. He just beat me in a game of chess in like seven minutes,” Pope said. “I am done with him. He beat me the first time we played. I came back and got him. Then we had a rubber match, and he destroyed me. So I have nothing good to say about Jayden Quaintance.”
In this setting, Pope used chess as a lighthearted way to dance around the discussion of Quaintance’s injury return.
But it didn’t take much digging to determine that games of chess between Pope and his players have served as a key offseason bonding opportunity.
In fact, the next question asked to Pope at that June media availability was about the coach’s chess battles with sophomore guard Collin Chandler.
“We’ve got a little culture on this team,” Pope said of the chess matches. “It’s going to get competitive.”
Fast forward a few months to Kentucky’s team media day last week, and chess was once again on Pope’s mind when he was briefly touching on Quaintance as one of UK’s transfer pickups for this season.
“He was at (my) house two nights ago, and he was beating me so bad in a game of chess that we invented a new rule where I get to turn the board one time,” Pope said of Quaintaince. “... ‘You have to play my position. I’ll play yours.’ And the best I could come out of it with was a draw, barely.”
Kentucky basketball’s chess matches have an on-court impact
Quaintance — who was originally part of John Calipari’s 2024 recruiting class at UK before eventually finding his way back to Kentucky — is an experienced chess player.
Quaintance’s father, Haminn, taught his son chess when Jayden was 8 years old. Those father-son chess matches often ended in Haminn’s favor, until Jayden upped his skill level in 2020 while playing online during the COVID pandemic.
“I got super into it. I had a huge chess phase,” Quaintance said. “I was playing all day, every day... I got a lot better that way. I feel like recently I’ve got Coach Pope’s number. I feel like I’m figuring out how he thinks a little bit more. I’m getting to know him a little better.”
Quaintance first became aware of Pope’s fondness for chess earlier this year during his recruiting process as a transfer. Like Quaintance, Pope also began playing chess with his father, Don.
“I feel like it came up on a Zoom call,” Quaintance said. “We had plans to do it for a while, and I don’t like to lose.”
The cerebral process of chess is well known. It’s a thinking man’s game. The kind that can take a while as moves are calculated and strategies are implemented.
That’s particularly evident, Chandler said, with Pope’s playing style.
“One thing about Coach Pope is he’s very deliberate about what he does,” Chandler said. “He doesn’t waste moves, and that probably translates to basketball as well. Next time we play, we need to throw a timer on our moves because games can take forever with him.”
Like Quaintance, Chandler — who served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before beginning his college career last year — learned to play chess as a child.
He had an on-and-off again relationship with the game before picking it back up during his high school years.
“When I got here, I learned Coach Pope likes to play,” Chandler said. “In the summer last year we would play. We played a few times.”
At a minimum, these chess matches are a form of intellectual off-court bonding that can strengthen the relationship between Pope and his players. This was highlighted over the summer as part of an in-house UK Athletics video.
“I’m not a good chess player, but I like learning about the game and I like learning about how people think and function,” Pope said in that feature. “Most of all, with my guys, I like being able to sit down at a chess board and just have the time doing something where we get to talk.”
But there’s also a clear connection between in-game basketball situations and chess.
“You’ve got to be able to see how different positions unfold, and you know how the court opens up,” Quaintance said of the on-court impact that can come from chess. “You’ve got to be able to react to different situations... If you’re a move too late, you don’t have the advantage anymore.”
“I talk to Coach about this all the time, (basketball) is kind of like chess,” Chandler added. “We talk about manipulating the defense and thinking ahead, so it is tied to chess. Manipulating pieces that you want to go on different places of the floor.
“I think looking at the game of basketball as a strategic game is very real, and I think it’s a good approach.”
