Brian Mapakamise ’25 is building a chess culture at Furman

Brian Mapakamise ’25 is the president of the Chess Club at Furman.

Brian Mapakamise ’25 considers himself late to chess since he didn’t play his first game until he was 11.

A teacher had brought a board to his primary school in Zimbabwe. For two years, Mapakamise watched other students learn, too shy to take his own turn.

But he was memorizing moves all that time. “I remembered the pieces visually,” he said.

His parents couldn’t buy him a board, so he made one during a school break. He drew the grid of dark and light squares on paper and put the name of each piece on a stone. When school resumed, Mapakamise finally played his first game.

In chess, “I found myself – how my mind visualizes,” said Mapakamise, who can now play without a board, moving pieces in his head.

Mapakamise, a chemistry major, is president of the Furman University Chess Club, which he started with another student during the 2021-22 school year. In its second year, the club has become a place for 30 to 40 students to connect weekly over something other than school.

“We have something in common, we enjoy the games, we’re taking a break from classes,” Mapakamise said.

As a child, he thought chess might open the door for him to leave Zimbabwe, something both he and his parents wanted. But academic success ended up being his path to an international high school in Norway and then to Furman.

When he arrived in Fall 2021, Furman’s only connection to chess was an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) class for senior citizens. And it had been suspended during the panemic.

But OLLI staff members Heidi Wright and Alise Brown helped connect Mapakamise to a Greenville club and introduced him to a member, who told him: “I live next to Furman. I can come and collect you every Thursday.”

Most of the members were grandparents. Mapakamise was unfazed.

“All I wanted was to just have someone to play chess,” he said.

He gained a whole lot more than that: He’s been in many of the members’ homes to share family meals. And last summer, club members took him with them to chess tournaments in five states, the largest of which was the Philadelphia World Open.

Meanwhile, on campus, Mapakamise would set up his chessboard on a bench near Furman Lake and analyze past games. He decided it was time to find some college competitors.

Patrick Lyle ’22 was working on the same idea. The first-year student and the senior connected and together started the Furman University Chess Club. The support Mapakamise and Lyle received from the Student Government Association made Mapakamise glad, again, that he had chosen Furman.

Lyle, the club’s first president, told Mapakamise he played chess like a person speaks a native language: comfortably but with a ceiling on proficiency. He encouraged Mapakamise to study chess as a discipline.

Sean Humphrey ’26, moves a chess piece while playing Walker Smith ’26, during a Chess Club practice in the Student Organization Commons in Trone.

Brian Mapakamise ’25, right, president of the Chess Club at Furman University, laughs with other club members as Walker Smith ’26, left, contemplates a move during a practice in the Student Organization Commons in Trone.

After Lyle graduated, Mapakamise became club president. One of his goals for this year is to increase female membership. A few women came to meetings after a student fair at the start of the year, but they didn’t stick around long.

“They’re just brilliant, they play well,” Mapakamise said. He’s brainstorming ways to make the club more welcoming.

Last fall, he had the chance to teach chess to two elementary-aged boys who live near campus. He enjoyed it so much he’s currently working on a proposal through the Heller Service Corps to connect Furman students to local elementary schools to coach chess clubs.

He’s also dreaming about a May Experience class that could explore the culture of chess and its impact on society.

“It has that influence and power,” Mapakamise said.

Over winter break, Mapakamise went home for the first time in three years. His 15-year-old brother plays chess and soon will be in a tournament that Mapakamise competed in when he was younger.

Mapakamise is approaching the rank of Candidate Master in the United States Chess Federation, a level he hopes to reach this summer.

Chess is “amazing,” he said. “It just gives me that kind of feeling that I can’t get anywhere else.”