Why do the Sixers gravitate to chess? ‘I love games that stroke the mental’

Chas Moyer placed his head in his hands, eyes locked on the pieces dispersed across a chess board.

The 13-year-old redhead in a gray hoodie sat across the table from Daryl Morey, and, following their postgame handshake, acknowledged that he was nervous to play the 76ers’ president of basketball operations. To Morey’s left were Sixers players Paul Reed and De’Anthony Melton, and next to them, chess grand master Levy Rozman (better known as GothamChess from his wildly popular internet teachings).

They were all participating in the Melton’s Make Your Move event, a series of friendly games played with students from Camden Academy Charter School and the Knight School Chess Academy at the Sixers’ practice facility on Friday. It was an opportunity for Melton, Reed, and Morey to connect to the community — and to celebrate their shared love of a board game that is both universal and more applicable to basketball than one might think.

“I love games that stroke the mental,” Reed said. “It’s not easy. You’ve really got to figure out how to win.”

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid returns to Sixers practice for first time since injuring left knee in January

Chess and basketball require thinking multiple steps ahead by anticipating the opponent’s next moves. Reed and Morey compared it to when on offense, a player recognizes where the help defender might come from, and as a result, where the next pass should go. While on defense, noticing the patterns of an opposing offense’s scheme — such as setting multiple types of screens, or frequently slipping to the basket or using a curl cut — is similar to chess, Morey added.

And these Sixers are far from the only NBA players passionate about the game, helping break stereotypes that athletes cannot also enjoy an activity that some outsiders may perceive as “nerdy.” GQ published a story last month about chess’ prevalence across the league, featuring high-profile names ranging from Dallas Mavericks MVP contender Luka Doncic, Golden State Warriors sharpshooter Klay Thompson, and Boston Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis.

“You realize how many people actually do play, how many people have a knack for it, and how many people want to learn,” Melton said. “… I think that’s what makes the beauty of it, too. It’s something that you can pick up, but it’s not something you can really master.”

Reed first learned the game when he joined the chess club in fifth grade. Melton, meanwhile, taught himself how to play in high school after he stumbled upon classmates in a game and became fascinated with where each piece could move (despite confusion from some friends about his new hobby). Morey started as “just a little kid that liked to win everything,” and played seriously until about age 13.

“There was no dice. There’s no cards. There’s no randomness,” Morey said of what appealed to him about the game. “If you win, you win. … You couldn’t blame something else.”

It’s perhaps least surprising that Morey, who would go on to receive his master’s from MIT and become a revolutionary creative executive driven by data, would remain enticed by chess. These days, Morey makes a daily move on Chess.com whenever he gets a small gap between Zoom calls or meetings. At last month’s MIT Sloan Conference, the prominent sports analytics extravaganza that Morey co-founded, he was spotted leaning over a board in the room specifically designated for attendees to play the game. Melton said he played Morey relatively early in his time with the Sixers, but then “realized how good he was, and we haven’t really played after that.”

Yet when Melton and Reed became aware of their shared interest, they began convening in the players’ lounge at the Wells Fargo Center to play a 10-minute speed game about an hour before tipoff. Melton said it “gets your mind going” for the basketball floor. Reed described intense competition in a condensed time frame, which often draws a crowd of teammates and staff.

“Everybody’s watching,” Reed said. “You got people on the sidelines commentating, and it’s a lot of pressure sometimes.”

» READ MORE: Kyle Lowry appreciating smooth transition with his hometown Sixers: ‘They kind of let me be me’

Strength and conditioning coaches Ben Kenyon and Stephen Brindle are among the organization’s other regular players. Melton also recently took on the more inexperienced Tobias Harris, whom Melton said with a chuckle is “not good. He tried, though.” Reed, meanwhile, said no teammates have asked him for lessons or matchups because, “I don’t think anybody want that smoke.”

Like basketball, those Sixers’ individual chess strategies vary. Morey said he has established a system for when he plays as white (which always moves first) or black, but lacks the time to learn numerous tactics for the initial phase of a game called the “opening.” Melton, meanwhile, said he sometimes uses a more traditional approach, and “sometimes, I’ll just do random stuff” to cause chaos and throw opponents off. And Reed said his goal is “to try to take all your pieces.”

“It’s as simple as that,” Reed said. “And not get my pieces taken. … I try to stick to defense. Defense first leads to offense. Once I know my pieces are secure, that’s when I know I’m in aggressive mode.”

Melton and Reed both got the chance Friday to play against Levy, the 28-year-old phenom whose YouTube channel has more than 4 million subscribers. When they all joined the students, Reed playfully asked, “Who’s the best player in here?”

Melton matched up with two players under the age of 10 — one who was quiet, and one who was talkative to try to distract his opponent, he said. Morey enjoyed seeing the young players at the beginning of their chess journeys, remembering the fun of that phase because “you see yourself improving rapidly.” When Reed called “checkmate” against his final opponent, he offered a congratulatory “You fought well.”

“Some of the kids are pretty good,” Reed said. “Some of them move kind of quick. They weren’t really thinking about their moves. I’m the same. I wasn’t really thinking about my moves, either.

“I wasn’t going hard against the kids, but one of them almost had me.”

That’s because, in Morey’s words, anybody can play chess because “it’s just 64 squares and how the pieces move.” And Reed embraces the brainpower required to play basketball and chess.

“[Chess] is a pretty nerdy game, not going to lie,” Reed said. “I feel like you have to be smart to be able to win. … The types of people who call kids nerds or something like that, they’re not smart themselves, you feel me?

“A lot of NBA players are really nerdy. You don’t get this far without being some type of smart.”