Victor Wembanyama went to a park in New York City and played 1-on-1 with fans on Saturday. He even lost a couple of games.
Not in basketball, though.
Wemby was playing chess. And this wasn’t on a whim: He knows how to play and even brought his own chess set.
Before the San Antonio Spurs left New York for a flight to Minnesota, Wembanyama put out the call on social media: “Who wants to meet me at the SW corner of Washington Square park to play chess? Im there,” Wembanyama wrote.
It was 9:36 a.m. People began showing up almost immediately.
Washington Square Park is a known spot for chess in New York — Bobby Fischer among others have famously played there, and it’s been used for multiple movie scenes featuring the game.
Wembanyama was there for an hour in the rain, from about 10-11 a.m. He played four games, winning two and losing two — he told Bleacher Report afterward that both of the losses were to professional chess players — before departing to catch the Spurs’ flight.
Wembanyama had been trying to get somewhere to play chess for the bulk of the team’s time in New York — the Spurs played the Knicks on Christmas and won at Brooklyn on Friday night. The schedule never aligned, until Saturday morning. And even with bad weather, he bundled up to make it happen.
He posed for photos with a couple of dozen people who showed up, braving a morning of cold rain to play chess with one of the NBA’s biggest stars.
“We need an NBA players only Chess tournament, proceeds go to the charity of choice of the winner,” he wrote on social media after his chess trip was over.
Wembanyama is averaging 25.2 points and 10.1 rebounds this season, his second in the NBA after winning rookie of the year last season. The Spurs play at Minnesota on Sunday.
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