Check! Kwan’s chess moves help earn Clemente Award nod

In 2022, Kwan and teammate Will Benson were trying to come up with something to do other than video games or simply scrolling through their phones in the clubhouse. Benson had a chess board. They both were beginners and they decided to challenge each other. As the Guardians promoted these battles on social media, they heard from a nearby school that was ranked nationally for its chess club. The school wanted to battle.

Kwan was all in. So, the Guardians hosted the John Marshall High School chess club, which was made up of mostly refugee students who had very little knowledge of baseball. Many of them came from different countries, and they barely spoke the same languages as each other. But they were all connected by chess. It was a perfect marriage: Kwan could teach them about baseball (growing the game to a new audience) and these kids could help make Kwan the best chess player in the clubhouse.

“I realized how there’s just different levels of chess,” Kwan said. “You can feel like you’re so good and then someone [better] comes along.”

Those were high school kids and they were scheduled to play chess against Kwan and a few of his teammates in the Guardians’ dugout before a game for one hour. But Kwan didn’t want the day to end. He begged for more games and the meetup ended up lasting three hours. At the end, Kwan was quick to inform the Guardians that he wanted that to happen at least once a month.

Suddenly, so many friendships were born.