Chess is the challenge for young people at Golden Gate Park tournament

College-aged grandmasters, father-son bonding over knights and bishops and an intense desire to keep kids off screens — even if only for a few hours — inspired scores of Bay Area families to head to Golden Gate Park Saturday for an annual chess competition that has grown in numbers since its inception five years ago.

This year, the various Bay Area marches by young people to protest gun violence may have trimmed the turnout for the free K-12 event. Some game boards sat empty as organizers concluded that a good number of the 227 registrants did not show up for the San Francisco Scholastic Chess Championship, choosing instead to march.