Forget Madden. The Hottest Game in the N.F.L. Is Chess.

“There’s a huge correlation,” Cooper said. “In chess, if you make one bad move, you can lose the entire game. And in football, if you’re playing really well, one bad play can cost you.” Cooper likened fleeting inattention to pawn structure to missing a second-half blocking assignment: a seemingly minor misstep that can ruin a day’s work. “It teaches me to be intentional about every snap, about everything,” he said.

When Cooper came to the Cowboys via trade during Awuzie’s second season, in 2018, the teammates played regularly in person. Awuzie, who had played a bit in college to pass time during tedious classes, quickly adopted Cooper’s seriousness about the game.

“He whooped me pretty good,” said Awuzie, 27. “That feeling of losing wasn’t pleasant, and I’m not the type to back down and stop playing. I wanted to get better.”

He worked puzzles online, played more and more matches and studied openings and defenses. That closed the gap between him and Cooper and paid dividends on the field, allowing him to adapt on the fly to the myriad techniques N.F.L. receivers threw at him.

“It’s pattern recognition. If a receiver gives me a certain release, a certain stem, a certain route, and I’ve seen that setup before, I’m probably going to have an answer for that,” Awuzie said. “I’m able to dig into my mind a little bit better. I’m a big note-taker, but playing chess has helped me remember things without needing to take notes.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/sports/football/nfl-chess-blitzchamps.html