Lob Shot to Checkmate

You might think the skills needed to compete in the physically challenging team sport of water polo are very different from those needed in the individual, cerebral activity of competitive chess. One requires participants to be strong swimmers with good throwing arms while the other requires the ability to sit in quiet concentration for long periods of time. Joshua Solomon ’26, who’s passionate about both activities, does see some overlap.

“Chess helps me stay patient and levelheaded in any stressful situation,” like when he’s battling competitors in the pool during a water polo match, says the computer science major and native of the Caribbean country of Antigua and Barbuda. “And having a baseline level of fitness helps you when you’re staring at a chess board for four or five hours at a time.”

Before arriving on the WPI campus, Solomon competed on his high school swim team but was reluctant to devote the time necessary to train at the college level. At home in the water and in search of others with a similar affinity, he discovered WPI’s coed water polo team and joined without any previous experience (a typical background for members of the small but mighty team). The club competes against other schools, such as the University of Connecticut and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and hosted a tournament in April in the Sports and Recreation Center pool.

“The sport is more challenging than people think,” he says. “You have to be able to swim, of course, but you also have to have stamina to swim hard for 30 minutes straight. I love hanging out with people who like to have fun, but I also like the physical challenge behind it.”

Discovering Solomon’s other passion, competitive chess, was a rare happy outcome of the pandemic. In 2020, he and his twin brother were looking for ways to pass the time during their forced isolation and decided to learn chess by watching YouTube videos. They both uncovered an aptitude and love for the strategic challenge. They started a chess club at their high school and the team became a member of the International Chess Federation.

“It was just a hobby at the time, but now it seems like my whole life,” Solomon says.

In the summer of 2024, the brothers were sponsored by their country’s federation and traveled to the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary, where they faced off against the world’s best players from more than 190 countries. “It was intimidating, but intimidating in a good way,” he says, adding that he also enjoyed watching the matches of some of his idols who were also competing.

As a chess player, he’s known for his creativity. “I like trying new things, being innovative, catching someone off guard—really getting the upper hand in a creative way,” he says. “I like to calculate a lot and see things in my head a couple moves down the line. And if that’s the style you like to play, you have to be very meticulous. You have to be able to see everything or it’s game over.”

The Chess Olympiad, held every two years, goes to Uzbekistan in 2026, and Solomon and his brother, Jonathan, a student at Clark University, hope to represent their country again.

In the meantime, he’s exploring other parts of the world. For his Interactive Qualifying Project, he traveled to Monteverde, Costa Rica, where he and his teammates helped a local nonprofit hiking organization create a more structured association plan so they have better access to funding. “The sense of community was amazing,” he says about the C-Term 2025 adventure in the Central American country. The highlight was a two-day hike where he and his fellow students stayed in a hostel without electricity and were warmly welcomed by local residents. “The food we ate was grown in the farm right there. It was a really beautiful experience.”

Back on campus, Solomon will continue to serve as treasurer for his fraternity, Theta Chi. (In his first year at WPI, he served as secretary for the Caribbean and Hispanic Student Association, and last year he was treasurer of the water polo club.) He will also seek out chess competitors, whether for friendly matches on campus or in local competitions.

“I like to face a challenge,” he says simply, another common denominator of both his disciplines.