Chess Wonderland in St. Louis Pt. 1
Attending the 1st Chess in Education Conference and More
Hey all, chess is a great distraction especially on a day like today… Real quick thanks to any of the new subscribers and to Jen Shahade for recommending my substack. I’m working on a lot of projects right now including The Chess Lounge and a NEW scripted comedy called Influnced that I am fundraising for BUT, I am still dedicated to putting out quality chess content like this:
I have been trying to get this article out for over a week so I decided today is the day! I will break it up into 3 parts as it’s quite a bit for one article. But, the amount of joy I felt after this trip to St. Louis to attend the 1st Chess in Education conference and visit the St. Louis Chess club PLUS hang out with one of the most delightful people in the chess world, IM Kostya Kavutskiy, must be shared with the world!
Thursday Morning 10/24/2024 - On a Jet Plane somewhere over the United States
I'm headed to the St. Louis Chess Conference in order to meet and network with chess educators.
I have been in chess education for nearly 15 years, starting with a college job teaching kids and now managing the California Chess School and the non-profit Chess Prodigies. It has been an incredible career thus far where I have written 3 chess books for kids and produced a feature Documentary called King Chess.
But, I have lost some steam. Before the pandemic, I was teaching 7 days a week - 5 days in after school classes and private lessons on the weekend. I managed a program where we were in 50 schools in 7 states where I spent my mornings hiring and managing instructors. That was exhausting. And when the pandemic moved most of my coaching online, I welcomed the break from teaching and managing in schools.
Now post-pandemic the California Chess School runs an online class for a few students and I teach one great after-school class at Brawerman Elementary West. I still have quite a few private students and run a private small group class on Fridays. I make a modest income from this and have filled up the rest of my time with producing a documentary, The United States of Chess.
I am feeling this tug towards working more in film and less in education. But, I have built something beautiful and also have the expertise in education that should not be overlooked. That does drive me to see how I can balance my new life in film and TV with continuing to educate students in chess.
Thursday Night - US Championship Closing Ceremony.
As soon as I stepped off the plane, I stepped into an alternate chess reality filled with super grandmasters and legends. I usually go to these events as a journalist but I wanted to enjoy it as a private citizen so I bought a ticket to the Closing Ceremony. GM Fabiano Caruana, one of my favorite chess players, won his 3rd US Chess Championship. And, IM Carissa IM Yip who started out the tournament with 8/8 went on to win her 3rd US Women’s Championship in the past 4 years.
All of the players from the US Championship and US Women’s Championship were at the event. I know a lot of them and my friend, IM Kostya Kavutskiy of the Chess Dojo knows many more so it was an incredible star studded event. I started meeting new people almost immediately as well.
The fun part of events like this with top level players is that their joy for the game really shines through. You can always spot top masters and GMs playing bughouse. I was incredibly impressed with how good FM Megan Lee was. I got to sit down and get absolutely crushed by her 3 times. Of course her partner was GM Ray Robson so my partner and I didn’t stand a chance. I did play two, 2 minute games against her, getting crushed in one and flagging in a winning position out of my favorite opening, the Scotch.
GM Levon Aronian could be seen walking around the room in one of his signature snazzy shirts signing boards and smiling jovially. He played a very interesting blitz game with IM Irene Sukandar. She was super focused and they played an imbalanced position with a queen vs. Levon’s two rooks. She had too much pressure with a pawn bearing down on g7 and Levon good naturedly ran out of time!
GM Judit Polgar, the legend who broke glass ceilings and one of my other personal heroes was also there. She is very approachable and always willing to take a picture or sign a board with a fan. I thanked her for doing an interview in King Chess. I really wish I could spend more time talking at events like this but I am always cognizant of their time. I also never really want to be too much of a super fan. I will never be as accomplished as her but I still want to be on her level. In the back of mind there are always partnerships to make and interviews that can be done!
As the night went on, dancing and karaoke were added to the mix. It was absolutely hilarious to see GM Maurice Ashley break it down. Then when some Latin favor song came on the girls dragged GM Leinier Dominguez onto the floor which was funny because he is taller than most chess players. Then GM Awander Liang tried very hard to drag Wesley out onto the dance floor. He got to the edge of the floor and then quickly made his escape back to play more bughouse!
Then the karaoke started which was just an absolute riot. GM Hans Neimann had been lurking around the edge of the event talking the ear off of people he likes but he took center stage belting out a few songs including Eminem! Oddly enough he sounded angry like always on the karaoke stage. But, it was all in good fun. Despite all of the negative media, he has re-integrated into the community just fine.
Kostya and I left a bit after that as it was a signal that we needed to get some sleep. Plus, I had to be up at 8 AM to go to the 1st Chess in Education Conference!
Stay tuned for Part 2 & Please recommend your friends!
Yours in Chess - Coach Q