Posted in Caribbean, Haiti on Jan 30th, 2010 6 Comments »
The world has been gripped by the horrific images stemming from the Haitian earthquake. There has been support to various non-govermental and humanitarian organizations. However, there is no way to know whether a given person will get the assistance they need. Families lost their homes, prized possessions and family records, so the burdens are heavy. [...]
Posted in Caribbean, Haiti on Jan 16th, 2010 45 Comments »
Fellow Chess Enthusiasts: You are most certainly aware of the tragedy that has beset the nation of Haiti. A nation of a proud history and a nation sharing the love of our royal game of chess. Less than a week ago, a massive earthquake leveled the capitol city of Port au Prince, devastating the population [...]
Posted in Media Stories, Scholastic, Videos on Dec 22nd, 2009 2 Comments »
The famed GM Susan Polgar, the eldest of the famed Polgar Sisters was the subject of an interesting documentary on how the three sisters received specialized training to become strong chess players. Much of the documentary was set in New York and Hungary and Polgar described her evolutionary process as a player. Polgar now runs [...]
Posted in Media Stories, Scholastic on Oct 29th, 2009 No Comments »
You can tell that Salome Thomas-El understands the life of hard knocks. Having grown up in the Philadelphia housing projects to a single parent, he had to deal with adversity. Now as an adult, he is teaching others to deal with adversity. Walking with a professional swagger, he asserts, “I’ve never met a child I [...]
Posted in France, Guadeloupe, Videos on Oct 27th, 2009 5 Comments »
Perhaps one of the most ebullient players has become a hit on the online chess scene. Aurélie Dacalor has joined the team that produced the “Chess & Strategy” videos. The Women’s FIDE Master can also be seen promoting popular book titles in “Au Pays des Livres” series. The videos are all short and are well-done [...]
Posted in Media Stories, USA, Videos on Oct 12th, 2009 19 Comments »
Posted in Drum Majors, Media Stories, Videos on Aug 5th, 2009 9 Comments »
Grandmaster Maurice Ashley is prepared to release a new book titled, “The Most Valuable Skills in Chess” by Gambit Books. This book is after his “Chess for Success” debut. The video below has some detail, but it appears that Ashley had adapted some of his material from his popular CD. I have not previewed the [...]
Posted in Media Stories, Scholastic on Jun 26th, 2009 8 Comments »
Orrin Hudson continues to make forays onto the biggest stages throughout the country. He is on the cover of the current Sports Illustrated Teen, the question for him is whether this will translate into the mass movement that he envisions. For the past five years, Hudson has blazed a trail across greater America pitching his [...]
Posted in Hip-Hop, Videos on May 30th, 2009 No Comments »
Bay area’s Adisa Banjoko has opened registration for the Kings and Queens Invitational to be held on October 10th. Past events have featured a mixture of chess competitors, hip-hop legends and martial artists. There have been panels at each of the events and the events have received media coverage. Registration opens up on June 15th [...]
Posted in Media Stories, USA on May 8th, 2009 1 Comment »
Back in 2002, there was a TV series called, “The Wire.” The show ran five seasons and was considered ground-breaking. It was about the trials and tribulations of living life in the inner city of Baltimore, Maryland. The backdrop is a housing project, a common fixture in inner cities where Blacks live. They could have [...]
Posted in Germany, The Chess Drum on Apr 23rd, 2009 5 Comments »
The Chess Drum’s Daaim Shabazz was interviewed by Dr. Rene Gralla for Neues Deutschland and ChessBase (Germany). The interviewed broached a number of subjects including the origins of The Chess Drum, impact of President Barack Obama on chess, or the “Obama Effect,” hip-hop chess, Black masters, Bernard Parham’s 2.Qh5, women’s chess, Black celebrities in chess. [...]
Posted in Olympiad on Apr 10th, 2009 6 Comments »
Chicago is a long way from Dresden, Germany, but David and Sheila Heiser made the trip to begin stating a case for hosting the 2016 Olympiad in the beautiful city of Chicago. The founders of a hugely-successful Renaissance Knights Chess organization, David went to Dresden with his wife to lobby for the bid. The Chess [...]
Posted in Scholastic, USA on Apr 9th, 2009 2 Comments »
Andrew Young speaking to children at BeSomeone training facility. Photo courtesy of Orrin Hudson. The Honorable Andrew Young has done a lot of things in his life. He was one of Dr. M.L. King’s lieutenants, a two-time mayor of Atlanta, a US Ambassador to the United Nations and has traveled to 150 countries. Despite being [...]
Posted in Media Stories, The Chess Drum on Dec 31st, 2008 No Comments »
As we close the curtain on the year 2008, there were some interesting such as the Beijing Olympics, the global financial crisis and the U.S. Presidential campaign of Barack Obama and John McCain. In terms of chess developments, there was the World Championship (Anand vs. Kramnik), the Olympiad in Dresden and the usual controversies surrounding [...]
Posted in Media Stories, Olympiad on Nov 13th, 2008 No Comments »
After Foidos successfully rolled out their multimedia presentation software for the World Chess Championship, the Olympiad will feature Tadaah software which will allow viewers worldwide access to live coverage. This represents a shift in chess coverage and will provide more marketing exposure to dynamic world of chess. Tadaah has multple channels covering a variety of [...]
Posted in Opinion/Editorials on Oct 26th, 2008 1 Comment »
New in Chess (NIC) has been the world’s premier chess magazine for decades. Its slick layout and improved design has been the staple of players’ libraries and sets the standard for chess journalism. Dirk Jan ten Geuzendem has been leading the charge. When the magazine introduced its new color format years ago (2005, #7), it [...]
Posted in Media Stories, Tournaments on Oct 23rd, 2008 2 Comments »
Tournament coverage has changed quite a bit over the years. Only 20 years ago, players had to rely heavily on magazines for the diet of chess news, but often information was dated. In the age of Internet, games can be played or viewed in real time adding an exciting dimension to chess coverage. Companies such [...]
Posted in Media Stories on Oct 16th, 2008 No Comments »
South African-based Pieter van der Nat has launched a new website called “Chess For All.” It features chess news and information with an emphasis on Africa. A quick look and you will find news on Mauritius, Kenya, Botswana and other world events. Van der Nat expressed that there is a dearth of websites in Africa [...]
Posted in Caribbean, Jamaica on Oct 5th, 2008 1 Comment »
Zachary Ramsay has launched a relatively-new blog called caribchess.net and recently penned an interesting article about the future of Caribbean chess. With Maurice Ashley arriving in Jamaica yesterday to help train the national team for the Olympiad, there is a since of urgency to move the federation in the right direction since the development of [...]
Posted in Asia, Japan, Media Stories, Videos on Apr 1st, 2008 3 Comments »
Garry Kasparov playing Eiichiro Ishiyama, a 3-dan player. Interesting story on ChessBase! Former World Champion Garry Kasparov is reported to have played shogi (??)with a Japanese master. Shogi is very much like chess in that many of pieces are the same. The difference is that the tiles are invertible so if you capture an opponent’s [...]
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