Posted in Africa, Scholastic, South Africa on Oct 28th, 2010 No Comments »
President Jacob Zuma makes ceremonial move to launch initiative. Photo by Supreme Chess Trust. In a sign of good things to come, the Supreme Chess Trust launched “Moves for Life” program on October 24th at a gala event. President Jacob Zuma, a self-described chess player, gave the keynote address. Other dignitaries present were Mrs. Angie [...]
Posted in Greece, Scholastic, Tournaments on Oct 24th, 2010 8 Comments »
Both Justus Williams and Josh Colas are in Halkidiki, Greece competing in the World Youth Chess Championships and are in the under-12 section. Thus far, both are on 3.5/5. This is the most important tournament for the two all-Americans after making their international debuts this summer. Both have been motivating each other since their challenge [...]
Posted in Scholastic, USA on Sep 24th, 2010 27 Comments »
U.S. National Master Justus Williams After making strides in the past year to make National Master, Justus Williams has accomplished this feat smashing the age record for African-American master for almost three years! The 12-year old Bronx native has had a spectacular year winning the National K6 Championship and traveling to Brazil and Canada to [...]
Posted in Scholastic on Dec 13th, 2009 23 Comments »
James Black, Jr.Photo by Polly Wright. The National K-12 Championships in Dallas, Texas kicked off with blitz tournaments. James Black of IS 318 won the K-6 section while Raven Sturt of Bronx Science took first in the K-12. Friday, December 11, kicked off the first full day of competition. New York will be well-represented and [...]
Posted in Scholastic on Oct 21st, 2009 30 Comments »
New York is in the midst of a youth movement in chess. Robert Hess and Alexander Lenderman are the most recent teen stars to join Grandmaster ranks, but there are a couple of others who have those aspirations. Justus Williams and Josh Colas are two of the hottest stars in scholastic chess today. Both are [...]
Posted in Scholastic on Oct 18th, 2009 12 Comments »
Frank Johnson has been in the game for a long time. Now he will begin passing on his experiences and passion in the game of chess by launching chess-coach.net. Many may not remember Johnson’s successful e-mail chess program that was eventually snapped up by chess.net. The Chicago-area native and Morehouse graduate has moved on and [...]
Posted in Scholastic on Sep 23rd, 2009 17 Comments »
So much has been said about a number of rising stars in New York’s African-American community. Many names have been tossed around, but one of the latest stars has been Justus Williams who has slowly, but surely become one of the top 11-year olds in the country. Recently, Justus played in the Marshall G/60 tournament [...]
Posted in Scholastic, Tournaments on Sep 13th, 2009 1 Comment »
The DC Public Libraries, the DC Public Schools and the National Chess Academy present the DC SCHOLASTIC and OPEN CHESS CHALLENGE IV Saturday September 19, 2009 A FREE tournament sanctioned and rated by the United States Chess Federation (USCF) 4 Round Swiss Game in 30 Minutes Location: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library 901 ‘G’ [...]
Posted in USA on Aug 11th, 2009 7 Comments »
Controversy continues in American chess. GM Susan (Zsuzsa) Polgar and FM Paul Truong (who are married) have had their memberships revoked from the United States Chess Federation. This brings to a head the vitriolic media battle within America’s top chess brass. This action was apparently enacted by the USCF Executive Board in a special session. [...]
Posted in Audio, Drum Majors, Interviews on May 21st, 2009 No Comments »
Award-winning journalist Macauley Peterson caught up with Grandmaster Maurice Ashley and got an update on his recent projects, one of which is a new website called, “Maurice Ashley Trains Champions.” His recent intiatives highlight the ever-increasing thrust in scholastic chess and the efforts being made to make chess more prominent in the educational landscape. Ashley [...]
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 Scholastic, USA on Apr 5th, 2009 7 Comments »
The “SuperNationals” tournament has become a mainstay in American chess events and has been wildly successful since its inception. The fourth rendition of the tournament attracted more than 5000 students from kindergarten to 12th grade and feature some of the country’s brightest talent. These students are competing for glory and the chance to win a [...]
Posted in Africa, Photos, Scholastic, South Africa on Mar 29th, 2009 25 Comments »
GM Maurice Ashley recently spent time in South Africa touring the schools and promoting chess. He was able to leave the students with some valuable life lessons. The host was David Berman who runs the program, “Chess for Change”. Ashley sent the following letter: Hey Daaim: I just came back from a deeply humbling yet [...]
Posted in Scholastic, USA on Mar 25th, 2009 13 Comments »
Since of the age of 12, Medina Parrilla has been a scholastic sensation and has a case full of trophies and accolades to prove it. Pages of The Chess Drum are replete with stories of her exploits. Now on the verge of graduating high school, she is embarking on perhaps the pivotal point in her [...]
Posted in Scholastic on Feb 27th, 2009 1 Comment »
Kevin Fite has dedicated himself to the betterment of society in greater Detroit and has been doing so for decades. The level of commitment needed for this task is nothing short of a gargantuan effort and Fite has done just that. In a recent article in Hometown Life, Fite’s school Cornerstone was shown during a [...]
Posted in Drum Majors on Feb 10th, 2009 16 Comments »
National Master Glenn Bady of Challenging Heads Chess has noticed that GM Maurice Ashley (left) is scheduled to speak at the World Conference on Chess-in-Schools. The event will take place in Turin, Italy from February 25-27th and will be attended by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Ashley is best known as the first “African-American Grandmaster” and [...]
Posted in Scholastic, Tournaments, USA on Feb 5th, 2009 1 Comment »
My name is Andrew (Andy) Walker and I am a new chess organiser who is hosting the “Cabin Fever Breakout” chess tournament. This event will take place at the Best Western hotel on Wolf Road, Albany in the third week of February. The details are included below and at this link. I would like to [...]
Posted in Scholastic on Jan 27th, 2009 11 Comments »
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Mary K. Meagher, OCCH January 25, 2009 614-224-8446 CPO Second Grade Student Places First in National Title Chess Championship Diamond Abdus-Shakoor Columbus-Ohio—In a sport that rarely sees young African American females excel, one local young girl is making a name for herself. Diamond Abdus-Shakoor, a second grade student at Deshler Elementary [...]
Posted in Africa, Scholastic, South Africa, Tournaments on Jan 16th, 2009 No Comments »
2008 African Junior Championship Chess Association of South Africa pulled out all stops to make the 2008 African Junior Championships a memorable festival. Looking at the large collection of photos, it would appear that they succeeded in making the event memorable. One thing that did not change is the dominance of South African girls and [...]
Posted in Drum Majors, Scholastic, USA on Dec 31st, 2008 No Comments »
Kassa Korley IM Greg Shahade told The Chess Drum that National Master Kassa Korley is part of the training by the “U.S. Chess School,” an initiative to help the nation’s juniors refine their skills. The camp is taking place in Scottsdale, Arizona and it will last from January 1st-5th. U.S. Champion Yury Shulman will conduct [...]
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