Posted in Media Stories, Videos on Oct 16th, 2009 No Comments »
Washington Square Park seems a world away, but it’s actually very close. It’s so close that you can feel the joy and pain… the joy and pain of chessplayers who lose themselves in the royal game. Miro Reverby’s film titled, “Men Who Would Be Kings” is a poignant account of life in one of the [...]
Posted in Videos on Aug 11th, 2009 18 Comments »
On June 25th of the year 2009, Michael Joseph Jackson departed life in Los Angeles, California… the king is dead. In chess the word is “checkmate,” but of course Jackson lead a life that will live longer than his physical life making him in effect immortal. William James once said, “The great use of life [...]
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 Middle East, Qatar on Feb 26th, 2009 31 Comments »
The Chess Drum’s Dr. Daaim Shabazz will be in Doha, Qatar next week to visit local universities and will certainly seek out the chess venues. The small nation on the Arabian penisula is home to GM Mohamed al-Modiahki and his wife GM Zhu Chen. Zhu now plays under the Qatari flag. Qatar is one of [...]
Posted in Drum Majors, The Chess Drum, USA on Feb 8th, 2009 1 Comment »
In commemoration of Black History Month, The Chess Drum features a quiz provided by Life Master Dr. Shearwood McClelland III. Perhaps this quiz is more “African-American” history in that it is almost totally confined to U.S. players. Of course Black history would encompass the entire Diaspora of Africa. However, this ten-point quiz is a testament [...]
Posted in Asia, China on Feb 6th, 2009 1 Comment »
There was an interesting article on ChessBase with a profile and interview of Hou Yifan, the Chinese Grandmaster who will soon turn 15 years old. The article showed the young star at various stages of her career and described her evolution as a player. GM Hou Yifan Photo by GM John Nunn. Yifan is not [...]
Posted in Media Stories on Feb 1st, 2009 4 Comments »
There was an interesting article in the New York Post written by Andy Soltis. It discussed a proposed rule by GM Vassily Ivanchuk that will force a player to move the queen if it is attacked. They give the line 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Qxd4 Nc6. Now the Queen [...]
Posted in Kenya, Politics, USA on Jan 14th, 2009 19 Comments »
The life of a politician is one of many twists and turns. It is a high-profile position and one that requires the public servant to be accountable for every single action. Perhaps no public office is under more scrutiny than the Head-of-State. President-Elect Barack Obama will soon find out the highest level of accountability required [...]
Posted in Barbados, Caribbean on Oct 17th, 2008 7 Comments »
Almost everyone has sat down and played a casual game of checkers. However, few play the 8×8 version the way Grandmaster Ron ‘Suki’ King of Barbados plays it. A layman may not take this version serious and feel it is inferior to the 10×10 version known as “draughts.” Of course, we have learned about World [...]
Posted in USA on Sep 20th, 2008 7 Comments »
Garry Kasparov will be coming to Harlem on September 28th to participate in the Harlem Children’s Zone’s festival. The former champion will be giving a 20-board simultaneous exhibition. There will be many activities including a blitz tournament and other contests. This event continues the tradition of chess festivals in historic Harlem and it has been [...]
Posted in Politics on Aug 31st, 2008 No Comments »
Hurricane Gustav battering Dominican Republic enroute to the Gulf Coast. Just got off the phone with New Orleans native Rene Phillips who has fled his beloved city. Phillips experienced the wrath of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005 and recently moved back to New Orleans after temporary stints in Philadelphia and Atlanta. He spoke of the [...]
Posted in Scholastic, USA on Aug 14th, 2008 18 Comments »
Craig Preston highlighted in the E. St. Louis Senior Chess Club photo. There is a lot of hidden history in chess. Many stories often go untold because no one sees the importance of documenting obscure events. Recently, I was surfing the web looking for information on NM Howard Daniels and came across a webpage with [...]
Posted in Olympiad, Opinion/Editorials on Aug 8th, 2008 37 Comments »
The “Bird’s Nest” in Beijing hosted the Opening Ceremonies. Photo by EPA. The quadrennial sports festival known as the Olympic Games has begun with the opening ceremony. The highly-anticipated and widely-watched event will command the attention of billions of viewers over the next 17 days and will result in billions of revenue for the world [...]
Posted in Drum Majors on Jun 24th, 2008 11 Comments »
Posted in Media Stories on Jun 15th, 2008 2 Comments »
There are other books on this marriage including one written by Garry Kasparov titled, “How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom.” There is a book written by Mark McNeilly titled, “Sun Tzu and the Art of Business.” I believe this is one better suited for understanding business from [...]
Posted in USA on Jun 12th, 2008 13 Comments »
I’m in Boston for a seminar at Harvard University and decided to venture into Harvard Square. I had heard there was chess there. While looking for a restaurant, I turned around and what did I see… Immediately I was drawn to the sign that stated “Play the Chess Master.” It had a subtitle which amounted [...]
Posted in USA, Videos on May 31st, 2008 31 Comments »
Washington Square Park in the “Village” area of New York is a historic place in chess lore. It is the place where many famous chess players have roamed and many stories have been borne. “Searching for Bobby Fischer” featured scenes in the famous park and featured these players as did movies like “Fresh” and books [...]
Posted in Media Stories on May 2nd, 2008 3 Comments »
This is chess-related… sort of. Years ago, I wrote an essay titled, “The Beauty of Capoeira and Chess.” It is about the similarity between chess and the Afro-Brazilian martial art capoeira. Capoeira was used by the African slaves (mostly from Angola) to fight against the Portuguese colonizers and lead to the building of liberation settlements [...]
Posted in Media Stories, Opinion/Editorials on Apr 16th, 2008 1 Comment »
Assassination plots have always held intrigue in America, a nation having lost four Presidents to assassins’ bullets. The most widely-studied is the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This assassination had many different vantage points, but the conspiracy evolves around whether Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin or whether it was an orchestrated plan by [...]
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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