Carlsson blazes trail in New Orleans!

GM Pontus Carlsson has being making moves lately. The moves are not necessarily on the chess board although he recently played in Riga, Latvia. He scored a solid 6/9 including a nice win over Jan-Christian Schroder. Based in the Czech Republic, the Swedish national has been blazing a trail with a new initiative.

A couple of weeks go, Carlsson told The Chess Drum that he was participating in a venture in New Orleans on the eve releasing of the movie on Paul Morphy. Matt Dillon and Monty Ross were involved in this venture in collaboration with the Strategic Thoughts Chess Club.

Carlsson was involved in a successful launching in Kenya under the name “Business meets MTAA” with the goal of promoting social equality.

After that venture in May, Carlsson headed to “The Big easy” to promote “Business Meets Chess & Kids” with five days of activities.

GM Pontus Carlsson with participants

The goal is to work with kids from schools and chess clubs in the greater New Orleans area initially then spreading across the nation. Each participating youth will get a chess set, access to chess application and membership in a chess club so they can practice chess and through the project develop their concentration abilities, problem solving, calculation skills, as well as logical and critical thinking. These abilities will be very beneficial in chess and life.

Carlsson plans to expand in selected locations with an idea of making a social difference. Now at 35, he is not as active on the tournament circuit, but besides his coaching online, he is taking on a different purpose with his new venture.

Chess Grandmaster @PontusCarlsson in town to pair business with kids https://t.co/61Senbkv4l via @lbjnola

— LBJ (@lbjnola) October 16, 2018

Link: https://wgno.com/2018/10/16/chess-grandmaster-pontus-carlsson-in-town-to-pair-business-with-kids/