Ruth Haring on Volunteering and her Chess Comeback
December 6, 2010
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Ruth Haring volunteering at a middle school in Falls Church, VA
Vice-president of the USCF executive board WIM Ruth Haring is active in both promoting chess and in playing. She recently volunteered at the Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School Chess Club in Falls Church, VA, where her sister teaches.  "They had a very big chess club, with students in grades 5-7th. They were enthusiastic but didn't  have much instruction." Ruth taught them how to mate with a king and a rook vs. king and dropped off a couple of dozen copies of Chess Life For Kids. Ruth also volunteers locally at the Nord Country School in Chico, California.

Next up for Ruth is a December 10th lecture at the Fresno Chess Club, founded by the current USCF Clubs committee chair, Bob Rasmussen. (See the CLO interview with Bob here.) Last year, Ruth attended the Fresno club with her son, Theo Biyiasas, an improving Class A player. Theo challenged the club members to defend against the bishop and knight vs. king endgame. 

Ruth is also planning to participate in a USCF Board team at the US Amateur Team East coming up next February. The team will consist of Randy Bauer, Bill Hall, Ruth Haring and Gary Walters.
 
Ruth, who used to play for the US Women's Olympic team, said that she still struggles with fitting in opening study with a busy schedule. One thing that has helped her is playing online and realizing that "people aren't that booked up anyway, especially against the lines I play, which are out of fashion." Below is one of her favorite online games from a chess.com FIDE rated players tournament.
 
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Haring was also pleased to play the best combination she's ever played over the board at the recent Western States Open in Reno, Nevada.

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Black to Move

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"I finally started playing games that are nice games. That's nice. It's also fun to see my son getting better."

See Ruth Haring's official website and learn more about the USCF Board here.