Mark Schein, Photo 2009
Mark, the father of talented young player Aaron Schein has written a number of articles for CLO, most recently, A Parent's Perspective on Chess Camps. Other popular contributions by Mark include Sunday in Dallas: A Chess Dad's Decathlon, A Parent's Perspective on King's Island and a Parent's Perspective, This Time Supersized, Part I and Part II. In Best of CLO 2008, he wrote the #5 article his very first "Parent's Perspective piece" from the Elementary Nationals in Pittsburgh.
Mark is also the co-founder with Aviv Friedman of the Schein-Friedman Scholarship, which awarded $9000 in scholarship money last year to Samuel Sevian, Alena Kats and Kayden Troff.
The Judges Sound Off
Read more about the judges here.
I really enjoy this writer’s style and sense of humor, particularly the orange tee shirt anecdote. While it does have two chess games, neither were annotated, so I must rank it just above Mrs. Matthews’ very similar article. A good read—Michael Cornett
As his son becomes older, the father's role diminished significantly. Suddenly he stepped backwards to watch the tournament as an impartial observer. Instead of merely showing games in this article (OK, there were two), the author looked at the big picture. Hopefully the CCA will take the constructive criticism seriously—Michael "f-pawn" Aigner
Light and easy read. The anecdotes about being confused with TD, parents' worries about their kid's play, doubled pawns entertained but at the same time reflected the truth about what is going on during the typical tournament. Mark Schein shade a light on the tournament room from a different angle -from a chess player's, chess playing kid's father but at the same time from an angle of a person not being absorbed into the craziness of the open tournament's culture. Maintaining the fresh look in all-adsorbing chess atmosphere is a feat and Schein did a fantastic job sharing his experience.—Iryna Zenyuk
Very engaging, personal and honest tournament report, including - rarely - some well-argued criticism.—Arne Moll
This essay wins the award for the outstanding piece of chess comedy. Chess players find many creative ways to amuse themselves, and Schein captures a series of these moments in Chicago with a wit similar to humor columnist Dave Barry—Damian Nash
He was able to make fun of himself and bring the real perspective of a chess parent—Dean Ippolito
Best of CLO 2010 Countdown
#3-???
#4- A Parent's Perspective on the Chicago Open by Mark Schein
#5- 2010 Chess Olympiad: Final Impressions by IM John Donaldson (Judging article)
#6-the US Chess School Comes to Seattle Part I and Part II by Michael Yang. (Judging article)
#7- The US Championship in Black and White by GM Joel Benjamin (Judging article)
#8-Adamson on IM Norm #2 at the North American Masters by Robby Adamson (Judging article)
#9-The Sicilian Slayed by GM Gregory Kaidanov (Judging article)
#10- Hilton on Not Winning the Pan Ams by Jonathan Hilton (Judging article)