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Chess In the Media: Chess Stories Across the USA and Around the World

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Chess In the Media

Chess tourney's brainpower at work honors civil rights leader (Herald and News)

Students from all over Klamath County spent their holiday in a way school employee Audrey Poudrier thinks would have made civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. proud.

King asked people to judge by character, not by skin color, and Poudrier thinks chess is a good way for children to learn how to do that.

The "I Have a Dream" Chess Tournament at Fairview Elementary School drew about 110 students from kindergarten to high school to play five rounds in seven hours.

Man Raises Money To Buy Chess Sets For Students (News Channel 5, Cleveland-Akron)

A northwest Ohio man who has played chess since he was young wants to give every child in his county the chance to learn the game.

Darrell Bodine of Mount Victory has raised enough money to buy 234 chess sets -- enough for every elementary school classroom, high school study hall and public library in Hardin County.

Chess Players Give 'Check' a New Meaning (New York Times)

Jay Bonin, an international chess master who lives in New York, is one of the busiest players in the country. He takes part in face-to-face tournament matches every week and also regularly participates in games of speed chess at chessclub.com, the Internet Chess Club. He estimated that he has played more than 20,000 games online in the last three or four years.

Mr. Bonin is much more active than most elite players, but he is doing what most serious players have long thought is necessary: playing frequently to stay in peak form. Now, however, because of the widespread availability of databases of games and the growing strength of chess software, such activity may actually be making it easier to beat him.

Mr. Bonin said that he recently lost a tournament game to a weaker player who had not competed in years, but who had sprung a surprise move on him in one of Mr. Bonin's favorite openings.

"The line he played reeked of preparation," he said.

Do you know of an interesting, humorous, or unique chess story published online? E-mail us at newsletter@uschess.org.