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There are new generations of chess champions in the making at the Times Square Migrant Chess Club, where young New Yorkers and immigrants are teaching recent arrivals how to master the game and a new city.High school tutor Victor with a pupil at the chess club. Photo: Naty Caez

Housed temporarily in the basement auditorium of Playhouse 46 at St Lukes among the remnants of the Stranger Things parody set, the Times Square Migrant Chess Club hosts young players for after-school lessons in learning the game, learning English and learning how to navigate New York. When W42ST stopped by one unusually warm spring afternoon, a deeply focused group of young players were gathered to learn from tutor Kyle Lancman, a Stuyvesant High School sophomore and one of the clubs founders. Chess is my passion, said Kyle, a ranked National Master of the game. To be able to teach it to people who are just moving to New York is really nice.

Kyles family, originally from Argentina, understand the challenge of navigating a new country and new city and realized that chess would be a good way to connect with the many migrant children who have arrived in Midtown Manhattan since last years influx of asylum-seekers. The thing with chess is that you dont really need to speak a language, said Kyles mother Lorna. Once you learn the rules and someones able to teach you some of the strategies, it bridges the gap.Kyle Lancman, a Stuyvesant High School sophomore and chess coach, co-founded the Midtown club with his twin brother Kaleb. Photo: Naty Caez

Kyle and twin brother Kaleb also understand the power of chess mentorship, having long worked with coach Russ Makofsky, founder of outreach nonprofit The Gift of Chess that organizes bilingual chess coaching and programming at public schools across New York City, including Hells Kitchens PS 111, home to a weekly weekend chess tournament.

The twins were talking with Russ to find students to tutor, said Lorna, and then suddenly the news started to show buses of people coming in every day. She added, We saw that schools were having an issue with not having enough Spanish speaking staff, so the idea fell into place that we could offer children tutoring in English through chess.

We figured that these kids were probably sitting in their hotel rooms without much opportunity to create community, said Russ. We got in contact with the pastor from St Lukes and were able to take over this space between shows.The Gift of Chess founder Russ Makofsky with students at the Times Square Migrant Chess Center. Photo: Jamaal Dozier

The four-day-a-week program quickly grew, said Lorna. In addition to chess, the twins tutor children in math mostly because thats what they like! she laughed while other volunteers offer workshops in everything from art to English, to wayfinding for new arrivals. It started with chess, said Lorna, and then it became chess and art and then parents were here, so weve been offering English for them too.

The program is a chance for migrant families not just to connect with longterm residents but also with other recent arrivals navigating their way through the city and the world of chess. Raydily Rosario, an internationally-ranked chess champion from the Dominican Republic moved to Hells Kitchen three months ago and has loved teaching other immigrants the game. Im so happy to give kids this opportunity, said Raydily, because I know what its like not to speak any English and for me to speak Spanish as a chess teacher makes it easier for them.

Stella Lillig, a New York-based artist and volunteer English tutor for the chess club, said she remembered what it was like when she moved from Colombia to the US in 1996, eventually landing in New York in 2004. Working with kids and their parents to learn English, explaining how Manhattan and Hells Kitchens grid is set up, how to communicate with New Yorkers Stella said that her pupils already seem more comfortable in their surroundings. New York can be really overwhelming, she said. But after coming here a lot of the kids and parents tell me theyre able to recognize more words and phrases that they need, and its a comfort to them.Raydily Rosario (left) and Stella Lillig teach at the club. Photo: Naty Caez

With coaching and tutoring from the Times Square team, some pupils even grew comfortable enough to compete in the New York State Scholastic chess championship in Saratoga Springs earlier this month. We wanted to give them an opportunity to play against the best players in the state, said Russ of the six children who competed with the club. They played a lot better than you would think someone who just learned to play chess would play, said Kyle. Lorna added: These kids literally started learning chess 40 days prior, and they were competing well against children who have private coaches and have been studying for years.

And though the Times Square Migrant Chess Club will soon have to relocate as Playhouse 46 at St Lukes remounts its popular Stranger Sings parody, additional programming will be held at PS 111, said Russ, who added that the organization is currently seeking funds to formalize a permanent future for the Migrant Chess Club. Kyle plans to continue coaching the students hes met at the Migrant Chess Club as long as its possible. Speaking through Kyle as a translator, at least one young chess champion in the making said she was enjoying the experience, telling us that she really liked it before going back to the board to plan her next move.A pupil works with high school coach Kyle Lancman at the Migrant Chess Club. Photo: Naty Caez

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Migrant Chess Club is Making Moves to Welcome Asylum-Seekers - W42ST magazine

Anya Taylor-Joy's 'sassy chess'

Golden Globe winner Anya Taylor-Joy discusses how important teamwork is to winning awards and how she fell in love with chess after learning to play it for hit show, "The Queen's Gambit." (March 1)

AP

While the chess community in Corpus Christi may not be a subculture you think of right away, it's slowly growing with a new chess tournament coming up Saturday.

The tournament will start at 5 p.m. at The Exchange in downtown Corpus Christi. There will be a $5 fee to participate.

Kiya Vance and Logan Hanna started the new chess event with their business, Wordofmouth, in February when the inaugural tournament was held at the downtown Cafe Calypso.

Vance, co-founder of the community collective aimed to "connect local artists of all kinds," said he has been a fan of chess his whole life and wanted to bring the community together through the game.

"Our end goal is to create a healthy, happy and large chess community where non-players don't feel pressured and new players feel like they're always learning," Vance said.

All ages and talent levels are welcome to participate.

Vance said he hopes to hold three tournaments a month in the future.

Awards will be given to the first five winners. First place will receive 15% of the entry fees as a cash prize.

For more information, visit instagram.com/wordofmouthlivemusic.

More:Water Street Village to close in mid-April; plans for property remain unknown

More:Restoration of The Ritz Theatre in downtown Corpus Christi set to 'reactivate' community

John Oliva covers entertainment and community news in South Texas. Contact him at john.oliva@caller.comor Twitter@johnpoliva.

Consider supporting local journalism with asubscription to the Caller-Times.

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New chess tournament to be held in downtown Corpus Christi - Caller Times

The 2023 FIDE Womens Candidates Final beginning in Chongqing, China, will decide Ju Wenjuns opponent in the final.

Chongqing, Chinas largest inland city, about 103 times bigger than New York, is hosting one of the biggest chess matches the 2023 FIDE Womens Candidates Final.

In an all-Chinese affair, the six-game classical chess match will take place between Grandmasters Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi in the city endowed with rich cultural and tourism resources such as mountains, rivers, forests, waterfalls and gorges.

At stake is prize money of 60,000 Euros and more importantly, the right to challenge current Womens World Champion Ju Wenjun for the title in July.

Lets look at the two players vying for a spot in the title clash.

Tan Zhongyi

She is someone who has been there, done that. Having won the Womens World Chess Championship in 2017, Tan is considered the favourite in the contest.

Born in Chongqing in 1991, she started to learn chess from her father even before she turned six. My father taught me all types of chess games and I fell in love with chess, she said in an earlier interview.

Her father revealed that she was so obsessed with chess that she would train for 10 hours a day and participate in about 80 matches a year.

Soon she was seen as a child prodigy, winning the World Youth U-10 Girls Chess Championship in 2000 and 2001, followed by the World Youth U-12 Girls Chess Championship in 2002.

A lover of fantasy fiction novels, Tan currently has an Elo rating of 2526 and stands in fifth place in the Chinese rankings and number 12 in the world. The winner of the Womens World University Chess Championship in 2012 and the 2014 Asian Womens Blitz Championship, she broke through in 2015, becoming the Chinese Womens Champion, amongst several other impressive results.

She won the biggest title in womens chess by defeating GM Anna Muzychuk in rapid tiebreaks but lost it in her 2018 match against current womens world champion GM Ju Wenjun.

Having qualified for the Candidates thanks to her third-place finish in the 2021 Sochi Womens World Cup, Tan won her place in the final with great results at the 2022 Khiva Pool B Womens Candidates tournament: defeating Kateryna Lagno and Aleksandra Goryachkina.

Lei Tingjie

Grandmaster Lei Tingjie, rated 2545, overcame the dual threats of sisters Mariya and Anna Mazychuk in the quarter-final and semi-final respectively at the 2022 Monaco Pool A Womens Candidates tournament to make it to the final of the tournament.

Currently ranked fourth and ninth on the Chinese and World rating lists respectively, Lei had qualified for the Candidates in some style, clinching the 2021 FIDE Grand Swiss in Riga with a round to spare.

The 26-year-old has a long list of laurels to her name, having represented China on a myriad of occasions with some stellar performances. She won the 2015 Moscow Open and was a silver medallist in the 2016 Womens World Rapid Championship.

Among some of her biggest achievements is winning the gold medal at the 2016 Asian Nations Cup in Dubai and the 2018 Batumi Olympiad.

She became a Grandmaster in March 2017 and in June that year, Lei won the 6th Chinese Womens Masters Tournament in Wuxi, ahead of Womens World Champion Tan.

One may recall that in 2019, Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy claimed the World Womens Rapid Chess Championship after drawing her Armageddon game against Lei in Moscow.

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Know your Candidates: Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi to face off in Womens Chess Candidates Final - The Indian Express

Leonard Barden on chess

Kasparov says the world championship match should include the strongest player on the planet, and this match [Ian Nepomniachtchi v Ding Liren] doesnt

Fri 24 Mar 2023 04.00 EDT

Garry Kasparov, who held the world title from 1985 to 2000 and is regarded as Magnus Carlsens rival as the greatest player of all time, said next months Ian Nepomniachtchi v Ding Liren world title match should include the strongest player on the planet, and this match doesnt Its a kind of amputated event The match between Nepo and Ding is a great show, but its not a world championship match.

Comments on Kasparovs assertion have been mostly negative, pointing out that the match is actually between the two highest rated players who are ready to participate, which Carlsen is not. There is also a direct recent precedent in the Vishy Anand v Boris Gelfand 2012 world title series, which took place at a time when Carlsen was already the world No 1, but had declined to take part in the qualifiers because he objected to the candidates being played as a knockout rather than an all-play-all.

Realistically, the degree of public acceptance for Nepomniachtchi or Ding as world champion will depend significantly on whether the new title holder can demonstrate achievements in the match itself and in following tournaments. Long ago in the late 1960s, Tigran Petrosian was world champion, but his achievements were continually disparaged in chess media due to his inferior tournament performances compared to Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.

Kasparov also said: We will have the world champion and the strongest player on the planet in the same tournament in a months time. This is a reference to the Superbet Classic, starting in Bucharest on 4 May, the opening event in the St Louis-organised Grand Tour. Kasparov is a leading member of the organising team.

Bucharests announced entries so far are headed by Nepomniachtchi, Ding, and the world No 4, Alireza Firouzja, 19. Also in the field are the world Nos 6, 7 and 8 Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So. There is a wildcard yet to be announced, and Kasparov is implying that this will be Carlsen.

It looks as if the No 1, immediately after renouncing his official crown, is ready to dice with destiny in May 2023. The bold plan seems to be to demonstrate his continuing superiority to Nepomniachtchi, Ding and Firouzja in Bucharest at the start of the month, and then to similarly outperform the world No 5, Hikaru Nakamura, plus the cream of the teenage generation in Stavanger at Mays end.

Nakamura is a player in form. After a break of several years from classical tournaments to develop his career as a popular streamer, the five-time US champion returned with impressive performances in the Fide Grand Prix and Candidates. This week the 35-year-old has reached the final of the $ 300,000 American Cup in St Louis, where he will meet Levon Aronian or So on Friday and Saturday. Games are live and free to watch online.

An eight-game solidarity match this week between the England No 1, Michael Adams, and the two-time Ukraine champion Andrei Volokitin had its opening ceremony at Westminster hosted by the speaker of the House of Commons, and coincides with the renewal of the Lords v Commons series last played in 2016. After a draw in game one, Volokitin beat Adams in Thursdays game two in 54 moves. Fridays game three was drawn.

A prime mover in the revival has been the Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who in a Sky News interview on Wednesday showed herself very well informed about the Adams match, Volokitin now being a refugee in Poland, the match arbiter Shohreh Bayats experiences with Iran, and her own background as a former junior champion.

Online chess in Britain is booming as never before, if chess.com is correct. The largest chess website recorded around three million active UK users, 4.4% of the population, in January. Even this elevated figure is not among the top 10 countries, which are headed by Iceland with over 10%, while Ireland ranks fifth with over 5%.

Comparable over-the-board numbers are much lower. At the last English Chess Federation board meeting, it was estimated that there are about 130,000 active players, many of whom are juniors. The number of paying ECF members is around 10,000, while some local clubs and leagues are in decline, principally due to venue costs and availability.

A new campaign for more official support for chess is under way. Backing of 60,000 a year, which started more than half a century ago, was withdrawn in 2010 and has never been renewed, despite the surge in player numbers in recent years.

In most European countries, chess is recognised as a sport. Its educational significance in Britain has been boosted by the success of the charity Chess in Schools and Communities, which has introduced chess teaching to many inner-city schools and even prisons.

It would be interesting to start an online petition asking for more official support for chess, and to publicise that petition on chess.com with its huge UK numbers. If it reached 100,000 signatures, the petition would probably trigger a parliamentary debate.

3860: 1 Ba7! e4 2 Kd8! Kf8 3 Nd7 mate. The subtle 1 Ba7! creates a flight square for the black king at move two, thus avoiding stalemate.

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Chess: Garry Kasparov calls Aprils world title match amputated event - The Guardian

The chess world will have a new world champion soon, but for many fans the legitimacy of the title will be questionable.

Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has been the world champion for a decade, decided not to defend his title. He remains the top-ranked player in the world, and is considered one of the best champions in the history of the game.

That means the worlds second and third-best players, Ding Liren of China and Ian Nepomniatchtchi of Russia, will battle for the championship in a match scheduled for Astana, Kazakhstan between April 7 and May 1.

Nepomniatchtchi won the right to be Carlsens official challenger before the world champion decided to abdicate the throne. Carlsen defeated him soundly in the last championship match in 2021, and clearly lacked the motivation for a repeat encounter.

If the contestants for next months title match feel sheepish about becoming world champion in Carlsens shadow, they have something else to consider. The matchs main sponsor, Freedom Holding Group, has funded a 2 million prize, with 60 per cent going to the winner.

The match will be broadcast on chess.com

White played 38.Ne7+ Rxe7 39.Rf8+ Kh7 40.Rh8+ and Black resigned.

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There will soon be a new world chess champion, but it won't be the ... - The Globe and Mail