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Building on fond memories from playing chess as a child, a burgeoning local woodworker has found a new way to connect with the game

Stephanie Fan and her brother learned chess from their grandfather at a very young age, with an eye not just on the game but also on the prize.

He promised to give us a pony if we could beat him, so we tried really hard to learn the game, she recalled.

They never got a pony, but those special times, and a love of games in general, helped inspire Fan to return to the game as an adult in a new way crafting her own chess sets.

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Fan worked in the food and beverage industry for nearly a decade before moving to Lexington in 2015. Ive always loved working with my hands, she said. After we moved and I stopped working, I needed something to fill that creative void. After watching a video on YouTube, she decided to give woodworking a go.

I bought a table saw specifically to make a chess set, said Fan, who had always wanted one of her own after growing up with the game. My early attempts were terrible, she admitted, but after several redesigns, and some help from her fellow creators at Kre8Now Makerspace, where she rents studio space, she landed on the winning design: a solid wood chess board with resin inlay and storage for the pieces underneath.

Over the past five years, she has crafted wall clocks, cutting boards and other wooden games, like peg solitaire and topographic puzzles, selling the handmade pieces in her Etsy shop, Atlas & Lily, which is named after her son and daughter. The chess sets, however, are the bread-and-butter of her business, especially since the surge in popularity of The Queens Gambit on Netflix last fall.

I definitely think the show bringing chess to the forefront and the media saying good luck finding chess sets this Christmas has helped my business, she said. I sold out before Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and again before Christmas.

Her geometric chess pieces fit together perfectly in a nesting design inspired by a similar set crafted by designer and modern art aficionado Lanier Graham in the 1960s.

The design and function of the pieces are very much tied together, Fan explained. The rook has straight edges because it moves in a straight line; the bishop has diagonal walls because it moves diagonally; and the knight is L-shaped because it makes L-shaped movements.

The boards themselves are made from regional hardwoods, like walnut, cherry and maple, with Fan sourcing the lumber from a sawmill in Indiana.

I have no interest in using exotic wood because I dont want to ship a piece across the country or the ocean, she explained. There are such beautiful things to use here.

She has even salvaged wood around town from fallen trees that would have otherwise gone into a chipper.

In addition to sourcing her materials in a sustainable way, Fan is committed to offsetting her usage of them. As a small-business partner with the National Forest Foundation, she donates a tree for every sale she makes, and shes currently looking for a charitable partner to help balance out her resin usage.

New chess sets and other wood goods get listed in her Etsy shop, but since she can do a lot of different colors with the resin, Fan likes to work directly with her local customers to bring their custom visions to life. She encourages people to message her on Instagram (@atlas.lily), send her an email or request a custom order through Etsy if they have something particular in mind.

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Out of the Woodwork - http://www.smileypete.com

I dont really like Chess, but I WANT to like Chess. I think the rules and strategies are interesting, and can fully appreciate why its such a highly regarded and enduring game. I just dont have the brain capacity for it. But like I said, I WANT to like it, and the new mobile game Lazy Chess also wants me to like it and is able to do that with some very clever design decisions. There are more variations and unique takes on Chess than you can shake one of those horsey pieces at, but Lazy Chess doesnt really fall into those categories.

This is a straight-up version of Chess, but the crucial change is that the game uses AI to offer you the two best moves each time its your turn to play. It doesnt tell you which move is the BEST move given the situation, but youve got a 50/50 shot at it.

And thats it. Thats the game. It utilizes the highly rated Stockfish Chess engine to determine what to moves to show you, and if you pick the better of the two moves it will let you know, and if you pick the worst of the two moves it will also let you know. Its like having an expert Chess player sitting over your shoulder during a game, telling you what to do, but also letting you make your own decisions and mistakes.

The kicker is that just by observing the two moves offered each turn, and then taking note of when you pick the best or the worst option, you find yourself slowly learning the game at a deeper level and actually improving your own game. And apparently that was the intention of the developers, too. Lazy Chess is actually making me like Chess.

The binary nature of choosing a move each turn makes this feel like if Reigns and Chess had a baby. I only wish Lazy Chess utilized the same Tinder-like swiping gestures that Reigns uses to make it even more natural to play. If youre on the other end of the spectrum from me, and consider yourself a Chess hotshot, I still think youll find plenty to enjoy in Lazy Chess. Theres a bunch of unlockable stuff like new board and piece designs, unlockable difficulty levels so you can ramp things up to your liking, and even the ability to play against other players online.

Lazy Chess is also totally free to download and play with ads and a one-time IAP to unlock an ad-free version of the game. Even if you think you dont like Chess its worth checking out Lazy Chess for free, as not only is it a very good teaching tool, but if you disregard that its a Chess game at all its basically just a really good puzzle game.

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TouchArcade Game of the Week: 'Lazy Chess' - Touch Arcade - Touch Arcade

If youve ever wanted to master the ancient and endlessly enjoyable game of chess, youre far from alone. Whether youve been watching advanced players dominate the board from a young age, or just hopped on the bandwagon thanks to The Queens Gambit, aspiring to be a great chess player is understandably common.

But, far too many would-be chess players give up on their dreams due to the fact that the game can be perceived as too complicated for anyone other than a genius, when the truth is that anyone can become a great chess player with the right instruction and attitude.

The Complete Chess Bundle for Beginners to Advanced Players will get you up to speed with everything from the absolute basics of the game to its more advanced elements and tricks, and its available right now for over 90% off at just $99.99.

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With 14 courses and over 260 lessons taught by award-winning chess grandmasters, this extensive training bundle will give you the skills and knowledge you need in order to master the game of chess.

Youll learn how to take shortcuts that can vanquish your opponent, understand how to anticipate the moves of other players, develop winning offensive strategies, come back from unfavorable positions, implement a wide range of defensive maneuvers, and much more.

Theres also plenty of instruction that teaches you how to develop powerful endgame strategies that will allow you to construct a win regardless of your position on the board.

Master the game of chess with help from the Complete Chess Bundle for Beginners to Advanced Players while its available for just $99.99over 90% off its usual price, for a limited time.

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Prices subject to change.

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Watching The Queens Gambit? Master the game of chess with this extensive training bundle - KSAT San Antonio

Following the release of Netflix's "The Queen's Gambit" in late October, a legion of fans across the world decided to pick up the ancient game of chess. But a little more than a month since the chess craze began, Chess.com is seeing another trend, too: a rise in cheating.

Chess.com closed more accounts in November due to fair play violations than ever before, according to the website. In November alone, the site closed more 18,511 accounts for cheating. News of the uptick was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

"The recent wave of new players who have discovered their passion for chess on Chess.com since The Queen's Gambit's release has been truly humbling for us," wrote Nick Barton, Director of Business Development at Chess.com, in an email to Business Insider. "We will continue to evolve our fair play technology to ensure that Chess.com remains the top destination to play and learn chess for players of all skill levels."

In the wake of the show's popularity, Goliath Games, which supplies chess sets to Walmart, saw sales increase over 1,000%, NPR reported. Chess.com set a record for new user signups nearly every day in November, Business Insider previously reported. And The New York Times even published an instructional manual for how to make an origami set at home, for those unable to find the board game in stores.

Chess.com embraced the new influx of users, even allowing online players to compete against a Beth Harmon-bot, Business Insider previously reported. To catch cheaters, the site deploys algorithms that can compare player moves to those recommended by popular chess bots, or even detect when a player diverges from their usual patterns of play, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Read more: How Wall Street analysts think the next decade will reshape the global TV industry, including the likely winners and losers from Netflix to Tencent

"Developing effective fair play detection methods is a complicated process. Chess.com uses proprietary technology combined with many years of expertise as well as a significant investment of time and resources to create a safe and fair playing environment for our members," Barton wrote in a statement to Business Insider.

"The Queen's Gambit" follows the life of Beth Harmon, played by Anya Taylor-Joy. Harmon starts off playing basement games of chess in the orphanage where she lives and later rises through the ranks of the chess world, facing elite opponents as well as her own demons.

The seven-episode show has topped Nielsen's streaming charts for three weeks straight and users have watched a collective 1.4 billion minutes of the show globally, according toDeadline.

Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

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Chess.com sees cheating all-time high after 'Queen's Gambit' surge - Business Insider - Business Insider

Chess is in the middle of a digital renaissance and that includes right here in Montgomery County.

The Queens Gambit started streaming in October and its already Netflixs biggest limited scripted series ever. The show follows an unlikely hero, Beth Harmon, who goes from orphan to a fashion-forward chess prodigy, who proves chess is cool.

Three weeks after the shows debut on Oct. 23, sales for chess sets and books skyrocketed, according to data from U.S. Retail Tracking Service.

MyMCM spoke to Ross Pancoast, a coach for the Gaithersburg family owned business C&O Family Chess Center, about the rise in chess popularity during the pandemic.

More than 20 years ago, his father, Omar Pancoast, started organizing chess nights in Lakeforest Malls old food court area.

The tournaments quickly gained popularity, both with players and with parents and PTA members who had children interested in participating in a chess club.

He had so many schools calling him trying to set up clubs that he couldnt do them all and so I started working with him as well and thats how the initial business got started, Ross Pancoast said.

The C&O Family Chess Center teaches elementary and middle school students from private and public schools strategies for becoming chess masters.

Because of the coronavirus, classes and tournaments have moved online. Pancoast says the program is designed so it is conscientious of screen time use among children who spend a large portion of their weekdays taking classes online.

For Marylanders and people in the Greater Washington area, Pancoast says there are several ways adults can also get involved in chess. C&O Family Chess Center offers yearly memberships to players in the area and, with the pandemic, they can help connect local players to other local players interested in playing chess online. Pancoast adds that Chess.com is also a great resource to learn strategies for the game.

Maryland Chess Association is also working to organize more online tournaments.

Pancoast, who knows first hand how chess can bring families together, says, Chess is a great family activity, a great family sport, but the game takes time and practice to become a skilled player.

He hopes that in the future when there is a COVID-19 vaccine and people can convene together safely, the new chess players who started during the pandemic will continue their hobby offline.

The hope is that when the pandemic ends and people can start going out and socializing and doing things like that more, that they have built that sort of attraction and fondness for the game and enjoyment that they will continue playing even after they dont have to be isolated at home, Pancoast said.

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Chess is King During Pandemic, Including Here in Montgomery County - Montgomery Community Media