One Move at a Time (US Chess)

This month’s guests represent the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in San Francisco, California, which is the oldest continuously operating chess club in the United States. Abel Talamantez is the Chess Room Director, a position he has held since 2018, and Judit Sztaray is the General Manager of Youth Outreach and Events, a position she started in last year. Abel has been a US Chess Delegate from Northern California since 2017 and is a current member of the Clubs Committee and a former member of the Outreach committee.  Judit is the current chair of the US Chess Clubs Committee and a member of the Scholastic Council and a former Vice Chair of the Accessibility and Special Circumstances Committee. US Chess named her the 2017 Organizer of the Year and then in 2018 she won the Chess Club of the Year. We discuss operating a club in a time of COVID-19, as well as the aspects of the club's programs during normal times that speak directly to the US Chess mission statement. 

​Welcome to the November 2021 edition of “One Move at a Time,” the US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

Our guest today is Brian Karen. Originally from Merrick, Long Island, Brian discovered chess around the age of 16 in the mid-80s. While in high school, he worked at the computer chess store, Your Move. After college graduation, he worked with emotionally disturbed children for 5 years at a group home/assessment center, but around 1997 he started teaching chess, which he has done ever since, often 7 days a week. He considers himself more chess fan than player, and he is passionate about chess history. When he studies, it is more for entertainment then improvement. As a chess player, he has hovered at 2100 for a few decades and has the FIDE CM title. He can even claim to have played a very young Nakamura and Caruana, among other Nassau Chess Club regulars.

Brian’s chess life includes playing internet chess since the 1980s, being one of the first ICC admins circa 1993, broadcasting the first tournament on the internet, providing beginner commentary on the IBM site for the deep blue match, and broadcasting the 1995 Anand – Kasparov world championship match from a glass booth above the players in the World Trade Center. 

I came to know Brian through Facebook, where he founded and administers the chess book collectors group , which has 43,000 members, and the fide world championship 2021 group, which boasts 56,000 members.  He is also a former US Chess volunteer on our scholastic council.

 

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For the May edition of One Move at a Time, US Chess Senior Director of Strategic Communication Dan Lucas sits down with GM John Fedorowicz. 

From his 2009 US Chess Hall of Fame induction plaque:

"Inspired to begin playing chess by the Fischer-Spassky World Championship match in 1972, "The Fed" won the National High School Championship in 1975, tied for the U.S. Junior Championship in 1977, and won the competition outright in 1978. Both before and after attaining the GM title in 1986, Fedorowicz was considered a force in American chess, taking the U.S. Open in 1980, the New York Open in 1989, the National Open in 1992, and qualifying for the U.S. Championship numerous times. He is also the winner of five World Open titles and has many international victories to his credit, including Cannes and Sesimbra in 1987 and Wijk aan Zee in 1990.

"Fedorowicz twice represented the U.S. in the World Chess Olympiad and captained both men's and women's Olympiad teams. He also has authored numerous chess articles and two books, The Complete Benko Gambit in 1990 and The English Attack, with Nick de Firmian, in 2004. A lifelong New Yorker, Fedorowicz spends much of his time teaching and participating in the city’s chess community, and has frequently served as a second and advisor to U.S. Champion Gata Kamsky."

This month’s guest is Ranae Bartlett of Alabama, who has developed the Madison City Chess League into an established part of the local school system. She is the Executive director of 501(c)(3) non-profit organization promoting chess education for students in Madison, Alabama and the surrounding area that teaches kids life skills through chess. It was founded in 2013 with 14 children.

Ranae is the President of the Madison School Board, one of the top performing school systems in the State of Alabama.  She has been on the school board since 2011.  Ranae earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law where she was a member of the Arkansas Law Review and member of the National Moot Court team.  Upon graduating from law school, she clerked for the Honorable Henry A. Politz, Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.  Ranae graduated with high honors from the University of Central Arkansas, earning a Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in mathematics and political science.

Welcome to the June 2021 edition of “One Move at a Time,” the US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

Our guest today is Alan Losoff, a retired Vice President at Bank of America who is best known these days as the impresario of the National Open. He is President of Nevada Chess, but he has also served as president of the Minnesota and Illinois affiliates and VP of the Wisconsin one. He carries the National Tournament Director, FIDE Arbiter, and International Organizer titles. He is the current acting chair of the US Chess Rules Committee and is a past chair of the Bylaws Committee. In addition to the National Open, he has organized such events as the Las Vegas Chess Festival, the Senior and the K-12 Grade Championships. He has been an IT consultant and occasional part time employee for both US Chess and ICC.

This month’s guest is the US Chess Development Director, Geoff Isaak, talking about not just his own chess history and impressions of the chess world, but the challenges of creating a Development Department from the ground up.

This episode touches on FM Jon Jacobs' 50+ years as an amateur competitor, his pending upsets book The Fish That Roared, his time as a pioneer anti-cheating activist during the mid-2000s, the dozen Chess Life articles he has authored since 2005, and his new project in collaboration with IM Yury Lapshun to drive international chess tourism to important locations in chess history, starting with a few sites in the New York City area. (For an introduction to the latter, see the December 2020 Chess Life article, “Pugilists at Rest,” which provides detailed directions for visiting the graves of Steinitz and Lasker.)

 

This month's guest is Jim Egerton, who uses chess to help businesses achieve their goals.

Jim Egerton is the CEO and founder of Business on the Board® and the author of the book of the same name which is subtitled, "How the World's Greatest Game Can Build Better Leaders." A respected teacher, coach, manager, leader, and entrepreneur, his speaking has impacted the lives of thousands. His management, information technology, and training experience come from serving in the health care, energy, and finance industries. He does workshops for firms like Amazon, UBS, FedEx, RRDonnelley & Wrigley who want to use a game-based approach to developing the skills their leaders need to be successful. He uses his speaking platform to show people that chess is a powerful tool for developing skills our future leaders will need. He has a degree in mathematics from Northern Illinois University and an MBA degree in finance from Illinois Tech.

Note: Due to a technical issue, the host's voice is poorly recorded. Our guest Emily Allred's recording is good.

This month host Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication at US Chess, talks to Emily Allred, the Associate Curator at the World Chess Hall of Fame. She has worked at the museum since 2013 and has curated or co-curated 14 exhibitions, including Jacqueline Piatigorsky: Patron, Player, Pioneer (2013);  Living Like Kings: The Unexpected Collision of Chess and Hip Hop (2014); Battle on the Board: Chess during World War II (2015); Her Turn: Revolutionary Women of Chess (2016); and Global Moves: Americans in Chess Olympiads.   This episode focuses on the current exhibition she curated that celebrates our 80th anniversary year: US Chess: 80 Years—Promoting the Royal Game in America. 

Welcome to the July 2021 edition of “One Move at a Time,” the US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

Our guest today is Young-Kyu Yoo, the father of Christopher Yoo, who in 2019 became at that time America’s youngest international master at the age of 12. Young is here today to talk about raising a top-tier scholastic player and the joys and problems of having an exceptionally talented child.  

Young was born in Korea and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 5, settling initially in Minnesota. He earned a degree in Math and English Literature at the University of Chicago.  After working at several failed software startups over the course of 10 years, he joined Intuit as a software engineer on QuickBooks, working there for 17 years until he retired in 2014, just as Christopher was starting to play chess.  

This month host Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication at US Chess, talks to Isaac Steincamp, the founder of chesssummit.com, a website where Isaac and a team of writers that are “a mixture of chess players, instructors, and advocates from all over the United States, working on every aspect of the Chess Summit mission – sharing instructional material, personal experiences and goals, and news on ongoing chess programs around the world for free!” Isaac is also  a fourth-year student at the University of Pittsburgh, the Pitt chess team captain, manager of the Pittsburgh Pawngrabbers in the PRO Chess League, and a streamer for chess.com. 

This month’s guest, recorded live from the 2019 U.S. Open in Orlando, Florida,  is Dr. Martha Underwood of Arizona, one of only seven women to have earned the National Tournament Director (NTD) title; she is also a FIDE Arbiter (FA). She is the president of the Southern Arizona Chess Association and, of particular interest to this podcast and the main topic of conversation, she is a member of the US Chess Accessibility and Special Circumstances Committee.

This month host Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication at US Chess, talks to high school students at the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon Seth Talyansky (18) and Avi Gupta (17) about how they are leveraging their state championship team's success to promote chess and support underserved communities.  For example, the club hand-delivered chess sets to children in Chajul, Guatemala; donated chess clocks to a chess club in Ohrid, Macedonia; organized an online match with a high school chess club in Jackson, Mississippi; and traveled to Equatorial Guinea in western Africa to organize that nation’s first open chess tournament.    Talyansky  is a US Chess National Master who has been the number-one ranked player in high school in Oregon since 2016 and was just named a U.S. Presidential Scholar.  Gupta is the two-time Utah state champion in his age group and currently ranked number five in Oregon. He will be appearing on Teen Jeopardy the week of June 17. 

This month’s guest is Justin Morrison, the founder and owner of Kid Chess, a metro Atlanta chess teaching company reaching thousands of children, mainly in after school programs. We discuss what it takes to start and run a chess business and also his ideas on attracting the masses to our game.

Welcome to the February edition of One Move at a Time. Our guest today is FIDE Master Wesley Wang, who along with his brother Warren Wang founded the non-profit Chessanity in 2014, which has a  mission to teach and promote chess among K-12 students around Long Island, New York to build self-esteem and cognitive outreach. Wesley has a peak rating of 2441 and has been Silver Medalist at the  2019 North American Youth Chess Championships (U18 Open) and 2016 North American Youth Chess Championships  (U12 Open). He has been a member of the All-America Chess Team from 2016-2020, and a member of the 20176 and 2017 U.S. Amateur Team East Championship Teams. This just briefly touches on his many and varied chess accomplishments, and on top of this he is an accomplished badminton player and aspiring film maker. Welcome to One Move at a Time, Wesley Wang.

David Grimaud is this month's guest. Grimaud has been the President of the South Carolina Chess Association since 2006, the Chair of the US Chess Senior Committee, a member of the Scholastic Council, and a member of the States Committee. Along with his wife Maureen, the couple was awarded the Koltanowski Silver award this year for their support of senior and women’s events. In his non-chess life, David is president of the Automotive repair and maintenance company Precision Tune's largest area developer, Grimaud Enterprises Inc., which oversees 93 stores in 11 states, from Utah to Texas to South Carolina.

This month host Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication at US Chess, talks to Robin Ramson, the founder of Chess Girls DC, https://chessgirlsdc.org/, a Washington, D.C. organization with a mission "to build the confidence of Girls using Chess as a tool." CLO recently featured Robin in "Mid-Atlantic Girls Regional a Big Success: 'When is the Next Chess Tournament.'"

This month host Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication at US Chess, talks to Jay Stallings,who has taught over 40,000 kids to play chess at his California Youth Chess League since 1994. The league is a California 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization that has a mission, similar to the US Chess mission, of empowering youth to grow through chess. This month he is celebrating 25 years as a chess coach.

An expert-rated player himself, he has authored several books, including Fried Liver and Burning Pants: Curious, But True Chess Stories and The Lessons We Learn From Them! Last year, he introduced Coach Jay's Chess Academy! >, a complete curriculum which can be found at coachjayschessacademy.com. He is a member of the US Chess Scholastic and Development Committees.

For the October edition of One Move at a Time, US Chess Senior Director of Strategic Communication Dan Lucas sits down with Michael Tisserand to discuss his chess writings, his books (especially his biography of George Herriman), and chess and comics.  Learn more about Tisserand at michaeltisserand.com.

This month's guest is Chris Wainscott of Wisconsin, who has steadily built up an extensive chess resume.

Chris grew up in Midland, Texas, where he learned to play chess at the age of four at the end of the Fischer boom. Chris has written for Chess Life, Chess Life Online, and American Chess Magazine while also posting on his blog ontheroadtochessmaster.com. He wrote the July 2015 cover story in Chess Life about our new golden age of American chess. In the January 2014 issue of Chess Life he wrote about improving as an adult. On CLO, his articles include an obituary of Sevan Muradian, an interview with Alex Velikanov, and a 2015 article about "some player" named Awonder Liang who became our youngest IM to that point.  

This month's guest is Allen Priest, the president of the US Chess Executive Board. We talk about where US Chess has been, where we are going, and take an in-depth look at the just-revised US Chess Values.

Allen Priest has been the US Chess president since 2018 and is the 29th president in our 80 year history. He was first elected to the executive board in 2011. He lives in the Commonwealth of Kentucky where he is a CPA, a field he has worked in since 1982 and which has allowed him to bring his experience in non-profit audit, tax compliance, and benefit plans to US Chess. He first became a US Chess delegate from Kentucky in 2007 and has served on various committees including finance, audit, bylaws, forums, and LMA.

Welcome to the December 2021 edition of “One Move at a Time,” the US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

   

Our guest today is Grandmaster Maxim Dlugy,  joining me in person from the 2021 National K-12 Grade Championships.  He is here doing a simul, all-comers blitz, and lecture. He was born in Moscow when it was still in the Soviet Union, and arrived with his family in the United States in 1977. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1985 andwas awarded the Grandmaster title in 1986 for his result at the World Chess Olympiad in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dlugy was formerly ranked number one in the world by the World Blitz Chess Association. His best finishes in the U.S. Championship were 3rd place finishes in 1984 and 87. He was elected president of the United States Chess Federation in 1990. Dlugy was one of the campaign managers, along with Garry Kasparov, for Anatoly Karpov when he ran for FIDE President in  2010. 

Welcome to the February 2022 edition of “One Move at a Time,” the US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

Our guests today represent the Manasota Chess Center in Sarasota, Florida.  Nicholas Lewis is the Executive Director and Grandmaster Pascal Charbaneau supports the coaching and advisory team. Nicholas is a graduate of Florida State University with a Bachelor of Music Education degree. He has held diverse professional roles since graduation, which included professional violinist and conductor, software developer, copyright coordinator, Wikipedia administrator, product lead for Minds.com and, most recently, founder and executive director of the Manasota Chess Center.

Nicholas discovered chess during his freshman year at college, when he began playing with his college piano instructor,  which led to his piano lessons ending and morphing into weekly chess lessons instead. Nick later joined the college chess club and eventually became the president.  Under his leadership, the club held numerous tournaments, and grew from just eight to over 30 members.

After graduation, Nicholas moved to Sarasota, Florida.  He worked in the technology field for three years, before reinvigorating his passion for playing and teaching chess. During this time, he began pursuing the launch of a local community chess center in Sarasota.  The result of his efforts culminated with the formation in June 2021 of the Manasota Chess Center.  Today the Manasota Chess Center has grown to more than 50 members, and it now delivers a wide range of chess programs and activities that include monthly US Chess tournaments, chess study groups, and private and group chess lessons from US Chess certified coaches. Additionally, the coaching/advisory team includes two GMs, Pascal Charbonneau and Akshayraj Kore.

One of those GMs is joining us today. Pascal Charbonneau has twice been the Canadian Champion and he won over a dozen national championships as a junior. Pascal attended the University of Maryland Baltimore County on a scholarship when the chess team won the national championship four years in a row. He graduated in 2006 magna cum laude with a degree in financial economics and a secondary focus in Russian. After 2006, Pascal aimed his attention to the financial world. From 2008 to 2019 he worked at a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund as a key member of a small investment team.  He is currently senior portfolio manager with Vazirani Asset Management, an event-driven hedge fund. 

Welcome to the October 2021 edition of “One Move at a Time,” the US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

 

Our guest today is Brian Flowers, the marketing manager for the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) and the buyer for their award-winning gift shop, Q Boutique, having worked with the organization since its Saint Louis opening in 2011. Brian has a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in figure drawing and printmaking from Southeast Missouri State University. Brian also serves on the board of the Central West End Association, the neighborhood of the Saint Louis Chess Campus. In his free time, Brian enjoys playing chess casually, artmaking, and listening to David Bowie.

Links mentioned in the show:

World Chess Hall of Fame

WCHOF YouTube Channel

U.S. Chess Championships

World's Largest Chess Piece Instagram Page

Q Boutique

 

Welcome to the December 2020 edition of “One Move at a Time,” the US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

This month’s guest is is John Davison Rockefeller V, who is the catalyst for our December 2020 Chess Life cover story announcing his $3 million gift to US Chess. He is a chess dad, Scholastic Director of the Maryland Chess Association, and active volunteer helping US Chess, especially as chair of the Development Committee and vice-chair of the Scholastic Council. His father is John Davison “Jay” Rockefeller IV, a governor of and U.S. senator from West Virginia who was instrumental in the creation of National Chess Day.

This month’s guest is GM Alexander Onischuk, the head coach and program director of the Texas Tech University chess team which just was named the US Chess College of the Year for the second time. Lucas talks to Onischuk about all the characteristics of the TTU program that has made it so successful, as well as about Alex's own chess career that has landed him in the US Chess Hall of Fame.

This month host Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication at US Chess, talks to Jamaal Abdul-Alim, who has probably written more "First Moves" department stories in Chess Life than any other single writer. First Moves focuses on short features about people and organizations that are accomplishing things directly related to our mission. Dan and Jamaal discuss chess journalism and they take a trip down memory lane recounting some of Jamaal's articles from the past decade. 

This month’s guest is Dr. Karen Aronian, M.A., Ed.M., Ed.D., who is the principal of Aronian Education Design LLC, a full-service education design firm which creates irresistible environments and content for children and families in private and public venues. We talk about how being a professional educator has informed how she is a chess parent to her two active scholastic players. Dr. Aronian considers all places learning spaces, and the dynamic energy of her work reflects this philosophy. She has worked in the art, design, and education fields for over 30 years, and is an award-winning educator. She is widely considered an expert on education and parenting; her columns on the topic appear regularly in a broad range of newspapers, and her work has been featured in international publications, including Parents Magazine.

Dr. Alexey Root is our guest today on this October edition of "One Move at a Time." She holds the title of WIM and was the 1989 U.S. Women's Champion. Before earning her Ph.D. in education, she taught high school social studies and English and ran the school's chess club. She has written seven books on chess in education; some are available at USCF Sales and all are available on Amazon. She teaches online courses about chess in education for The University of Texas at Dallas and the courses have been taken by students all over the world. She has been a long time writer for Chess Life, Chess Life Kids, and CLO, and she seems naturally drawn to topics that speak directly to our US Chess mission statement. 

This month host Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication at US Chess, talks David MacEnulty, who was the first teacher to teach chess in New York City as part of the curriculum. MacEnulty has been teaching chess to adults and children for more than 25 years and has been one of the most impactful scholastic chess coaches in the USA over that period. He currently teaches chess at The Dalton School. He won the prestigious Chess Educator of the Year award from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2007, was honored with the career achievement and Scholastic Service awards by US Chess, and he received the Lives That Make a Difference award from A & E Television.

For the July edition of One Move at a Time, US Chess Senior Director of Strategic Communication Dan Lucas sits down with Fred and Bonnie Waitzkin to discuss both the book and film versions of Searching For Bobby Fischer and what it all meant to the Waitzkin family, more than three decades after the book's release.

Among the topics covered, we learn that Bonnie has an extensive history as a chess teacher.

Publications Editor Melinda Matthews joins this episode as a co-host. 

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“One Move at a Time,” is a monthly US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

Listen to the whole family of US Chess podcasts at https://new.uschess.org/podcasts 

This month’s guest is collector extraordinaire Jon Crumiller, who is also a recipient of the Special Services award this year from US Chess. He was our September 2013 Chess Life cover subject (photo), he is co-author with GM Lev Alburt of Carlsen vs. Karjakin - World Chess Championship, and has multiple exhibitions at the World Chess Hall of Fame. 

For the June edition of One Move at a Time, US Chess Senior Director of Strategic Communication Dan Lucas sits down with Elliott Neff, founder and CEO of Chess4Life and author of A Pawn’s Journey: Transforming Lives One Move at a Time to talk about the history of his organization, chess as a transformational tool, and being a chess teacher and coach.

Chess4Life is a platform that teaches kids critical thinking skills, problem-solving, EQ, and other important life lessons through chess. Elliott is a master-level player and he holds the Professional Chess Coaching Certification Level V — the highest awarded certification by US Chess. Chess4Life has more than 70 employees and they’ve trained more than 10,000 students and have also been recognized as one of the Inc. 5,000 fastest-growing private companies on their 2015 list.

His book, A Pawn’s Journey: Transforming Lives One Move at a Time, shares true-life stories of students he’s encountered over his 20+ years of coaching, whose lives have been significantly changed for the better by chess.

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“One Move at a Time,” is a monthly US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

Listen to the whole family of US Chess podcasts at https://new.uschess.org/podcasts

Welcome to the January edition of One Move at a Time and Happy New Year! Our guest today is David Llada, joining us via Skype from San Sebastian, Spain. David was our April 2021 guest, but I decided to interview him again focusing only on his behind-the-scenes work for the recently completed World Championship during with Magnus Carlsen successfully defended his title against Ian Nepomniachtchi.

David’s photos have often appeared in Chess Life and he has taken chess photos around the world. He has a book of his photos called, The Thinkers that you can purchase from US Chess Sales at uscfsales.com. In addition to journalism, David has been involved in the organizational side of Chess; being part of various organizational committees and frequently taking on the role of Chief Press Officer. With a background in journalism, public relations, online marketing and social media coupled with an extensive chess experience, he was a natural to become FIDE’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer.

To give an idea of what David was going through behind the scenes, here is his Facebook post from November 18: "This afternoon I fell asleep on my laptop. Woke up 2,5 hours later with my face on the keyboard. Missed an appointment for dinner and I had nearly a hundred emails and whatsapp messages awaiting an answer. Yet I am enjoying the experience. I never thought I would organize a world championship match. Next best thing to playing in one, I guess."

Here is a gallery of World Championship behind-the-scenes images from Llada's Facebook page: https://new.uschess.org/news/one-move-time-january-edition-david-llada

 

For the March edition of One Move at a Time, US Chess Senior Director of Strategic Communication Dan Lucas sits down with Tyler Schwartz, the co-founder of Chess at Three and Story Time Chess. Both companies use an original, story-based method to teach chess to children as young as three years old. This innovative method is explained in Tyler's 2018 TED Talk, “Can Three-Year-Olds Play Chess?”

Tyler is also a professional magician and currently performs in "Speak Easy Magick" at the McKittrick Hotel alongside the best magicians in New York City. 

Dan and Tyler discuss the recent success of his companies, the similarities between chess and magic, his frustration with misoriented chess boards, and about the time he “beat” GM Hikaru Nakamura at chess in an energy drink commercial.

Follow Tyler on Twitter and Instagram.

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“One Move at a Time,” is a monthly US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

Listen to the whole family of US Chess podcasts at https://new.uschess.org/podcasts

This month’s guest is FM Robby Adamson, a member of the US Chess scholastic council, a past president and a current board member for the Arizona Chess Federation, and a board member for the Southern Arizona Chess Association. We talk to him about building a scholastic chess team and his own chess history, which includes being the 1988 Denker Tournament of High School Champions co-champion.

This month’s guest is Michael Propper, the Director of ChessNYC and President of New York City Chess Services Inc, a non profit focused on expanding the reach and impact of chess as far as possible. We discuss ChessNYC's innovative programs such as their $10,000 Championship Challenge and their prison programs in the Queensboro Correctional Facility and Rikers Island. 

This month’s guest is Christina Schweiss, the Executive Director of the non-profit Hampton Roads Chess Association. The club was named the 2017 US Chess Club of the Year and Schweiss was awarded the 2020 US Chess Scholastic Services Award for an Individual.

For the September edition of One Move at a Time, US Chess Senior Director of Strategic Communication Dan Lucas sits down with GM Alejandro Ramirez to discuss his chess history as the first grandmaster from Central America, being a commentator for the Sinquefield Cup, and the new World Chess Hall of Fame exhibit about the 1972 World Championship. 

This month's guest is Russ Makofsky. Russ is the Founder & Director of Impact Coaching Network which partners with 18 Elementary Schools across New York City, engaging over 4,000 students annually. Quoting from their website, “ICN was founded with the vision of establishing a network of high performing chess programs, where each school embodies their own unique chess culture while still maintaining a network-wide commitment to excellence.”

He also founded The Gift of Chess, which is giving away 10,000 chess sets to 10,000 NYC public school students, and Her Move Next, which is Empowering future female leaders through the blending of chess, competition, and community.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of "One Move at a Time," the US Chess podcast in which we talk to people and organizations that are advancing the US Chess mission statement of "Empowering people through chess, one move at a time." We are grateful for the sponsorship of US Chess Sales. See the end of this announcement for how you can enter to win a $50 gift certificate to uscfsales.com. This month host Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication at US Chess, talks to the Honorable Mayor Michael J. Ryan of Sunrise, Florida. Mayor Ryan has been actively using chess as a key city initiative since he took office in 2010. US Chess recognized his efforts by naming Sunrise the Chess City of the Year in 2015. Chess Life magazine has featured Sunrise twice over the years in December 2013 and April 2018.

This month’s guest is Tim Just, a National Tournament Director and a FIDE  National Arbiter and editor of the US Chess Rule Book since the 5th edition (we’re on the 7th edition now). He is the co-author of My Opponent Is Eating a Doughnut (with Wayne Clark) and Just Law: Common-sense answers to frequently asked questions on chess rules, regulations, and policy from players, tournament directors, and organizers. He is the longtime chair of the Tournament Director Certification Committee, current TDCC member, and a longtime Rules Committee member. His byline has appeared on the TD Corner column in Chess Life plus on the Rulebook Tactics column in the Illinois Chess Bulletin, and he has a monthly column on Chess Life Online titled, “Just the Rules.” He facilitates both rules and tournament director workshops. He has performed countless stints as a staff member or chief TD at national, state, and local scholastic and adult tournaments. He is a longtime US Chess Delegate and recipient of the US Chess Outstanding Career Achievement, US Chess Tournament Director of the Year, and US Chess Committee of the Year awards.

Welcome to the August 2021 edition of “One Move at a Time,” the US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

Our guest today is Mike Nolan, a longtime employee, consultant, and volunteer for US Chess.  We recorded live at the 2021 U.S. Open in Cherry Hill, New Jersey on August 5. Mike was here because after serving as Parliamentarian for the Delegates Meetings from 1990 through 2016, he was tapped to serve again this year after the recent death of Ken Ballou.

Mike graduated from Northwestern in 1972 and received an MBA from the University of Nebraska in 1980. He has served as chair of the Scholastics, Bylaws, and Finance Committees. Many people now directly associate Mike with our IT systems; he first started talking to US Chess about IT issues in 1986, started working with us on database issues in 1998, became a paid consultant in 2004, and became an employee in 2013, finally retiring in 2016 but still advising us on IT issues as a consultant. He is the recipient of the Special Services Award and Distinguished Service Awards from US Chess. At home in Nebraska, he served as the Nebraska state president and editor of their magazine for several years.

​Welcome to the April 2021 edition of “One Move at a Time,” the US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

This month's guest is David Llada. David has long been connected to the chess world and in 1999 he became a professional chess journalist, publishing contributions in all the world’s major chess magazines as well as in “El Mundo”, Spain’s second largest newspaper. His photos have often appeared in Chess Life and he has taken chess photos around the world in such exotic locations as Shanghai, Las Vegas, New York, Moscow, Istanbul, and Zurich. He has a book of his photos called, “The Thinkers” that you can purchase from US Chess Sales at uscfsales.com. In addition to journalism, David has been involved in the organizational side of Chess; being part of various organizational committees and frequently taking on the role of Chief Press Officer. With a background in journalism, public relations, online marketing and social media coupled with an extensive chess experience, he was a natural to become FIDE’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer.

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This month’s guest is is Dr. Mark Taylor talking about chess fiction and narrative--we thought this would be a fun time to have this discussion as The Queen's Gambit continues to be popular on Netflix, and of course it was based on Walter Tevis' 1984 novel. 

Taylor is an Associate Professor of English at Berry College in Rome, Georgia. He is currently at work on Chess and Chessic Motifs in English Prose Narrative Since 1700: An Annotated Bibliography, a comprehensive work featuring approximately 2000 entries. Berry earned his PhD in English Literature in 1995 at the University of Texas at Austin. He teaches freshman writing and medieval and renaissance literature. He published over 200 articles in various chess periodicals between 2002 and 2015, including  the December 2012 Chess Life cover story “The White Collection: Exploring the largest chess library in the world.” awarded the “Best Feature Article” by Chess Journalists of America. He has been editor of Georgia Chess and The Chess Journalist. His son Paul Taylor was an accomplished scholastic player who reached an expert rating, and his wife Melinda is our Publications Editor at US Chess.

This month’s guest is Fred Wilson. In 2019, Fred Wilson was given the Outstanding Career Achievement Award by US Chess.  IM John Donaldson wrote for our awards ceremony, “Fred Wilson has taught thousands of young players over the decades. He has edited and authored important chess publications, including very inexpensive books for novices, and has generously provided copies of these novice works to chess associations to help bring in new players. He has edited and authored historical works that have preserved and disseminated much lost chess history. His work in preserving rare chess books, and making these accessible to historians, has been of great value in new chess historical research.” He has written or co-written 14 books with Bruce Alberston and was the Chess Journalist of the Year in 2003. He also was recently one of only a handful of people to achieve the Master rating after reaching the age of 70.

Welcome to the April edition of One Move at a Time! Our guest today is IM Greg Shahade, who founded the US Chess School in 2006 and which resumes classes this year in a victory for a post-covid world. He also founded the New York Masters and the U.S. Chess League which is now known as the PRO Chess League. He is a former member of the Executive Board of US Chess. Greg won three national scholastic championships: tying for first in both the 1993 National Junior High School Championship and the 1996 National High School Championship, and winning the 1996 United States Junior Open outright. He won the prestigious Samford Fellowship, annually awarded by the U.S. Chess Trust to the top U.S. prospect under the age of 25, in 1999. His dad is FM Michael Shahade and his sister Jennifer is a two-time US Women’s Champion and our US Chess Women’s Program Director.

Welcome to the September 2021 edition of “One Move at a Time,” the US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

Our guest today is Stephanie Berk, the Chairperson of the Accessibility and Special Circumstances Committee- a volunteer position in US Chess. She is a mom of 4 boys ages ranging from ages 12- 20 years old, as well as a Cognitive Neuroscientist by training with a focus on Language Acquisition, Literacy, and Primary Auditory Cortex.  Her second-born "found" chess at the age of 9 in St. Louis, and now the whole family is involved with chess in various ways...  including their dog, "Rook."   Although Stephanie does not play chess herself, she feels strongly that it should be accessible to all who want to play, learn, or teach. Stephanie and her family now live on a small farm in Maryland.

Links mentioned in the show:

US Chess Accessibility Guidelines

August 2019 One Move at a Time with Martha Underwood

Stephanie Berk