Diamond shines at Polgar tourney
Diamond Abdus-Shakoor played in the Susan Polgar All-Girls Chess Challenge last year and won her group with a perfect 7-0 score. With this came a digital clock and a laptop computer! Diamond recently competed in the Polgar tournament and had another triumphant outing. The 9-year old, 3rd grade student traveled to Arizona with the support of her community and took home three honors:
- 1st Place: Girls Blitz, 7/10
- 2nd Place: Open Girls, Grades 3-5, 6/7
- 2nd Place: Bughouse (out of 15 teams)
Her father Abdul Abdus-Shakoor stated, “Diamond was the only African American Female to attend the Tournament for the 2nd year in a row out of 300 students!” Girls of African descent have traditionally done well in Polgar’s tournaments over the years showing that chess is more balanced amongst the girls competition… although children of Asian ancestry typically dominate scholastic chess.
Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/SPICEChess/2010SPNO#5445705928004653506
She is a sweet and talented young lady. I also admire the dedication of her father. It is very important to have strong family support.
Congratulations to Diamond!
Susan
Congrats to Diamond & Dad on their continued success!
Hi Diamond,
Congratulations on your winnings!!!!!!
Keep playing!
~Darrian Robinson
HEY DIAMOND THIS IS NIGEL BRYANT, CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR SUCCESS. WE ARE ALL PROUD OF YOU, GOOD LUCK.
Hi Diamond. A Big Congratulations To You. Keep Up The Great Work. My Family And I Are Very Proud Of You. Good Luck On Your Future Events. 🙂
Hi Darrian, Nigel, and Jehron
Thank You very much for the support! Hopefully my dad and I will visit Marshall Chess Club and I can play some chess and have fun in New York, this summer!
Congratulations Diamond! Keep up the good work!!
Hi Anthony,
Am sorry to hijack this blog like this, but have lost your contact information and really do need to contact you to start up something chesswise in West Virginia and possibly OH as well at a non-profit my friend is the CEO of. Hopefully if that gets up and running, we could produce persons making us proud the way Diamond, Josh, Justus, James, Darrian and others have done.
I have been looking for your contact info since I left OH. to no avail. Just ask Daaim here for my email info and we can talk about this opportunity in more detail.
I just viewed a video on Baraka Shabazz. I borrowed from a library. I thought how many of the young females would get inspiration from this video. I pulled some pictures from the video, but need permission to post video.
https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2010/02/19/baraka-shabazz-black-queen-of-chess/comment-page-1/#comment-14852
Thank you Mr. Shabazz and the Chessdrum! And thank you Susan; I like playing in your Tournaments and hopefully I can be as good as you and your sister Judith Polgar – one day!
Congratulations to Diamond Abdus-Shakoor on March 30, 2010. Diamond went undefeated; 6-0 at the Columbus Elementary District Chess Championships for two consecutive years. Over 40 schools participated and 97 students competed for the District Title. Diamond is the Defending Elementary K-5 District Chess Champion for 2009 & 2010.
Great Job Diamond; Keep it up!
Congratulations Diamond on your competitive success, just Wanted to say they have many books on Susan and Judith in your local libraries if ya need information on how to achieve your goal, look up at post #9 ,thats where brother Shabazz went for his material. I got some info on Fischer from the Buffalo Public library , a cassette tape about his upcoming match with Spassky in 1972 , and i heard it over 5,000 times in 5years, back in the late 80’s early 90s. My son Shaka and I are studyin Aesop Fables right now, We laugh at the stories all the time! So the moral of this post is, Just do it! Nike, hehe. Peace.