Maurice Ashley on “Big Think”
What is Maurice Ashley doing these days? A lot of things. He’s not behind the board yet, but he was recently seen on the pages of New in Chess (2010/7). He penned an article about the World Chess Challenge, a match between Magnus Carlsen and the World.
The world was led by a tripartite of GMs (Hikaru Nakamura, Judit Polgar and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave) who would make moves independently and have them voted on by the fans. Carlsen won the game handily.
Ashley served as commentator along with Garry Kasparov as the game received widespread attention. Ashley’s article captured the moment in a very candid style. It appeared to be a gallant affair that brought out the chess stars along with the fashionistas. Carlsen’s likeness has also appeared in ads all over Europe and perhaps gives a new face to chess.
More recently, Chessbase ran another feature on Ashley. He had been featured previously because of his new ChessBase instructional DVD, but this article dealt with an interview he did with “Big Think”. In this interview, he discusses his background, how he was drawn to chess and its intricacies. He also discussed his road to Grandmaster and how those of his ilk may approach the game. Interesting!
Nice to see Brother Maurice changing minds and being positive
as usual – in the interview, Maurice was very open and real!
Hopefully, this will inspire many to continue their pursuit of positive
change – the process that partners with pursuing our dreams!!
Happy Holidays to everyone!
Kimani A. Stancil
Ashley is very informative and inspirational for our culture in chess!! We love him in DC..From the street Chess Masters !!