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Historic Moments
Historic Moments: Africans in the 2004 FIDE World Championship
Clockwise (L-R) GM Hichem Hamdouchi (Morocco), IM Amon Simutowe (Zambia), IM Ahmed Adly (Egypt) and IM-elect Kenny Solomon (South Africa). The Dawn of a New Beginning The 2004 FIDE World Knockout Championship was a historic event for many reasons. First, it is the next step toward unification; secondly, the tournament…
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Sri Lanka
FM Sunil Weeramantry: Reflections on Libya
Ever so often the chess community is blessed with a special personality. Sometimes that person is heralded as the next great player, but how often do we here about the people that are responsible for helping those players become great? A native of Sri Lanka, FM Sunil Weeramantry has been…
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Generation Chess at the 102nd New York Masters
Generation Chess at the Mastersby GM Maurice Ashley Last year I wrote an article that protested the high incidence of so-called “Grandmaster Draws” in top level chess. The world-wide outpouring of support for this point of view was tremendous: fans from Germany to Australia vented their ire via numerous emails…
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U.S. Open
Historic Moments: 1989 U.S. Open Photo Gallery
Reflections on the 1989 U.S. Open The year of 1989 was an interesting year for Black chess. Maurice Ashley and Emory Tate had begun to get the recognition they had long deserved and had continued to prove themselves. Both starred at the 1988 New York Open earning IM norms. In…
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Opinion/Editorials
Is Chess Being “Outsourced?”
Outsourcing in Perspective With all of the discussion about U.S. jobs moving offshore to low-cost areas, there is an interesting parallel in chess. Both of these phenomena involve the emergence of technology. In the former case, multinational corporations seek to maximize efficiency and profits by moving production to cost centers…
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HBCU Chess
Howard defeats Tuskegee 3-1 in Collegiate Showdown!
In 2002, Vaughn Bennett had begun to contact The Chess Drum about Howard University’s Chess Club and the activities they were organizing. Since then, the prestigious university has increased its activity, which has culminated in an appearance at the Pan-Am Intercollegiate tournament last year in Miami. Around the same time that year,…
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Media Stories
Historic Moments: The Honorable George Neves Leighton
Oftentimes we see chess players at tournaments and do not realize who they are or what kind of life they lead in the “outer world.” Many of us have sat across from very powerful individuals and may not have known. George Leighton is one of these individuals. Born in New…
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Opinion/Editorials
The Curse of the Chess Expert
In almost every sporting activity, there is one thought that inevitably enters a competitor’s mind… the quest for mastery. This level of attainment would place the individual in an elite group of competitors in that sport and they would stand as an example of the discipline and fortitude required to…
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The Chess Drum
Historic Moments: Medina Parrilla at 2003 World Championships in Greece
Lapshun and Parrilla play a game against a picturesque backdrop. Bronx native, Medina Parrilla journeyed to Halkidiki, Greece to compete in the Under-12 championships and scored a respectable 6-5. The Bronx Times’ Noah Fowle penned an article about the 12-year old star and although she downplayed the attention she has…
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The Dynamics of Critical Thinking
In my profession, we use our body of intellectual knowledge to make complicated concepts understandable to the uninitiated. However, there is an irony to being part of this elite body of scholars. Just what does it mean to have a Ph.D. or to be a Doctor of Philosophy? How does…
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