• Drum Majors

    Colding releases “Chess for Children”!

    National Master Ernest “Steve” Colding has been a mainstay in New York chess for more than 40 years. He has an affable persona and for the past 30 years has shared his joy of chess with students in the New York area. As one of the original “Black Bears of…

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  • Africa

    Carlsson tours Kenya!

    GM Pontus Carlsson is becoming a regular on the African scene to conduct training sessions. The Swedish national participated in the 2017 Africa Tour visiting Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. The trip, sponsored by the Paul Allen Foundation, was a rousing success and featured other Black chess masters including Maurice Ashley…

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  • The Chess Drum

    The Chess Drum’s Highlights of 2017!

    The year 2017 was an interesting year showing that chess is becoming more universal with the steady rise of China and India. Viswanathan Anand won the World Rapid and took 3rd in the World Blitz, a sign that he is still a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming…

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  • Media Stories

    “Triple Exclam” wins joint honor for “Best Author”

    Chess Club Live, a large social media organization announced their awards for 2017 via Twitter. There were various categories and followers were asked to vote in several categories. The vote was conducted via Twitter poll and there was a limited window of time. In a year when an number of…

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  • Drum Majors

    Webster’s New York chess crew makes history

    Four young men from New York have continued their ambitions in chess at Webster University under the tutelage of Grandmaster Susan Polgar and Paul Truong. Shawn Swindell was the first to enter Webster and he also plays on the basketball team. He was followed by FIDE Masters Joshua Colas and…

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  • Media Stories

    Kenneth Clayton, chess pioneer (1938-2017)

    “When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.” ~ African Proverb The chess world lost another pioneer the other day when National Master Kenneth Roger Clayton passed away on December 26th. The 79-year old Maryland resident was a person of consequence: a scholar, chess master, loving father/husband…

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  • Media Stories

    Revisiting Baraka Shabazz

    Baraka Shabazz at Dupont CirclePhoto by Washington Post Recently on Facebook, BJ McCurdy of Los Angeles raised a question on the whereabouts of Baraka Shabazz (unrelated to this writer). For the uninitiated, Baraka was a teenage sensation who experienced a meteoric rise in the late 70s. She was the subject…

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  • Europe

    Will there be a FIDE election in 2018??

    The chess horizon has been quiet since capping off a busy year with the Grand Chess Tour. Last week, I started wondering about 2018 chess year. Apart from the Alpha Zero buzz and the firestorm over the World Championship logo, there hasn’t been much in the way of chess news.…

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  • Media Stories

    2018 WCC logo design creates firestorm

    We’ve all heard the numerous puns concerning chess. They dot the tournament halls on t-shirts and many are very catchy and humorous. In this season, we will hear blitz players sing any number of holiday songs adapted for chess. Instead of “chestnuts roasting on a open fire,” my high school…

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  • Jamaica

    Deborah Richards-Porter at 2017 Zonals!

    Deborah Richards-PorterPhoto by Jamaica Chess Federation Jamaica’s WIM Deborah Richards-Porter played fantastic Chess, winning three of her last four games to end on a bang at the Women’s Zonals in El Salvador. Her final score of 5½ points was good enough for 4th position, 5 places ahead of her starting…

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