Monday
Sep292014
Urban Chess in the Big Apple
Monday, September 29, 2014 at 12:43AM
Here's a so-called human-interest story (as opposed to most stories, which are presumably written for the birds - or perhaps for the birds' owners), brought to you by reader Marc Beishon.
Reader Comments (1)
I thought this story is interesting because it highlights how having people promoting chess - however unconventionally - is vital, and in this case a US IM seems to have been inspired by this guy.
[DM: "Inspired" seems a bit strong for what's in the article, but maybe so. Still, the problem in the U.S. hasn't been getting kids to play chess, and hasn't been for a long time. It's keeping adults in chess, making it part of adult culture that's the problem. (Not to mention keeping girls interested as they get into high school and up.]
Schools are obviously a good place but mostly rely on one teacher taking an interest in running a chess club - at my school it was the Latin teacher, who got us into the finals of the national school championship and also in club and county competitions.