chess we can!

to say that chess has been on our brains recently is a bit of an understatement. in fact, chess has rather dominated our lives for the past few weeks and i’ll try to bring you up to speed and help you understand exactly why that is.
this summer, coy had the privilege of attending a weekend long chess training with the belize national youth chess foundation. the goal of this organization is to bring chess into the lives of belizean youth as a way to teach greater life skills and inspire youths toward greatness. the organization is run by an amazing woman who is originally from russia and has also worked to implement chess into the curriculum of new york city schools. she’s amazing. truly.
on october 10th, the belize national youth chess foundation held it’s second annual chess symposium for educators. the keynote speaker just so happened to be chess grandmaster maurice ashley, the first african american grandmaster. originally from jamaica, he was able to connect with belizeans, bonding over caribbean culture and inspiring everyone with his personal story. once the inspirational speech, and the many jokes, came to an end, it was time for the grandmaster to challenge 20 chess players simultaneously. coy just so happened to be one of those twenty challengers, and he managed to hold on to be one of the last four standing. way to go, coy!

with the excitement of the symposium and the grandmaster’s visit still coursing through our veins, the belize national youth chess foundation invited us to a weekend conference at their headquarters, caves branch (a truly awesome eco lodge just south of belmopan). we spent the weekend reviewing, planning, and studying in order to move forward and bring chess into the lives of even more kids this year. the surroundings were jungle-tastic, the food was delicious, and the company was spectacular. we left feeling supported and inspired to get our chess club up and running. (we will begin meeting the first week of november. we have plans to do a bit of construction this weekend to create “tables” which the chess boards will fit on and which can be easily set up and stored.)
additionally, coy received word that our kids to kids grant has been approved, which means we will have funds to purchase chess sets for our club.
wahoo! world peace through chess!