Because, despite the recent resurgence, there are still some barriers in the Chess world since the game is still male-dominated or needs a lot of funding to play matches to be ranked and play in tournaments. The Institute wants to include women and children from lower economic backgrounds so they learn to play chess. But there were some women players scattered around the tables. Some players are as young as eight, some as old as 80. Most of the chess players are male, and they vary in age. When the lecture ends, more members pour into the room, packing the hall.
“Being patient is sometimes the thing to do.” “A lot of times taking action can lead you into trouble,” Whitehead, who became a Master at a young age, said. This classroom environment allows regulars to ask Paul Whitehead, “What if Levon made a daring move?” These lectures focus on previous games played by international grandmasters and help give insight on strategies and mistakes.
Resident Chess master and Coordinator at San Francisco Mechanics Institute, Paul Whitehead gives a lecture minutes before the Tuesday night tournament. Learning from past games helps new and professional players turn the tide to beat their opponents. Whitehead said that the Chess grandmaster was setting up his pieces as a dragon variation of the Sicilian Defense, a known set of moves that put most of your chess pieces on the frontline. Whitehead displays strategy and mistakes made throughout the game on a demonstration board, where chess pieces hang on, giving a bird's-eye view of the carnage. Only minutes before the tournament started, the Chess players listened to the resident Chess master, Paul Whitehead, lecture on a recent international game played by Armenian chess grandmaster Levon Aronian. A sudden resurgence of the 1,400-year-old game can only be explained by the COVID-19 pandemic causing everyone to stay home, chess tournaments resorting to function online, and the premiere of the Netflix series Queen’s Gambit, which told the story of a female chess prodigy becoming a chess master during the Cold War. “We've actually been doing really well on attendance lately – all of our tournaments are selling out in advance.” “This is the longest-running weekly tournament in the United States – it's been going since 1972,” Robins said.
But inside, there is a research library and a competition hall for playing chess on the top floor.Ĭhess Program Manager Alex Robins says there is so much history since they have been operating since 1854, but tonight is the big night. On a cold Tuesday night, two blocks from Union Square, people start lining up to enter an old building off Post Street named the Mechanics Institute. Click the play button above to listen to the story.
0 kommentar(er)
