On Monday November 29th, we will host a charity stream in favour for our African kids that need school fees, food, clothes and chess equipment.
The stream will be hosted by the chess influencer and streamer Alessia Santeramo and can be seen on here twitch channel here

We will have the following guests on the stream

Former World Champion Veselin Topalov
7 folded Russian Champion GM Peter Svidler
Swedens nr1 GM Nils Grandelius
WGM and former US Champion Jennifer Shahade
GM Pontus Carlsson
GM Noel Studer
Isaiah Otieno
CM Kennedy Shane
Elizabeth Cassidy
Yvonne Mwashe
Bernice Wambui
Saad Abobaker
Mohammed Ali Jefarli

Thanks to ChessKid.com, winner of each match will be able to present 50 GOLD memberships for 3 months to a school or a chess club of their choice!

Duration of the stream: The stream will go on from 10am to 6.30pm CET

Schedule                       CET – Central European Time

10.00 – 11.00    Alessia                    

11.00 – 12.00    Alessia

12.00 – 12.30   GM Topalov vs CM Kennedy Shane odds match  

12.40 – 13.40   GM Topalov vs GM Grandelius blitz match

14.00 – 15.00   GM Svidler vs  Bernice Wambui odds match 

15.00 – 16.00    Alessia

16.00 – 17.00    Hand & Brain match  WGM Shahade & Elizabeth Cassidy vs WFM Alessia Santeramo & Yvonne Mwashe

17.00 – 18.30    Business match + round off

On November 26th at 11am US Eastern Time we will do a Champions session featuring The US Champion Carissa Yip and the Kenyan Women Champion Joyce Nyaruai. They will both go through some of their games from their last successful tournament and speak about how they managed they managed to win the decisive games.

DO NOT MISS IT!

On November 19th Business Meets Chess & Kids will be organized at Ullevål Soccer Stadium. Business Executives and Norwegian celebrities will then play tandem chess together with young talents from Oslos innercity communities.

The Schedule (CEST)
2pm – 3pm Challenge Grandmaster Jon Ludvig Hammer in blitz
3pm – 6pm Tandem Chess Tournament where each youth is beiing paired with a business executive or celebrity.

Among the participants are the CEO of FERD Morten Borge, Kenneth Gvein the CEO of Knowit Experience, Philipp Engedahl Managing Director for Flytoget, Petter Vold from PwC and the TV personalities Erle Marki Hansen and Sverre Krogh. Another interesting participant is the World Champion Magnus Carlsens company Play Magnus Group.

The games will be broadcasted, may the best team win!

Team SPP 2 with the Swedish u11 Champion Matija Sakic and Alexander Karlsson won the exciting final against TIN Fonder with Erik Sprinchorn and Solomia Trustaevska.

A big thank you to Cederquist Law Firm for hosting us. It was a great afternoon with alot of smiles and great meetings.

On Wednesday November 10th, 20 business executives from Stockholm, Sweden will gather at the headquarter of Cederquist Law Firm to participate in a tandem chess tournament together with kids from Stockholms Innercity communities.

The schedule

15.00 – 18.00 The tandem chess tournament

Who is playing

Among the participants are the Academic Work owner Jeremias Andersson, The owners of Digital Tolk Leyla Sarac & Virpal Singh, CEO of Meetly Daniel Tekle, SPPs CEO Staffan Hansén, the broker Erik Sprinchorn from TIN Fonder, the serial entrepreneur Jarno Vanhatapio from NA-KD and the partner of Cederquist Law Firm Erik Wernberg.

May the best team win!

Team Uni3 by Geely won Business Meets Chess & Kids in Gothenburg. It was a great afternoon with alot laughs and meetings across borders. We want to thank all sponsors and an extra thank you to Nordstan, Uni3 by Geely and Geely.

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On Friday October 15th business executives from Gothenburg, Sweden will gather in the large Shopping mall Nordstan to participate in a tandem chess tournament together with kids from the innercity community Angered. The goal with the tournament is to foster togetherness.

The schedule

14.00 – 15.00 – The Swedish International Arvin Rasti Challenge the audience in blitz

15.00 – 18.00 The tandem chess tournament

Who is playing

Among the participants are business executives from companies like Geely, Volvo Cars, Uni3 by Geely, Stena Metall Group, ForestX, Gomo Group and SPP. Other prominent participants is the artist Promoe and the former member of parliament Johan Lönnroth.

May the best team win!

Our Kenyan chess talent Isaiah Otieno that comes from a very poor background has shown some nice progress lately. At the Kitengela Chess Championships he managed to beat his coach the Nairobi Champion and former Kenyan International Githinji Hinga in the last round to finish 6th with 4,5 out of 6.

Just before that he also won the junior section at the Nairobi Chess Championships even thou he was among the younger participants.

He defeated the Kenyan Women Champion Candidate Master Lucy Wanjiru from our Cross Culture Girls program (Who is also a successful hiphop artist under the name The Lone Wolf) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5oO5mO6vKunOY36XujFhBA in their 4 game match with the score 3-1.

Isaiah ended his sucessful spell by earning some nice ratingpoints at the Mombasa Open where he was well dressed!

He was getting strong support from his sister Marylyn who closed her small ice cream shop for a day to come along and support her brother.

It was the first time Isaiah stayed in a hotel but surerly not the last time!

A well deserved swim after another successful tournament.

Next session will be on October 1st at 12.00 noon US Eastern Time.

In the session we will go over some recent games played by our girls in recent tournaments like the African Youth Championships where we had many girls from our program that participated. Many did well and got important experience of international chess. Well done girls and see you on October 1st.

On August 28th we were very happy to welcome 30 new colombian girls to our program. The session had a focus on a cultural exchange and was lead by the three Grandmasters, Jennifer Shahade, Nadya Ortiz and Pontus Carlsson who is born in Colombia.

Girls from Africa, Colombia and the United States gathered online for about 2 hours to practice their Spanish and English, take a quiz with questions about Colombia, Uganda, Botswana, Kenya and United States, to play a tournament and to interact and share life experiences and food from their country. It really was an excellent session.

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Business Meets Chess & Kids Online gathered a bunch of business executives from the Swedish Trade and Industry that played tandem chess together with youths from different Swedish innercity communities like Rinkeby, Skäggetorp, Tensta, Botkyrka and Zlatan Ibrahimovic Rosengård to mention a few. It was a great digital event that created alot of digital meetings, tense games and laughs.

Swedens nr 1 Grandmaster Nils Grandelius played a nice online simul before the main event against 10 brave challengers. One of his challengers was the astronaut Christer Fuglesang.

The real estate billionaire Greg Dingizian was one of the business executives that had a fun afternoon online. Greg also grew up in the innercity community Rosengård.

Overall it was a great event and we would like to thank all participants and sponsors. Also a big thank you to the excellent team of arbiters led by the main arbiter Shohreh Bayat who took great care of the participants throughout the whole event.

In July we will do a themed Kings Indian tournament plus some tournaments and sessions. Please check the chessclub for info on the tournaments. We are very happy to welcome our new Nigerian girls! from the Chess in Slums initiative.

Schedule July

1) July 9th at 12 noon US Easter Time – Kings Indian Tournament with Women Grandmaster Katerina Nemcova

2) July 30th at 10am US Eastern Time – Nigeria welcome + Tournament and Session

In June we will have the honor to have the strongest female player on the planet Grandmaster Judit Polgar as a guest. On June 3rd at 3.30 pm US Eastern time, Judit will answer your questions and WGM Jennifer Shahade will show some nice games and tactics from Judits long and impressive career. Do not miss it!

Schedule June

1) June 3 at 3.30 pm US Eastern Time – Q&A with Judit Polgar!

2) June 4 at 12 noon US Eastern Time – Tournament & Session

3) June 18 at 12 noon US Eastern Time – Kings Indian lecture by Women Grandmaster Katerina Nemcova

4) July 9th at 12 noon US Easter Time – Kings Indian Tournament

Also do not forget to check the club for this months casual tournaments.

Next class in the Cross Culture Girls program will be on Friday, May 14th at 12 noon US Eastern Time.

Grandmasters will teach you how to train chess!

Do not miss it!

  

On April 23rd, Business Executives from the Swedish Trade & Industry will pair with kids from the Swedish inner-city communities for a Tandem Chess Tournament online. Among the participants are companies like Spotify, Merck and Redeye. The pre-event will see Grandmaster Nils Grandelius take on 10 players in an online simul. One of his challengers are the first Swede in space, the astronaut Christer Fuglesang.

Schedule

1pm – 2pm – Grandmaster Nils Grandelius will play against 10 challengers.

2pm – 6pm – The Tandem Chess Tournament

All times are CEST (Central European Standard Time). If you would like to be one of the lucky players that gets the chance to challenge GM Grandelius then contact us on info@businessmeetschessandkids.com

Next session will be on April 23rd at 12.00 noon US Eastern Time. Do not miss it since it will be a very instructive class with a tournament and feedback on your games by WGM Jennifer Shahade and WIM Sabrina Chevannes.

Tournaments April

April will be a tournament month so there will be various online tournaments. Information about them will be published in the chess club at chess.com.

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Next two sessions will be:
1) March 13th at 11 am US Eastern Time. When we will welcome the Swedish, legendary Grandmaster and two folded European Champion, Pia Cramling that will share her knowledge with all of you in a Masterclass. There will also be a tournament.

2) March 19th at 12.00 noon US Eastern Time. We will be joined by the “Queen of Qatwe” Phiona Mutesi that will talk about her life and chess career. If you have not yet seen the Walt Disney Movie Queen of Qatwe you should! since it is really good.

Homework

We remind all girls about the homework to March 19th

1. To try to increase your playing rating on chess.com with 100 points.

2. To try to increase your puzzle rating on chess.com with 200 points.

3. To play against a minimum of 5 other members of the Cross Culture Girls program.

Next two sessions will be:
1) February 19th at 12.00 noon US Eastern Time

2) February 20th at 11 am US Eastern Time (A thematic tournament in the Sicilian opening)

Homework

We remind all girls about the homework to February 19th

1. To try to increase your playing rating on chess.com with 100 points.

2. To try to increase your puzzle rating on chess.com with 200 points.

3. To play against a minimum of 5 other members of the Cross Culture Girls program.

4. To train on the sicilian opening since we will do a thematic tournament on February 20. All games in that tournament will start with the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3.

Keep on training!

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We are happy to announce that we have now expanded our program so that it does not only engage girls from The US and Kenya no, now also all chess playing girls from Uganda, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and Tanzania can join our Cross Culture Girls program 😃

What is our Cross Culture Girls Program

It is a online program that we run in partnership with Lighthouse Chess Club and US Chess Women. The program offers free chess training lead by female top players and cross cultural sessions where the girls interact and learn from each other.

Goals with the program

• To through the help of chess create a cultural exchange between the girls.
• A mutually beneficial exchange that will lead to female empowerment, inspiration, improved chess skills, new experiences, and new friends.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1334503666443751427

What is needed to join

The girls need to have an internet connection plus a device that allows them to connect to be able to follow the classes/ play the tournaments.

For the girls that have attended our sessions and tournaments plus joined our chess club at chess.com there have been some nice rewards not just in terms of alot of fun, increased skills (many have increased their online ratings with more then 200 points) and new friends but also new physical chess boards and Diamond memberships at Chess.com

How to join

For questions or to sign up for the program please contact Mrs. Judith Kiragu +254 721485493 judy.kiragu@fortemcltd.com

Today, December 1 is Giving Tuesday, a day that encourages people to do good and help other people in the world to get through difficulties. If you would like to help our Kenyan kids from the Mukuru Kwa Njenga Slums that has been badly affected by the virus situation and lockdown in their country and they need clothes, food and chess equipments so they can stay healthy and keep their minds sharp in these challenging times, then please send your donation through our website at paypal.me/pools/c/89ee7XWmWS

Asante Sana!

On November 6, Norwegian business leaders will meet with children from the inner city communities for a tandem chess tournament. Magnus Carlsen, the World Champion and founder of Play Magnus Group will be one of the participants together with the CEO of Ferd, Morten Borge. They are joined by business leaders from companies like Carnegie, Verdane Capital, Knowit, 4C and Alfred Berg.

The tournament will start at 3pm Central European Time, and will be covered by Chess 24, Do not miss it!

In partnership with Lighthouse Chess Club and US Chess Women we are very happy to present our new US – Kenya cross culture girls program.

The program that runs online, offers free chess training lead by female top players and cross cultural sessions where Kenyan and American girls interact and learn from each other.

Goals with the program

• To through the help of chess create a cultural exchange between Kenyan and American girls.
• A mutually beneficial exchange that will lead to female empowerment, inspiration, improved chess skills, new experiences, and new friends.

For questions or to sign up for the program please contact Mrs. Judith Kiragu +254 721485493 judy.kiragu@fortemcltd.com

This is the 15-year old kenyan talent Isaiah Otieno. Isaiah is from the Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum that is an area with extreme poverty. Through his intellect and hard work he has managed to become a top junior in chess, as well as one of the best students in the country. In fact he is number 2 in his region, only beaten by his brother! Abdul Malik. Thus we are delighted to help Isaiah and his family to a better life, by allocating them in a real, furnished flat where they are comfortable and can nurture their talent. And of course Isaiah will get a laptop with chessbase installed plus a coach so he can improve. Mukuru is full of smart talents that needs a stable environment and acceptable living conditions, help us to help them!

BIO: Isaiah Otieno Oluoch
DOB: 06 June 2005
Now 15 years

Born in Mukuru Kwa Njenga Slum, in the outskirts of Nairobi. Until recently, on his 15th birthday, he and his family were moved to a 2 bedroom flat in Tena Estate, with much better amenities as we wait for the desired house, a 3 Bedroom Bungalow at Kariobangi South. In the words of his father, ‘It is a million times better’, than the single room the family shared at the slum, with one bathroom for the plot (several households). 

Family: Total 8, 4 boys and 2 girls.

Father : Peter Oluoch Aguk – 38yrs – Casual Laboror, currently unemployed
Mother – Ruth Achieng Oluoch – 33 years, Sells vegetables in Mukuru
Marylyn Hiky – 19yrs, just cleared high school, helps mother at the vegetable stand
Emmanuel Oduor – 18yrs Currently in form 3, Swaminarayan High School, Moved from Langata High School due to fee challenges.
Triza Achieng – 17 years Currently in form 3 Swaminarayan High School, also moved from Moi Girls Vokoli Girls High School due to School fee constraints.
Isiah – 15yrs – Mangu High School, form 1 – This is among the best KCPE (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education Exam)  408marks out of 500. Top in his school and among the best in the country.
Abdul Malik  – 15yrs – Scored 418 Marks in KCPE 2019, one of the best students in the country, was drafted to a top school Kapsabet High School – National School. Father intends to relocate him to another school due to school fees challenges. Nehemiah Williams – 2 Months baby

Chess
– Isaiah learnt chess in 2015 at the age of 9, through Sports Outreach Ministry (SOM) which started a chess club at Carson Academy, formally Nairobi Slum Project school (Redroof). SOM provided meals for the kids aged 5-14 years and introduced Chess as one of the programs. Chess worked well as playgrounds are non-existent in the slum. He was very hardworking and was among the best few that represented the club in tournaments.

Unlike his peers from the affluent part of town, he has achieved well despite several challenges including: 
– Never owned a chess board (until he met us!)
– Started playing on chess.com in 2020, thanks to his mother’s phone
– Used to have beginner book
– Not read any advanced books
– No direct coaching, at Redroof Erick Oyugi  and Josphat Owila, taught the 80+ club how to play

Awards:
– Winka Academy 2018 Best Boy U14
– Brookhurst U14 winner
– Nairobi Southlands u14 Winnner
– Mukuru Junior Chess Championships winner u12 and u14 Boys- He has been top 3 in over a dozen other events.

National:
– Vihiga 2018 Under14 Category – Joint 2nd
– Nyeri 2018 U14 – Joint 2nd

Isaiahs big goal is to become a Grandmaster and just like he predicted when he was 10, chess will transform his life!

https://youtu.be/BZ52RQt6ssc

We are very proud to announce that our short movie Building Minds with Chess created by Ken Mask and Marshall Woodworth featuring Grandmaster Pontus Carlsson was selected for the best short movie in New Orleans Film Festival.

BUILDING MINDS WITH CHESS USA | 2020 | 10 MIN DIR: KEN MASK
Explores the possibilities of engaging children and young teenagers through exercising certain parts of their brain through the game of chess.  
Watch the trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6JxSHuo5sc

You can support Business Meets Chess & Kids by purchasing the full movie through this link: PURCHASE FILM

It was a fun afternoon at Morphys Chess & Culture Center, that created alot of interesting meetings, brought down many laughs and created many new friendship relations. Thanks to Leila D’aquin and Chess Nola for hosting us, Kendric Perkins and Strategic Thoughts for running the tournament, David and Maureen Grimaud for the pictures and Ken Mask for all his efforts, and a big thank you to all participants for joining us and making the event so successful. Chess is fun!

On May 18th between 2 and 4.30 PM we will organize a tandem chess tournament at the Morphy Chess & Culture Center 4714B Earhart Blvd. The tandem chess tournament will see business leaders like Pres Kabacoff, MD Greg Ward, Mark P. Glago and Leila A. D’Aquin play tandem chess together with kids from all areas of New Orleans. Join us today! To sign up please contact Ken Mask (504)908-0337

Grandmaster Pontus Carlsson will be in New Orleans between the 14th and 19th of October to launch the Business Meets Chess & Kids program with some exciting events!

See the schedule here:

  INTERNATIONAL CHESS GRANDMASTER PONTUS CARLSSON VISITS NEW ORLEANS TO UNVEIL NEW PROGRAM TO HELP KIDS NEW ORLEANS, La., Oct. 13 – GM Pontus Carlsson is embarking on a new and ambitious program using chess to help underprivileged kids learn strategy and critical thinking to solve life problems. Pontus, a duel citizen of Sweden and Colombia, has over 25 years of experience teaching chess throughout Europe and has used his skills to win the Swedish Championship 12 times! BUSINESS MEETS CHESS AND KIDS is a project that creates mutually beneficial meetings across the board by connecting business executives and kids from underprivileged areas of the city. Please join us at these events: School Workshop: Monday, October 15 at Patrick F. Talyor School, 701 Churchill Parkway in Avondale at 2:30pm, Public Tandem Simul: Wednesday, October 17 at the French Market Food Court at 11am, Chess Duel and Business Social: 2nd Vine Wine, 1027 Touro Street, 7pm and Community Workshop: Thursday, October 18, The Lyons Center, 624 Louisiana Avenue at 6pm. OUR GOAL, we will work with kids from schools and chess clubs in the greater New Orleans area initially then hopefully spreading across the nation. Each participating youth will get a chess set, access to chess application and membership in a chess club so they can practice chess and through the project develop their concentration abilities, problem solving, calculation skills, as well as logical and critical thinking. These abilities will be very beneficial in chess and life. “I would recommend any player master level and below to take advantage of GM Pontus years of experience, coaching abilities, and clear explanation of each phase of chess.” (Glenn Bady US Master)   For more information please contact Media Relations Ken Mask 504.908.0337 kenmaskmd@gmail.com Pontus Carlsson p.carlssonchess@gmail.com Taurusm Bailey taurusmbailey@gmail.com