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.

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.

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!

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.

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