Now we are looking for adults from the whole world who would like to participate in the next Chess 2 Change tournament on August 25th (12 noon – 4pm US Eastern Time). It is a hand & brain charity tournament in favor of some African chess talents from poor backgrounds held online on chess.com. Every child is being paired up with a donor to form a team of two. The tournament will be broadcasted on Twitch and commentary will be done by GM Maurice Ashley and a top streamer. Please reach out to us on info@businessmeetschessandkids.com if you would like to play or support the children.

The World Chess Federation have now awarded the Norwegian chess talent Elham Amar from our Extreme Makeover program the GM title. Elham is the first Grandmaster that has emerged through our programs. We are extremely proud of him and would like to to thank all people that has helped him get to where he is today. And an extra big thankyou to his sponsor FERD and its CEO Morten Borge and to his coach GM Simen Agdestein. Elham is also about to graduate at The Norwegian School of Elite Sports before he will become a chess professional, an amazing story and we are happy that we saw his potential 8 years ago!

The 18 year old Norwegian chess talent Saad Elmi from our extreme makeover program just scored his second IM- norm at a closed norm tournament in Zadar in Croatia. Saad just missed out on the GM norm with 0,5 points after failing to convert a won position in the last game. To his comfort he will be able to go home with the IM-norm after drawing 3 GMs and staying undefeated through the 9 rounds. He scored 6 out of 9 and finished second in the tournament. We wish him best luck in the Zadar Chess Festival which is his next tournament.

GM Pontus Carlsson visit New York and our two partner organizations, The Gift of Chess with co founder Russell Makofsky and Chess in Slums with its founder Tunde Onakoya. The three Gentlemen, who shares a joint passion in using chess as a tool for social change exchanged many ideas, and came up with some joint projects for the future. Stay tuned since there is big things coming…

Hannah Mawejje and Magnus Carlsen and their families for the tragic death of their parents Geoffrey Mawejje and Sigrun Øen. May them rest in peace.

In the next Cross Culture Girls session on July 14th at 09.30am US Eastern Time, The International arbiter Judit Sztaray from Hungary will go through the importance of knowing the rules and how it can be a decesive factor in a tense tournament. Girls, really do not miss this session since it will cost you many future victories. Judit will of course also be arbiter at the Chess 2 Change tournament on August 25th. Contact us on info@businessmeetschessandkids.com if you are interested to play and support.

Quite some few of our young talents had qualified for the African Youth Chess Championships in South Africa. They returned home alot wiser and with some medals. The gold medal was bagged home by 10-year old Talia Atubet from Uganda in the u-10 girls category. Nathaniel Manyeki missed the first round to to travel issues but still managed to win a silver in the u10 open category. Then there was many players who placed just outside of the medals who will come back stronger next time. We are very proud of all of you. Most important was that they got the chance to meet up in person and cultivate the friendship relations that have started online through our programs.

The theme for our next Cross Culture Girls session on June 29th (9 – 10.30 am US Eastern Time) is Colombia. There will be a general introduction to Colombia by Alba and Lorena from our Cross Culture Girls program plus a quiz on Colombia and a master class by FICM Alfredo Rojas. Enjoy, and do not miss it.

12-year old Deborah Quickpen from Nigeria is now rated 2nd in the world among girls u12. She has been very active lately with tournaments and a tough blitz match with the founder of Chess in Slums Tunde Onakoya. The match ended in a 4-4 draw.

Deborah who comes from the Chess in Slums project, is in our Cross Culture Girls and Chess 2 Change Program so she will be playing in the next Chess 2 Change tournament on August 25th. But first she is off to the World Cup in Georgia. We wish her god luck!

Do not miss to join the next Cross Culture Girls Session on June 1st with WIM Fiona Steil Antoni who will talk about how she has made a living out of chess. Join us from 7am – 08.30 US Eastern Time.

Under the lead by GM Pontus Carlsson, We decided to visit one of our partners in Sweden, SEB, at their headquarter in Stockholm.

It was a group of economy interested youths from our programs that met up with Investment professionals from SEB Investment Banking. It was a very beneficial visit where the youth got a chance to ask their questions.

And yes we of course played some chess aswell.

It was a tandem chess tournament where every youth was paired with an Investment professional. After 5 tough rounds a winner was crowned, and it was Patrik Lagerholm and Vidar Seiger who won all their games.

A big thankyou to SEB for the great visit.

We had a very successful event at FERDs Headquarter in Oslo. The worlds best chessplayer GM Magnus Carlsen played together with his girlfriend Ella Malone and we were all surprised over how well Ella plays. The team finished 3rd in the tournament after loosing the semi final. Winners was GM Simen Agdestein and Abdirizak Elmi who beat Team FERD with the CEO of FERD Morten Borge and Saad Elmi in the final.

A big thankyou to FERD, the commentator GM Jon Ludvig Hammer and all participants for an excellent evening with chess and networking.

The first big event was held in Gothenburg at the shoppingmall Nordstan. 28 teams participated and Team Scandza with Amir Mohammadi and Elvis Surakka won all 7 games and became Champions. A big thankyou to the sponsors Nordstan, PWC, Thunderful Group and Lansforsikringar for two excellent days of chess and inspiring meetings across borders.

Business Meets Chess & Kids in Stockholm

On May 14 from 2.30pm – 6pm (CEST) 24 teams will meet up at SPPs Headquarter in Stockholm on Vasagatan 10 to network and play some tandem chess together. We still have some free spots left for adults so contact us on info@businessmeetschessandkids.com if you and your company would like to participate.

3 of the children engaged in our programs just became Kenyan Champions.

Nathaniel Manyeki (u10 open), Winnie Kaburo (u10 girls) and Shukri Shakira (u14 girls). Congratulations! we are of course very proud over them and this shows that everything is possible if a child just gets a chance (and some GM training…) There was no rest for them, no they headed directly to Peru for the World School Championships and we wish them good luck there.

It was 18 year old Robert Mcligeyo from Kenya that emerged victorious after 6 rounds of 10 minut games against other youngsters engaged in our programs aswell as supporting adults. Robert won the first 5 games and then secured his win through a draw in a winning position against Mr Dodgy who ended up in 5th place. Second was Alton Banda from Zambia. Alton have increased his FIDE elo from 1782 to 2068 in the last 8 months. He is approaching a bright future but needs more support, to cover training and tournament expenses. Just reach out to us if you would like to support him.

Third was Perpetual Ogbiyoyo from Nigeria who had a great tournament with 5 wins and only 1 loss. Perpetual is country coordinator for Nigeria in our Cross Culture Girls program.

Other noteworthy performances was Kennedy Shane from Zambia on 4th place and Lesley Hunter who placed 10th after scoring 4 points. An excellent performance from the former Miss Florida who started to play chess after watching The Queen´s Gambit on Netflix. A big Thankyou to our team of excellent arbiters, to Ruben Harris, to all participants and to our sponsors Chess.com and Chessable.

Do not miss the next Cross Culture Girls class with Grandmaster Johan Hellsten. He will teach you how to calculate in chess, something that is very important in order to be able to win games. Contact us on info@businessmeetschessandkids.com if you are a girl and would like to join the Cross Culture Girls program.

Our 8 year old talent Nathaniel Manyeki emerged as the 2nd runner-up in the Most Promising Personality of the Year 2023 category at the Sports Personality of The Year Award, Kenya (SOYA Awards). The reigning Under 8 Africa Youth Champion showcased his exceptional talent by achieving a perfect score at the Africa Youth Chess Championship held last year in Egypt.

The president of The Kenyan Chess Federation, Benard Wanjala along with Nathaniel Manyeki’s family and friends, gathered at the KICC Nairobi for the award ceremony, celebrating his remarkable accomplishments.

The SOYA Awards, marking its 20th anniversary this year, brought together a multitude of sportspeople from various disciplines across Kenya. This celebration of excellence united partners from well established Kenyan organizations like, CMA, Safaricom, KAS, and the Paul Tergat Foundation.

Nathaniel, who is the current Under 8 Boys’ Kenya National Chess Champion, the title he has held for three consecutive years, started playing chess in 2021 and has secured a podium finish in many regional tournaments under different age categories, frequently taking on bigger challenges in the open events against much higher rated players such as the Kenya and Uganda Open.

Milestones Achieved:

● Current Africa Youth Chess Champion under 8 Open, having emerged victorious with 9/9 points at the 2023 championship in Cairo, Egypt. He was awarded the title of Candidate Master (CM).

● Current U8 National Chess Champion, the title he has held for three consecutive years (2021, 2022, 2023)

● Current U9 Open National Chess Champion (2023)

● National Chess Champion U7 Open ( 2021, 2022 )

● Regional Champion and podium finisher in various competitions: (2022) – Kajiado 1st in U10 Open, Nairobi region 1st in U8 Open, Machakos Region 1st  in U10 Open, St. Bakhita Open 1st in U8, Sanlam invitational 1st U12 Open, Village Market 2nd in U10 Open, (2021) Nairobi Region 2nd in U7 Open, Village Market Open 2nd U8 Open, Kitengela Open 1st U8 Open, Oshwal Academy 1st in U8 Open.

For the first time in the History of Business Meets Chess & Kids we organized a Tandem Chess Tournament just for women at The HQ of EY, located just in the centre of Oslo. The event was a big success so we will definately organize more tandem chess tournaments for women. Congratulations to the champions Hanna Kyrkjebø from KPMG and Siri Asheim from Itera. We would also like to thank the main sponsor EY and all participants for a fantastic afternoon.

The registration is now open for the Zero Requiem April Invitational. Feel free to join this charity 10 minute tournament in favor of the kids engaged in Business Meets Chess & Kids. The tournament will feature some of our kids combined with adult supporters from the whole world. If you would like to support the kids and play some chess, then join the tournament! FM James Canty will comment on the games. To sign up just click here And you can follow the tournament on our Twitch Channel https://www.twitch.tv/chess2change Enjoy the games!

14 year old Zuri Tatiina from Uganda who is engaged in our Chess 2 Change program managed to qualify for the Ladies Uganda National Chess Championship. An excellent performance by this creative 14-year old talent and she is of course the youngest participant in the field. Can she qualify for the national team and the Chess Olympiad, we hope so. You can follow her quest to qualify here

Good luck Zuri!

Do not miss the next Cross Culture Girls class with Grandmaster Johan Hellsten. He will teach you how to calculate in chess something that is very important in order to be able to win a chess game. Contact us on info@businessmeetschessandkids.com if you are a girl and would like to join the Cross Culture Girls program.

Cross Culture Girls are starting up the new year with a training session by Grandmaster Johan Hellsten on January 13th 09.30 – 11.00am US Eastern Time. This time he will teach us prophylaxis which is a very useful middlegame technique. If you are not yet a member of Cross Culture Girls program and would like to join then just send an email to info@businessmeetschessandkids.com and we will guide you on how to join the program.

Schedule for January

January 13th, 09.30 – 11.00 US Eastern Time – Training session with GM Johan Hellsten

January 21st, 10.30am – 1pm US Eastern Time – Cross Culture Girls January Blitz Tournament

See you soon!

The tournament on January 21st will be held between 10.30am – 1pm US Eastern Time. It will be broadcasted on our Twitch Chanel with Grandmaster Hovhannes Gabuzyan and the streamer Solveig Friberg doing the commentary. Do not miss it!

The Norwegian talent Saad Elmi won the rapid online tournament Zero Requiem 2023 Invitational. It was alot of fun and the players were a great mix of young talents that are engaged in our programs and adult supporters from the whole world.

Top 3 was

1 Saad Elmi Norway 2. Robert Mcligeyo Kenya 3. Marek Religa Sweden

Perpetual Ogbiyoyo from Nigeria did well with a top 10 finish

For some of the players this was their first chess tournament ever. One of them was the founder of Zero Requiem Ruben Harris who did very well and won 3 games and ended up as number 22 out of 40 players. Ruben was very excited and he is already training for the next tournament Zero Requiem April Invitational that will be held on April 28th, 10.30am – 1.30pm US Eastern Time. Contact us on info@businessmeetschessandkids.com if you are interested to participate or support the kids.

We would like to thank all participants and our prize sponsors chess.com Chessable and Jennifer Shahade who sponsored with her new book Play like a Champion

See you all on April 28th!

We wish all kids, adults, sponsors, trainers and partners a great 2024.

Thank you for 2023 and see you in 2024!

Sunday December 17th is the day we have all been waiting for since then the online tournament Zero Requiem 2023 Invitational will be played. The players will be a mix of kids engaged in Business Meets Chess & Kids programs, adults and business executives like Ruben Harris who is the Founder of Zero Requiem Chess Club. Commentary will be done by Grandmasters like the Super Grandmaster Peter Svidler. The Tournament will be streamed 10.55am – 1.30pm US Eastern Time on our twitch channel. Watch it here! https://www.twitch.tv/chess2change

Tournament Form: Online, 6 rounds, 10 minute games

Platform: Chess.com

Prizes: GM Lessons, Chess.com Diamond Memberships, Chessable Memberships and Jennifer Shahades last book Play Like a Girl are up for a grab.

To sign up as an adult

If you would like to play then please email us on info@businessmeetschessandkids.com

Thanks to our sponsors chess.com and chessable.com

May the best player win!

On Saturday December 16 there will be a Masterclass 09.30 – 11.00am US Eastern Time by the Swedish Grandmaster Johan Hellsten. It is open for all girls in the Cross Culture Girls program. If you are not yet part of the program but would like to join, then please contact us on info@businessmeetschessandkids.com

See you on Saturday!

Hundreds of people were watching our last event in Linköping where even the Mayor of Linköping Mikael Sanfridsson decided to participate and play some tandem chess together with youngsters from the innercity community Skäggetorp.

The tandem chess tournament was won by Fredrik Lindgren and Hassan Alhashash who played extremely fast in all their games and thus stressed their opponents into mistakes.

The Open Tandem Chess Tournament was won by Nils Lindkvister and Simon Olsson.

We would like to thank Linköping University and all participants and sponsors for an excellent day of chess and networking. See you again in 2024.

The Norwegian talent Saad Elmi who is engaged in our extreme makeover program, is in the race for a medal at The World Youth Chess Championships that is currently ongoing in Montesilvano, Italy. Saad has 5 points out of 7 and today he is up against the top seed Volodar Murzin (FIDE elo 2625). We hope that Saad can keep playing well, and grab some more wins in the medal race. Good luck Saad and a big thank you to his sponsor FERD.

Follow the games here

https://lichess.org/broadcast/fide-world-youth-championship-2023–u18/round-7/2Y1tCRhR

Follow the results here

https://chess-results.com/tnr843252.aspx?lan=1

We have Places left

Now we are looking for companies and business representatives that would like to participate.
Please contact us on info@businessmeetschessandkids.com if you and your company would like to participate.

Full schedule

2-3 pm Challenge The Swedish International Gabriel Nguyen in a blitz game

3-6 pm The closed tandem chess tournament

4-6 pm The open tandem chess tournament where anyone can participate. contact us at info@businessmeetschessandkids.com to sign up and for more information.

Welcome to a chess party!

A very sucessful afternoon that shows the social power of chess. We would like to thank The Law Firm Cederquist who hosted the event and all our participants and sponsors for a fantastic afternoon.

It was a fun afternoon with many laughs and meetings. Contacts were exchanged among the participants and internships and company visits were promised and booked.

The Norwegian talent IM Elham Amar from the extreme makeover program is getting close to the GM title. Elham who is now 18, has shown some impressive results lately with a tournament win in the strong Riga Technical University Open as the highligt. Elham has increased his FIDE rating to 2584 and will soon become Grandmaster. An impressive development that has been posssible due to his coach GM Simen Agdestein and his sponsor FERD. We are very excited to see what the future has in hold for Norways latest star.

Boston Consulting Group with Abdishakur Elmi and the BCG partner Awais Ali won Business Meets Chess & Kids in Oslo with impressive, well synced tandem play. In the semifinal they managed to beat Ernst & Young with Marte Bakken Kyrkjebø and Maria Sultana Ahmad. The winners also won a watch from Von Doren Watches.

And in an exciting final Abdishakur and Awais managed to beat FERD with Abdishakurs older brother FM Saad Elmi and the CEO of FERD Morten Borge. The whole event was commented by IM Torstein Bae who is a well known face in Norway since he also heads NRKs Chess TV broadcasts that has a massive viewership (about 1/3! of Norways inhabitants).

We would like to thank all the participants and sponsors for an excellent afternoon at Økern Portal. It was also fun to see big profiles like world nr1 Magnus Carlsen and Grandmaster Simen Agdestein attending the event as spectators. Simen even got to play some games in the open tandem chess tournament.

11 year old Elizabeth Cassidy keeps on improving and making us proud. She recently beat all the adults and won the Kisumu Classical Chess Tournament with 5,5 points out of 6. She just got a GM coach and has improved alot in a very short time. We are very excited to be a part of her future progress towards the top.

Results

https://chess-results.com/tnr842966.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=6&flag=30

Do not miss our next Cross Culture Girls session on November 18th at 09.30-11.00 US Eastern Time. Grandmaster Johan Hellsten will be the guest teacher and he will go through middlegame strategies. If you are not yet a member of the Cross Culture Girls but would like to join then please send us an email on info@businessmeetschessandkids.com

The Kenyan big talent and African Champion under 8, Nathaniel Manyeki continued his strong run by beating a bunch of 1600 rated players and bagging home about 50 rating points to his account. Nathaniel was also interviewed by The Standard Newspaper about his recent success at the chessboard. We are all very proud over him and much more is to come!

Join our Cross Culture Girls October Blitz Tournament on Sunday October 22rd where girls from 14 different countries will play each other in a 7 rounds blitz tournament.

When: October 22nd

Time: 10.30am – 12.30pm US Eastern Time

IMPORTANT: join the zoom call at 10am US Eastern Time.

Register: by sending an email to info@businessmeetschessandkids.com

Live Broadcast: the tournament will be broadcasted on https://www.twitch.tv/chess2change with Grandmaster commentaries.

Prizes: are sponsored by https://www.chessable.com

May the best girl win!

On Saturday September 23rd from 09.30 – 12 noon US Eastern Time there will be a new Cross Culture Girls session with a Masterclass by GM Johan Hellsten aswell as a blitz tournament that will be streamed by Ellen Nielsen The stream can be watched on our twitch channel https://twitch.tv/chess2change

If you would like to join the Cross Culture Girls program, let us know by sending an email to info@businessmeetschessandkids.com

With a perfect score of 9/9, Kenya’s 7 year old supertalent Nathaniel Manyeki just won the U8 African Youth Chess Championship. A big thank you to his coach Tom Amwai who has done an excellent job with Nathaniel and his sister Winnie who also qualified for the championship and ended up 15th in the u10 section. Nathaniel is very talented but he will need a corporate sponsor in order to be able to fulfill his full potential. If you are interested to support him then contact us on info@businessmeetschessandkids.com Results https://chess-results.com/tnr805110.aspx?lan=1&art=0&fed=NAM&turdet=YES&flag=30

Another of our youngsters that did very well was 11-year old Elizabeth Cassidy that won a bronze medal in the u12 section. In total we had 25 kids that managed to qualify for the Championships which shows what can happen if these talented kids just get some support.

Another player that did a great tournament was Isaiah Otieno from the Mukuru Kwa Njenga slums. His trip from the slum areas to becoming National Champion, flying abroad to represent his country in a hotel in Egypt have been amazing to follow. To put more on his plate he is also one of the best students in the country with top grades so the University that decides to offer him a schoolarship will do one of their best moves ever, since Isaiah is a star. In the championship u18 section he bagged home 62 rating points and beat his first ever FIDE Master. We are very proud over all our kids that qualifed and in 2024 we are going for more medals!

The Zambian chess talent CM Kennedy Shane needs your help to improve his chess. Kennedy is in need of a computer (600USD), Chess books (600USD) and internet so he can get a chance to fulfill his potential. Please submit your donation through the link below, and mark your donation with Kennedy.

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=K99FUGQ3NZNDL

Thank You!

During June and July we hosted two big blitz tournaments for the girls engaged in our Cross Culture Girls Program. After many exciting games the happy prize winners won chessable courses so they further can develop their game. The tournaments gathered more then 100 participants from 11 different countries (Kenya, Colombia, Uganda, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Malawi, Ghana, Nigeria, USA and Czech Republic). An amazing diversity and many talented girls. Commentaries were made by GM Pia Cramling GM Pontus Carlsson and the streamer Jon Ulfur and the games were broadcasted on our twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/chess2change Congratulations to the prize winners and a big thank you to Chessable.

Grandmaster Pontus Carlsson guested Tavis Smileys radioshow KBLA1580 to talk about chess, his career and his life. You can listen to the interview here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAdYHPCH0Qw

It was 12-year old Genevieve Mashao from Mombasa in Kenya and Ludvig Carlsson from NTG in Norway that won Chess 2 Change after a very exciting final against Ben Johnson from USA (The Perpetual Chess Podcast) and 17-year old Jamiu Ninilowo from Nigeria. The first game was drawn and then Genevieve and Ludvig won the armageddon game with only 0,3 seconds margin. The commentators GM Pontus Carlsson and GM Maurice Ashley were very excited in the studio and really enjoyed the games.

It was also fun to see the founder of Chess in Slums Tunde Onakoya in action, here together with Fantalis Nduta from Kenya against Arvin Rasti and Yvonne Mwashe.

The short movie Building Minds with Chess won Programers award at Diversity in Cannes short film category. The short movie is about Grandmaster Pontus Carlsson and the benefits of chess as an excellent tool for shaping the brain of young people. Our movie directed by Dr Ken Mask and Marshall Woodworth was higly praised by the audience and our screening got a standing ovation. The oscar winner Fisher Stevens was one of the well known actors in the audience. As he was there to watch our movie and to get a game against Grandmaster Pontus Carlsson. The game ended in a draw!

Isaiah Otieno and Bernice Wambui both won the Kenyan Championships. Bernice scored 8 out of 8 and claimed the Kenyan under 18 Women title. A fantastic achievment considering her young age (She is only 12!) Isaiah won the open category with 7,5 out of 8. We are really proud over both of them since they have managed to overcome alot of obstacles in their lives. Well done champs and we will see you both at the online Chess 2 Change tournament on June 17th with GM Maurice Ashley as commentator.

Do not miss it!

Team SEB with Håkan Frisén and Pratyush Tripathi won Business Meets Chess & Kids in Stockholm that took place on April 26th. 24 teams met up at the Headquarter of Cederquist Lawfirm for a fun afternoon with many giving meetings. SEB defeated their bank collegues Swedbank in an exciting final that after a fighting draw in the first game, had to be decided in an armageddon game, where Team Swedbank with Solomia Truskavetska and Erik Jacobson had the white pieces and 5 minutes on the clock versus 4 minutes for Team SEB. It was a really funny event and a big thank you to all participants, Cederquist Lawfirm and to all the sponsors. See you next time!

On International Women’s Day we would like to praise all girls, their mums and sisters that are engaged in our programs. We are happy to keep supporting you. Keep working hard and do not forget our next session in the Cross Culture Girls program. It will be on March 18 at 10am -11.30am US Eastern Time. There will be a Grandmaster lecture on the french plus a themed tournament on the french where all games will start with the moves 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5. Please make sure to check out some of the links to the instructive videos about the French before the session. You can find them in the chess.com club.

Enjoy your day young queens!

The top rated Kenyan is now 17-year old Robert Mcligeyo from our Chess 2 Change program. Robert has developed alot over the last two years and he recently managed to win the Kenyan Qualifiers with an impressive score of 8,5 out of 10, beating all the adults. He was recently interviewed by The Daily Nation. In the interview he stressed how much the support by GM Pontus Carlsson and the books and tips that he got from us have meant to him and his development. We are very proud of Robert and happy to keep suporting him towards his big dream to become a Grandmaster.
https://nation.africa/kenya/sports/other-sports/robert-mcligeyo-chess-whiz-kid-aiming-to-be-grand-master-4137816

We also would like to remind the Kenyan bank KCB Group that they have promised to sponsor Robert. Its high time to honor that promise.

Recently we were featured in the docuseries Through the Mirror of Chess: A Cultural Exploration by Howard and Irena Burton that was just released. The 4-part docuseries is now available for rent/purchase on the new Ideas Roadshow app and on Vimeo On Demand (VOD). Each part covers a topic like Contemporary impact, The first millenium, Uniqueness, Art, science, sport.
Business Meets Chess & Kids are featured in part 4 (Contemporary impact).

Link to the Films
Here is a link to the the films page where you can find a brief synopsis of each episode, links to the ideas Roadshow app and VOD and the accompanying book of Chessays:
https://ideasroadshow.com/chess/

Enjoy the films!

16-year old Saad Abobaker who is engaged in our extreme makeover program just earned his first IM-norm in Kragero Resort Chess International in Norway. On his way to the norm Saad managed to beat his first 2 Grandmasters in Kjetil Lie and Valentin Dragnev. A very impressive performance by Saad who ended up as shared 3rd just half a point after the winner the International Master John Paul Wallace from Australia.

Here you can see Saads last round win against GM Dragnev

https://lichess.org/broadcast/krager-resort-chess-2023/round-9/DYyzoUGN

Here you can see the results

http://turneringsservice.sjakklubb.no/standings.aspx?TID=KrageroResortChessInternationa2023-KrageroSjakklubbUngdom

Text: Triza Achieng (Isaiahs sister)

Isaiah Otieno Oluoch is a chess player from a very humble background. He started playing chess as a fun game not knowing that it will elevate him to greater heights and to meet successful people such as Mr. Githinji Hinga and GM Pontus Carlson. Thanks to Pontus Carlson, a GM from Sweden, Isaiah has managed to achieve a lot of things among them flying for the first in a plane to the Mombasa Open Chess Tournament. He managed to scoop three points out of the possible six. 

ISAIAH’S EXPERIENCE IN MOMBASA

Isaiah and I were dropped by Mr. Githinji Hinga at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport where he had already booked to and from flights for them courtesy of GM Pontus Carlson. It was a really great experience for us since it was our first flight.

We arrived at the Mombasa Continental Hotel at around 11:00 pm. Isaiah did some chess training and we ate some coastal dishes such as Biryani for dinner. Then we went to sleep to wait for the D-day which was the following day.

On the first day of the tournament, Isaiah faced his longtime coach Panchol Madol in his first round where Panchol won. Nonetheless Isaiah had a positive attitude towards it and discovered his weakness.

On the second round Isaiah won with a landslide against one Daniel Kinyanjui with only thirteen moves. Thus we had a lot of time to spare why we went to the beach for a swim.

On the third round which was on the second day, Isaiah lost the game to Joseph Maigua who is a very strong player. Nonetheless, Isaiah did not let the lose get to him. He continued on strong to the next game against Ethan where he managed to get a point.

On the last day Isaiah played against Ronald Bolo who is a force to reckon with. Isaiah lost to him but not without a fight. Isaiah went on to win the next game making it his third point.

We had to rush to the airport to catch our flight back home. We hope to fly again since “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will long to return.”

Thank you GM Pontus and Githinji.

Our last event was held at Stockholms Central Train Station where 20 teams consisting of a business profile and a youth from an innercity community played each other in a tandem chess tournament. There was many laughs and interesting meetings.

Swedens nr1 Grandmaster Nils Grandelius challenged some of the participants and visitors in a simul where he showed his class by winning all games in great style.

A big thank you to all participants, staff and sponsors who made this successful event possible.

Business Meets Chess & Kids organized an event at the shopping mall Skaggetorp Centrum that is located in the Inner city Community Skaggetorp. It was a great event that created alot of meetings between mentors and methees plus gave alot of local people and visitors the chance to try and to learn more about chess.

A big thank you to Skaggetorp and all participants, staff and sponsors who made this possible. See you in 2023!

One of our youngsters Saad Elmi who is in the extreme makeover program just became FIDE Master. He has managed to to raise his rating from 1800 to 2300 in about a year. An amazing development and a good evidence of what talented, smart kids can do if they just get a chance. We congratulate Saad on his achievments and are happy and proud to keep on supporting him toward further titles and success in his life and chess career. A big thank you also to FERD, Gisle Bjugn and Saads Norwegian chess club Bærum Schakselskap who all have supported Saad in the best possible way.

Saads life have changed drastically, he has been going from beeing a broke kid in an innercity community to a FIDE Master, Norwegian international and Norwegian Champion in his age, plus that he has improved his grades so that he got into The Norwegian School of Elite Sports where he has a full scholarship. Excellent development for Saad and his family and more is to come. To quote the FERD owner and billionaire Johan H Andreasen “Saad rules! and we in FERD are happy to support him on his journey. You’ve seen nothing yet!”

Business Meets Chess & Kids was featured in the last number of the prestigeous magazine New in Chess. It is a chess magazine that appears eight times a year with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam as chief editor. New in Chess began publication in 1984 and contains notes by top players and chess prodigies about their own games. Featured in the photospread is Meijun from Geely and Sara that played together at our event in Gothenburg in Sweden. Meijun has only been playing chess for 5 months and she got interested in chess after atending a Business Meets Chess & Kids event in spring. We are constantly looking for more people that would like to participate. So if you feel that you would like to attend an event, or to support then do not hesitate to contact us at info@businessmeetschessandkids.com

https://www.newinchess.com/magazine

The final was very exciting and after a tense endgame and time scramble Team BI with Lucas Ranaldi and 10-year old Abdishakur Elmi clinched the title.

Abdishakur has developed his game alot the last year and is now rated around 2400 on chess.com.

Otherwise it was a great event at Økern Portal in Oslo

During the last weeks GM Pontus Carlsson was finally able to visit some of the African youths enrolled in our programs again after the pandemic. He first went to Kenya and is currently in Namibia. GM Pontus got to meet with many of the girls from the Cross Culture Girls program aswell as the kids engaged in Chess2Change and the families in the extreme makeover program. GM Pontus told us that he was very happy to meet all the kids, their families and the program coordinators in person.

He also travelled with 70kg of carefully selected Chessbooks that he was able to hand out to the kids enrolled in the Chess2Change program. Now the kids will be able to work on their game with their new books.

The next Business Meets Chess & Kids event on October 5 will be held in Gothenburg at Uni3 by Geelys Headquarter on Pumpgatan 1. It will be a social event (2.30pm – 6pm Swedish Time) with mingle, food and tandem chess. Contact us if you would like to join.

WELCOME!

Last week we gathered our partners and participants from the Norwegian business community for a fun social evening with chess and networking at FERDs Headquarter in Oslo. On the program apart from socializing was a nice dinner, a tough quiz made by Askild Bryn and a tandem chess tournament where the players were alterning the moves.

We are looking forward to se everyone again at Business Meets Chess & Kids Oslo that will be arranged on November 4 at Økern Portal. Dont miss it!

Our Norwegian talent Saad Elmi just won the Nordic Youth Championships in the u17 category. Saad scored 4,5 points out of 6 with 3 wins and 3 draws. Next challenge for Saad is the World Youth Championships in Mamaia, Romania. We hope for more success there. Well done Saad.

https://chess-results.com/tnr668543.aspx?lan=6&art=1&rd=6&fedb=NOR&turdet=YES&flag=30

As a part of the project Chess for inclusion Norways nr 2 Grandmaster Aryan Tari came to the shopping mall Stovner Senter in Oslo and took on 60 players in a simultaneous exhibition. Aryan showed his high level and won all games apart from one that he lost on time against the former Norwegian international WFM Sylvia Johnsen.

Aryan also challenged the visitors in handicap blitz where he had as little as 45 seconds on the clock against 5 minutes for the challengers.

Many people tried their luck but Aryan were ruthless and just kept on winning.

Even the commentator and TV expert Grandmaster Jon Ludvig Hammer tried to help out by motivating the challengers and changing the rules so that Aryan had to play two players at the same time with only 1 minute on the clock.

And that eventually led to a defeat when 12 year old Fredrik managed to win a game and himself a voucher at Stovner Senter. Well done Fredrik!

Some media houses attended the event to write about it and do interviews. One reporter even decided to take a seat and challenge Aryan to a game.

Apart from the exhibition by Aryan Tari there was also a tournament held at the Deichman Library that attracted participants of all ages and from very different backgrounds. All participants won a nice meal at the local restaurant Alibaba.

A great day and we could not have done such a great job without our young staff that all did an amazing job. And by the way this is their first job! A big thank you to our partners the Norwegian Chess Federation, Vestli Chess Club, Stovner Senter and Deichman Stovner.

Together with The Norwegian Chess Federation we are running a project in Oslo called chess for inclusion where we create a series of social and inclusive chess events in the innercity communities.

An important part of the project is that some of the teenagers engaged in our program gets the chance to get a job.

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Saad have been doing two simul exhibitions at the Deichman Library in Stovner and at the shopping Mall Stovner Senter, one was a tandem simul together with the TV presenter Maud Rødsmoen who also plays in the Norwegian National Team.

16-year old Saad Abobaker Elmi followed up the successful Norwegian Championships by a strong performance in Czech Open held in Pardubice, Czech Republic. Saad scored 5 out of 9 and earned 112! rating points after beating one International Master and one FIDE Master. Well done Saad! https://chess-results.com/tnr633805.aspx?lan=1&art=9&fed=NOR&turdet=YES&flag=30&snr=131

Join us on July 19th for a charity stream in support of African chess friends! FM James Canty will host the event and play against Top GM Grandelius!

16 year old Kenyan International Robert Mcligeyo will challenge FM Canty for a live game on the stream. We will also have a donation game with Kenyan U12 Champion Bernice Wambui!

Feel free to donate here or on the stream!

Saad participated in the Norwegian Junior Championship! He topped the Blitz category and finished second in the classical format!

Saad is getting ready to play Czech Open and after that he will start his first semester at the Norweigan School of Elite Sports. He has started his preparations for the World Youth Championships in Romania.

Chess 2 Change – The most life changing tournament ever – was organized on 12th June and streamed via twitch. The event was a huge success with interesting games and special guest appearance by world champion Magnus Carlsen! Anna Rudolf and Maurice Ashley commented on the games.

Feel free to contribute to the cause via a donation here.

Team Chess 2 Change featuring Arvin Rasti & Robert Mcligejo won the tournament with an unbeaten score of 6.5/7.

12 teams competed for the title in 7 rounds! Here are the participants!

The ongoing Chess 2 Change Campaign will help African kids in their school education, internet access, laptops, chess equipment, chess training, books, travel expenses and so on.

Join us in driving change through the game of chess. Donate here.

Global Business People will team up with African kids! World Champion MagnusCarlsen will guest the stream by Anna Rudolf & Maurice Ashley.

Watch the stream: http://twitch.tv/Chess2Change today(12th June 2022) at 12 Noon US Eastern time!

If you want to support the children feel free to donate on the stream or at https://businessmeetschessandkids.com

The World Champion Magnus Carlsen will be a guest in the studio of the Chess 2 Change stream on June 12th. He will join the chess streamer and International Master Anna Rudolf and Grandmaster Maurice Ashley.

Spots left!

There is currently two spots left to the Chess 2 Change tournament held on June 12th, for adults who would like to participate. Contact us if you would like to play.

Next ML with Marek Religa and Oscar Johansson won Business Meets Chess & Kids in Stockholm held at Cederquist Law Firm. They won an exciting final against SPP. Thanks to all the participants and sponsors for a great afternoon.

On May 31st, we will host a tandem chess tournament. Business Meets Chess & Kids Stockholm will be held at 3pm Swedish time until 6pm at the Headquarter of Cederquist Law Firm.

Real estate billionaire Ilija Batljan will be joining us as a participant for the event!

On June 12th we will organize Chess 2 Change and we are very happy to announce that Grandmaster Maurice Ashley will be one of the commentators. Chess 2 Change is an online Hand & Brain tournament where people from the whole world team up with African talents from poor backgrounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5vnpOp0U_g

We still have some places left for adults that wants to join, read more here and reach out to us if you want to join.

Thunderful Group with 11-year old Kinan and CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson won in Gothenburg.

The tournament was conducted in Nordstan – In the heart of Gothenburg.

It was a fun tournament with multiple exciting matches!

Ariana and Ricardo represented Club Miraflores to win an exciting final against Team Los Naranjos Golf Club at Business Meets Chess and Kids Marbella!

It was fun to have the former Real Madrid star Esteban Granero as a participant in the tournament

On Friday April 29th we will host a tandem chess tournament with the goal to facilitate integration at the shopping mall Nordstan, in Gothenburg, Sweden. The concept is that each child from an inner-city community gets paired up with a business executive or a celebrity to play tandem chess (alternating the moves) in a tournament.

Event description

Business Meets Chess & Kids in Gothenburg is an event to facilitate integration and work against segregation in society by using chess as a bridging tool. Chess can be played by everyone regardless of background or socioeconomic status, as the event highlights.

The main event is a tandem chess tournament where a business executive is paired with a child from the inner city communities in a team where they alternate moves (without discussion). The event is being held publicly at the Shopping mall Nordstan. This time the participants are Business Executives from companies like Geely, Volvo Cars, Uni3 by Geely, Thunderful Group, Länsförsäkringar, Finwire, SPP, SBP Nordic, and Business Region Gothenburg. The artist Promoe will also participate.

Pre-Event

There will also be a pre-event between 2 and 3PM Central European Standard time (CEST),  where the Swedish International Arvin Rasti, will challenge the audience in blitz games. Arvin Rasti will get 90 sec for the whole game, and the challenger gets 5 minutes. No increments.

Due to Illness we have decided to move the Chess 2 Change tournament to June 12th. You can read more about it here.

Feel free to reach out to us if you are interested in participating or would like to support our fundraiser.

In the recently conducted, Kenyan National Youth Chess Championships, Bernice Wambui Gikandi won against the boys to end up with a perfect score of 8/8!

Bernice was also a part of the team that drew against Judit Polgar. She will also be participating in the Chess 2 Change event on April 23rd 2022!

She is looking for business individuals to help her continue her winning streak! Join us today!

About a decade ago, Brooklyn Castle was released It tells the stories of five members of the chess team at a below-the-poverty-line inner city junior high school that has won more national championships than any other in the country. Rochelle Ballantyne, then 17, starred in the film.

Rochelle will be joining us for the Cross Culture Session on On April 1st at Noon ET/7 PM Kenya time . She will inspire the girls with a few career highlights and talk about her goals and how she overcame adversity. 

Saad Abobaker helped SEB Bank contribute $4500 to UNICEF when he played against 10 year old Magnus Carlsen on the Play Magnus app!

The money will be used by UNICEF to aid their work in Ukraine.

The game was a part of The Play Magnus Charity Challenge, a fundraiser for UNICEF, of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Charity Cup 2022.

On 20th March, participants of Cross Culture Girls sessions challenged GM Judit Polgar. Playing Black, the girls ended up with a draw against Judit!

https://twitter.com/MeetsKids/status/1506280443276328968

WFM Alessia Santeramo and WGM Jennifer Shahade streamed the session on twitch.

The hosts did a fantastic job! The girls had a lot of fun despite the fact that it was very late in Africa when the game ended!

The chess community is blessed to have so many wonderful women chess players. A salute to them for their never ending inspiration. We are back with yet another Cross Culture Girls event!

The session will be conducted on March 20th 2022 from 9 AM US Eastern Time. Apart from a tournament, there will also be a consultation game against the legendary GM Judit Polgar. The games will be streamed on Alessia Santeramo’s twitch channel.

The event will be hosted by WGM Jennifer Shahade! Do not forget to check out her new book Chess Queens!

Robert Mcligeyo will be joining the Kenyan team in Russia for the World Chess Olympiad thanks to his brilliant performance in the Qualifiers.

Robert will also be part of Chess 2 Change. Business peeps, look out for him! You will be lucky to have him on your team 😉

Isaiah Otieno finished on top after 6 rounds at the Nairobi Regional Junior Chess Championship 2022

Isaiah scored 5/6 with a rating performance of 1273. With his top performance, Isaiah has also qualified for the National championship!

Read more about Isaiah here. We wish Isaiah the best for his future tournaments!

The girls are ready! We will have a Cross Culture Girls session on 12th February at 11am US Eastern time. Having finished the previous session which included confidence training by Benjamin Portheault, it’s time for some review!

Schedule

1. Follow up on the homework from Benjamin’s Confidence training.

2. A Najdorf session by WGM Jennifer Shahade & GM Pontus Carlsson.

3. A themed Najdorf tournament so they can test what they have learnt.

Happy new year! It is time for the first Cross Culture Girls session of the year. On 15th January 2021, we will have a training session by Benjamin Portheault who is a renowned Performance coach for mental athletes.

In the session, we will discuss key ideas in the Najdorf followed by a themed tournament with Najdorf Sicilian.

Here is the schedule-

45 min – Benjamin Portheault (confidence training + non chess preparation)

10 min – Najdorf review where we go over the moves and some typical key ideas in the Najdorf.

50 min – Themed Tournament Najdorf Sicilian

• 4 Rounds
• Time control: 4 min +2 sec/move

We are proud to share that chess players from our Cross Culture Girls program have achieved remarkable results at the Africa Schools Individual Chess Championship

In the Under-11 category, Elizabeth Cassidy from Kenya topped the leader board after 9 rounds. She remained unbeaten and gained a massive 44.5 Elo points

Fantalis Lucy Nduta from Kenya scored 5,5/9 and finished 5th in the Under-11 category

Lakshita Dutt from Malawi triumphed in the U-13 section with a sole lead of of 8/9 and Yvonne Mwashe from Kenya finished 6th with 4.5 points

In the Under-15 category, Hannah Mawejje finished 12th with a score of 4/9. With a high gain of 68,4 Elo points, Ingado Mercy won the U-17 category. She scored 7.5/9 in the tournament!

We congratulate all the winners and wish them luck!

On December 18th, Cross Culture Girls session was organized with WGM Jennifer Shahde and WGM Nadya Ortiz. It was a fun filled session as we celebrated GM Pontus Carlsson’s birthday with a special themed tournament in the Sicilian Dragon.

Apart from the chess.com club tournament, one could witness a lot of cultural exchanges throughout the session. Many of us managed to learn chess pieces in Spanish as well!

We leave you with a mate in two puzzle from one of the games of the tournament

At 12 noon US Eastern time, we will have a session. We are very much excited as it is GM Pontus Carlsson’s birthday! WGM Jennifer Shahade and WGM nadya Ortiz will join us for fun filled discussions!

Along with mix of cultures and chess experiences, we will also have a chess tournament for all our girls. This is going to be an interesting session!

On November 19th, Business Meets Chess & Kids was organized at Ullevål Soccer Stadium. Business executives from various companies participated and supported the event by playing tandem chess together with kids from Oslo´s inner-city communities.

Team Dacon with Ariza Hina & Ingrid Dahl won the tournament after beating Ferd 1 with Morten Borge & Saad Abobaker in the exciting final.

Ferd along with CEO Morten Borge will sponsor Saad in his endeavor to become a Grandmaster. The sponsorship will preliminary be for a  minimum duration of 3 years and it will cover training, tournament expenses as well as his school fees at Norwegian School of Elite Sports! This is a perfect illustration of how meetings across the chessboard can be life changing!

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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