On Sunday, November 20, the NSCF, in partnership with the City of Miami Beach Parks & Recreation Department, produced the first Commissioner Mark Samuelian Memorial Chess Tournament. A National Master chess player, Commissioner Samuelian opened the doors for the NSCF to bring a robust community-focused chess program to the city he loved and served. Sadly, Mark passed away before he could see any of these efforts come to fruition.
Mayor Dan Gelber paid tribute to his colleague at the opening of the tournament and also introduced Mark’s life partner, Laura Dominguez; Laura stayed to speak to parents and cheer on the players. Despite torrential rains and high winds, 78 aspiring chess players competed in two sections: Elementary and Middle-High School. Some fantastic chess was played and the top section even went into a sudden-death armageddon match to determine first place!
Special thanks to the city’s photographer, Jackie Gonzalez for the first 34 beautiful pictures, the rest are from NSCF.
The NSCF is excited to be partnering with Miami Beach Parks & Recreation Department to launch a community and scholastic chess initiative to the city. Championed by Commissioner Mark Samuelian who earned his National Master title in high school, the effort includes free open play chess every Saturday and Sunday, plus chess instruction to almost 400 students in the city’s summer camp programs.
Our partnership kick-off was a Mayors’ Chess Challenge on Sunday, May 15 at Scott Rakow Youth Center hosted by Mayor Dan Gelber. Our special guests included Elizabeth Tejada, the chess coordinator for Miami-Dade Public Schools, and most of our NSCF Florida staff were on hand to teach and play. (MCC Photos courtesy of Aaron McLellan.)
The Coral Springs Parks & Recreation Department asked us to help create a series of events that would engage the community and allow everyone to reconnect while still being cognizant of the need for social distancing and extra precautions. One Wednesday each month from January through April, we had an evening Open Play event. These were a great success and drew most of the city commissioners as well as parents and children from across the area. Then the finale event was a free tournament open to students from across the county. We even added a friends and family section for a few adults to play, including Mayor Scott Brooks and Vice Mayor Joshua Simmons.
Our special guest for the event was National Master AJ Steigman who grew up in Coral Springs and was one of the nation’s top chess players during his school years. He went on to Emory University and earned his MBA from Wharton. Now involved in real estate software he recently moved back to Coral Springs so the event gave us a chance to highlight how chess can help our students prepare for success in life. AJ was joined by his mom and his former coach, also from Coral Springs, NM Bill Cornwall, who helped NSCF launch its teacher training programs in Broward County. (Photos courtesy of the City of Coral Springs, plus NSCF staff.)
In the Fall of 2019, NSCF’s Florida programs twice welcomed visits from Executive Director FM Sunil Weeramantry. On the first trip he guest taught at Bair Middle School in Sunrise. A few days later, NM Evan Rabin guest taught at the same school. We had several Mayor’s Chess Challenge events, including in the cities of Lauderhill and Tamarac, and Robert McKenzie taught an intro class for the Boca Raton library, our first effort outside of Broward County.
Sunil returned for a visit to the Pompano Youth Treatment Center, one of our juvenile justice programs, where the students had a tournament. We were joined by staff from BCPS Equity & Academic Attainment Office, along with Mayor Mike Ryan of Sunrise and Mayor Rex Hardin of Pompano Beach. On Saturday, we had Open Play at the Civic Center and Sunil delivered one of our Demystifying Chess Workshops. Hosted by the Sunrise Police Department, the workshop was for First Responders, and veterans, along with staff from another of our juvenile justice programs.
Finally, one of our supporting groups, The Broward Sheriff’s Advisory Council invited NSCF to present at their annual dinner. We were proudly represented by Mayor Mike Ryan, some of our chess playing officers and one of our students.
Each year on Columbus Day, we celebrate all things chess with an afternoon of open play, lessons and simuls where our younger players get to challenge a master. Here are images from the 2014 event in Library Park in front of the New Rochelle Public Library. Highlights of the day included a special acknowledgement to one of our favorite volunteers, Joan Waldron, a visit from New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson, and a simul against National Master (now IM-elect) Joshua Colas.
In the Spring of 2014, the NSCF helped facilitate a US tour for Phiona Mutesi and her coach, Robert Katende, whose stories are told in the book and Disney feature film “The Queen of Katwe.” Local events included school visits (R.J. Bailey in Greenburgh, Bronxville and Greenwich Academy); a fundraiser graciously hosted by one of our former students, Hunter Korn; some time to just hang out; and even a chess lesson with Sunil.
The National Scholastic Chess Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. Donations are tax-deductible. Relevant IRS information is available on request.
