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U.S. Chess Center Founder David Mehler Profiled in Washington Jewish Week
- by Chess Center
Since forming the U.S. Chess Center over 30 years ago, David Mehler has been at the center of our efforts to teach the game to young people. In a feature published earlier today by Washington Jewish Week, he touches on several topics related to the Center, including the philosophy that has helped us reach tens of thousands of students in the greater D.C. area with our instruction.
From our beginning, we’ve always encouraged the idea of chess not as an exclusive vocation for some cadre of intellectual super-elites, but rather as a pastime that everyone can enjoy with their friends. As Mr. Mehler explains, anyone can learn to play and anyone can profit from learning. Children who may be used to thinking only about short-term consequences learn the value of strategizing and planning ahead toward a long term goal, and students in the habit of acting out in the classroom can find an outlet for their energies that is equal parts competitive and mentally demanding. Our preference for in-school chess classes over after-school clubs exists for the simple reason that those students least likely to sign up to learn the game are the ones likely to benefit the most from doing so.
Our perspective on teaching the game runs along those same egalitarian lines. Aside from a required rudimentary understanding of the rules, strategy and etiquette of chess, there’s not necessarily a correlation between playing strength and the ability to effectively impart the fundamentals to children. Beyond Mr. Mehler’s jest about how “I make terrible moves while I’m playing competitively, but I can teach kids not to follow my example,” there’s a great deal of truth to the idea that you don’t have to be a grandmaster to be a good teacher of the game; you just need patience and a basic knowledge of what makes chess so useful.

You can read the entire article on Mr. Mehler and the beginnings of the U.S. Chess Center here. And, if you agree that chess can be a valuable tool to sharpen the minds of children, please consider donating to support our charitable work.
Postcards From The Bobby Fischer Center In Iceland
- by David Mehler
Fifty-one years ago this month, the chess match that changed the game forever began in Iceland, and since then that tiny island in the North Atlantic has been excited about the game. Iceland has had the most grandmasters per capita in the world since the 1970s and is unique in being the only country with more International Grandmasters (14) than International Masters (12).
In 2005, Iceland conferred citizenship on Bobby Fischer and sent a plane to retrieve him from Japan, where he was being held in custody at the demand of the United States. Fischer remained on the small island nation for the rest of his life.
After he passed away, a group of chess enthusiasts created the Bobby Fischer Center near his final resting place in Selfoss. The Center celebrates Fischer’s life and chess career with particular emphasis on his connection to Iceland.


The 1972 match pitted the Soviet Empire, which had dominated high-level chess since the second world war, against a young American who eschewed assistance. Fischer knew the world champion, Boris Spassky, but had never beaten him over the board. He had lost three times while securing two draws in their previous matches. However, Fischer had gone on a record-setting run of victories leading up to the World Championship match, including winning 20 games in a row against players competing for the right to challenge for the world championship. Fischer’s international rating was 125 points higher than Spassky’s, a formidable difference.
The match attracted more attention than any previous chess match because of the international politics involved. Fischer made demands on the match organizers up until the games began, and for a while refused to travel to Iceland for the match. It took a series of efforts, including a call from the U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger to implore Fischer to play the match and win for his country, to convince him to compete. By then, the match had been postponed for two days and the Soviet Union had to be persuaded to allow Spassky to compete after the insult of waiting for Fischer to arrive.
At last the match began, and the daily analysis of the games became the most-watched television in America. I had a personal stake in this, as it was in the run-up to the match that people asked me to teach them the game. It proved to be an avocation I would never relinquish.
The museum provides quite a bit of space to Boris Spassky, mainly about the 1972 match. It also covers their second match twenty years after the first, this time in the former Yugoslavia, which led to the indictment of Fischer for violating the U.S. embargo.


The Bobby Fischer Center also is used as a place to teach junior players. A substantial library of chess books is available for students to use, and there is space for about a dozen students at a time to play or receive lessons from volunteer grandmasters.
The Bobby Fischer Center is one of only three museums dedicated to World Chess Champions. (Emmanuel Lasker and Max Euwe are the other World Champions to have museums devoted to their memories.) Iceland is a fascinating and beautiful country, and chess players who travel there should make a point of visiting Selfoss, about 45 minutes outside Reykjavik on the Ring Road, and plan to spend an hour or two there.
Summer Camp Season is in Full Swing
- by Chess Center
Our summer season of chess has kicked off with day camps at Churchill Road Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. During the last week of June we drew two dozen campers for the first week of camp designed for newer players, and twenty students have joined us at this week’s camp geared toward more advanced students.



The camp curriculum is designed to be challenging to every student who shows up. Our beginner students are learning basic endgame skills like checkmating with king and queen versus king or king and rook versus king, while our more advanced students are figuring out more difficult endgames. No matter their skill level, everybody leaves camp at the end of the week with more knowledge than they had at the beginning.


More information and registration: Summer Chess Day Camps – U.S. Chess Center (chessctr.org)


Lessons and Memories From the 51st World Open
- by Riley Dosh
I finished 2.5/5 in the women’s tournament (winning the U1400 prize), and 5/9 in the World Open. A supremely average result, in my opinion. I performed poorly in the blitz side tournament but did well in the rapid one. Both were extremely fun aspects of tournaments that I had never experienced before, but that I will seek out every chance I can. I learned some things about chess, and about myself. But what will stay with me forever is not Rxe6 in Game 9 (well maybe that too) but the time I spent with friends.
At the previous tournament that I competed in, the Eastern Open last December, I met a friend who has become my primary training partner. We’re evenly matched, but play very differently, which proves useful. Every Friday we’d meet to play a long time control game and analyze afterwards. At the tournament, we shared a hotel room and excitedly called each other after our games. When we got back to the room together after the round, we’d go through each other’s games and explain our reasoning to each other like sinners in a confessional. I met other new friends as well and exchanged numbers.

Chess can’t be learned in isolation, as so many are inclined to do these days. Meeting other people, with wildly different backgrounds and philosophies, adds diversity to our understanding of the royal game. Some of them have bad ideas, some ingenious, and some ideas have questionable merit but are fun to explore. What I do know is, I’ll be back.
Magruder High School Live Streaming Chess Competition
- by Chess Center
Metro Area Chess League participant Col. Zadok Magruder High School is in the middle of their spring chess competition. Games are taking place in the auditorium during the school day, and Magruder’s chess club sponsor, Mr. Sanders, has put in the effort to set the event up for streaming. The games can be followed live on the school’s YouTube channel. The semifinals and finals are currently set for May 17 and 24, respectively.
We are very pleased to see school faculty members devoting time, space and energy to promote chess among students.
Online Fundraiser for Ukraine on March 7
- by Chess Center
Students of ours played two Internet matches with children from Ukraine last year. We wish those young people well and are horrified by what they are experiencing.
An online fund-raiser for Ukraine will be held Monday, and we hope everyone will contribute what they can.
More information here (PDF): Support Ukraine.