[Cagey]

Kids do enjoy chess if someone takes the time to show them how it's played.

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

Chess needs strategies. So does life.

He's right there.

[Mr. Mulliner]

When I read the phrase "Tiger Woods of chess," I wasn't thinking "black chess player." I was thinking it must refer to someone who dedicated himself at an early age to the game of chess and showed genius at it.

As much good as Tiger Woods might do in his success at golf, I hate to see him become a racial icon. It's not race that got him where he's at and it shouldn't be race that makes him someone to look up to.

The same applies to this chess player.

[PJ-Comix]

This isn't so unusual. I remember seeing elderly Jewish men and young black men playing chess with each other all the time at a park that I think was in the Fairfax area of L.A.. I've also witnessed a similar scene at other places as well.

[FReepaholic]

>>...Kids do enjoy chess if someone takes the time to show them how it's played...<<

If you've been wondering if our video game driven kids have the ability to quietly sit still for hours, just go to a youth chess tournament.

It's amazing. I can't sit still that long.

[tictoc]

Check out some of GM Ashley's games here.

[mhking]

I'm pretty rusty - used to be pretty good at chess; It's high time I pulled out my chess board and taught my kids to play...

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[VeritatisSplendor]

Ashley is a solid player with a fair amount of natural talent, but not enough to be world-class. For a player of his ability to become a Grandmaster requires complete dedication, and everyone on the American chess scene was very pleased to see him make it after many years of slow but steady progress.

The year before he achieved the GM title, he just missed making his final qualification because the average rating of his opponents in a tournament was a couple of points too low. (The problem is that in chess your score must be a multiple of 1/2 point because you can only win, lose, or draw -- so he might have had 7 points out of 10 when a GM performance was 71%, but the next possible score for him would have been 7.5 which was well over the required level.) Usually, in such cases, the player petitions for an exception to the qualifying rules, and these exceptions are usually granted when it is just a matter of "rounding off", and would certainly have been in his case.

Ashley refused to do this even though it would have achieved his life's ambition. He wanted no special treatment of any kind, even though it was something which was routinely given to anyone in his situation. He knew he'd eventually make it.

[judgeandjury]

Tiger Woods - The Maurice Ashley of golf.

[Movemout]

I love it when black people bust a barrier; tennis, golf, chess-- it doesn't matter. A Grand Master is one heck of a chess player, period. Just think of the example he sets. I was a very good chess player at a very early age but I was burned out on it before I was twenty. This guy hung in there and became a GM. My hat is doffed in his general direction. How much better example is he than some thuggish hip-hop artist? Dare to be smart and educated at the same time. That is the trick.

[realpatriot71]

How does one become a "grandmaster"?

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

This guy was one of the color (no pun intended) commentators during the recent Kasporav/DeepThought match, televised on ESPN. He did a great job.

Also, listening to them really showed how chess players get a "feeling" for whether a move is good or not. Granted, Ashley and the other commentator didn't have time to study the moves as much as if they were actually playing, but they were saying things like "that's the kind of move you just make, b/c it feels good." I thought it was fascinating. Obviously, it takes a lot of practice before that "feeling" is likely to be right.

[Mr. Mojo]

watching Tiger realize his dream [at the 1997 Masters tournament in Augusta, Ga.], that convinced me that I needed to change my life and go chase mine. . . . He showed that a person of color could excel at anything."

Actually, a "person of color" was possibly the greatest of all the chess grandmasters --- Jose Raul Capablanca. This Ashley guy didn't even need to look outside his own sport to find inspiration, if indeed racial inspiration is what he desired. (And I have no idea why he needed it).