First Moves / Chess news from around the U.S.
FACES ACROSS THE BOARD
By AL LAWRENCE DAVID PAULINA
UPPER MARLBORO, MARYLAND
How to find the truth “The Team is the most fun,” David said. “You have to do
it.” Paulina runs the Griot Academy in the District of Columbia area, teaching chess in 10 schools. He was at the World Team (aka USATE) for the second time with his team “Chess Challengers”, made up of fellow chess coach Charles Edelman and a student from each mentor. “The variety of players, the at- mosphere—it’s all lots of fun between rounds and lots of serious chess during the rounds.”
When David came to the U.S. from Haiti as a little boy, his godmother taught him the chess moves. Neither of them would have predicted that, some 20 years later, the game would become his full- time profession. After college, “I stumbled into teach- ing chess.” A colleague at Amtrak got him to go to his first tournament in 1998. “I got passionate about chess,” even studying with GM “Wojo” Wojtkiewicz. David’s a compelling advocate for the game. “Chess teaches critical analysis and how to make decisions.” After a pause, he sums up, “It teaches you how to find the truth in situations.”
Sevan Muradian, 1975-2016
Active US Chess member, delegate, organizer dies at age 40
INTERNATIONAL ARBITER AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZER SEVAN MURADIAN died of a heart attack on February 17, 2016 at home in Kildeer, Illinois, at the age of 40. Muradian was a force in US Chess: his affiliate held 266 rated events and he is listed as chief director of 245 US Chess tournaments. Further, Muradian was extremely active in bringing FIDE events to the U.S., providing many norm opportunities for US Chess players that previously did not exist. Sevan was also secretary of the FIDE Rules Commission. A more extensive remembrance by Chris Wainscott is available at
new.uschess.org/news/sevan- muradian-remembered-by-friends-colleagues/, including personal remembrances from a number of US Chess members. Maret Thorpe has written an obituary that is available at
www.chess.com/news/ia- sevan-muradian-1975-2016-3997.
AUDREY HU
WESTFIELD, NEW JERSEY Got to wear makeup Audrey was exuberant about
her first World Team experience with her team “Crazy Queens & Cool Kings.” “We won second place in the costume contest and got to wear makeup!” Audrey said. “Our friends on ‘Knock Out Knights’ won first!”
A second-grader at Jefferson Elementary School, Audrey got started in chess when she joined a chess summer camp led by USATE regular GM Leonid Yudasin and three-time All-Army Champion Arthur Macaspac, the one-two punch on this year’s “Chessmate’s Dream Team”!
After checkmating a rated opponent in her very first tournament, Audrey now belongs to the ChessMates Chess Club in Rahway, New Jersey, with the lofty aim of becoming a grandmaster. “Chess is challenging. I don’t know if I’ll win or lose. Either way, it’s fun.”
Write to
faces@uschess.org.
www.uschess.org 11
AT THE WORLD TEAM!
PHOTO CREDIT: BETSY DYNAKO
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