Maurice Ashley, Grandmaster, chess commentator and Story Time Chess ambassador joined Cheddar News to discuss how to get kids involved and excited about chess to celebrate National Chess Day on October 8.

Celebrating National Chess Day

tomorrow is National Chess Day, a celebration of one of the oldest and most popular games in history. If you've been thinking about introducing your child to the game of chess now might be the time. So here to talk about how to get kids excited to play is Maurice Ashley, grandmaster, chess commentator and story time chess ambassador. So Maurice, thank you for joining the show. How did you learn how to play chess and what sparked your interest? Well, thanks for having me. First of all, my brother taught me how to play when I was a youngster about eight years old, but we only played it casually. It wasn't until high school when I went to Brooklyn Technical High School but my friends were just whooping on me that I couldn't take it. I happened to see a book in the library and I just started studying and it was a love affair from that moment I could not stop playing chess. I just all I wanted to do every single day even though my mom was like, what are you doing with that game? But it's the game that I just fell in love with now you are the first african american grandmaster of chess. So what does it mean exactly to be a grandmaster and what does it take to become one? The Grand Master title is one that you get awarded by the International Chess Federation as you mentioned Friday, they give it to you after you have gone through a rigorous tournament procedure where you're playing against other internationally ranked players and that includes brand Masters as well. And so you have to go through at least 25 games where you score very highly against these players and that's how you get the title. Finally, now I see behind you, you have the game storytime chess, the game. I also have one with me here right now. So can you tell us a little bit more about it and how it can get kids excited to play chess? Well, the thing about chess is that a lot of people have this image of chess is a very tough game, it's very intimidating. Oh, it's gonna be so hard to learn. The reality is chess is a fairly easy game to learn for adults, not difficult to master, but to learn not so hard. But in terms of little kids, we're talking about three year olds that could be a little bit more challenging because they haven't learned that abstract nous, that they need to be able to to see how all the pieces move together. So what story time does and what's brilliant about it is that it teaches the little kids how to play using stories and the stories they can relate to. You've got characters involved that they fall in love with and that facilitates the process, you can read to your child and they will be picking up the rules of chess at the same time as it's embedded in the game itself. Now, we just talked about the cheating scandal that's rocking the chess world. So how do you think that's going to impact the reputation and growing popularity of the game? You know, it's one of the weirdest things where it seems like no news is bad news if if it exposed chest this much more people have been fascinated by chess. So there's sort of maybe giving chase to pass at least. I hope because one particular individual has been the one who's, who's trying to cut corners. So I'm hoping that that doesn't affect chess in a negative way. Of course, I'm so sad for my game that this kind of scandal could be anywhere near such a beautiful game. But I think that people know chess has been around for 1500 years, it's a game everybody really has intrigued by and to pick it up is a great thing, especially for young people, so they can get all those great skills, problem solving and concentration, focus and all those planning ahead, those things that we want our Children to learn now, you know, trust has been growing in popularity. I used to play as a kid, but we've had things like the Queen's gambit that have made people really interested in the game. So we have to ask, what are your top three tips and tricks to win the game? Well, first of all, there are a lot of tricks to chest, but I'll tell you this, the first thing you want to do is control the center of the board. It's very important because from the center of the board, you can go in multiple directions. People try to move pawns on the side. Bad idea, try the middle first. That is the most important thing. The second thing is use your entire army. You want to bring out all your pieces. Don't leave anyone behind thinking this one night can get the job done. Oops, I lost my, let me try my bishop. No, that doesn't work. Move a night, then move a bishop, move a rook and move the queen, get all of them in the game. And very important, get your king castle early. Castling is that rule where the king and rook and move those to move and get the king to safety early. You'll have a solid game, control the center, bring all your pieces into the game and get your king castle early. You will not lose quickly if you do that. Now, any final words of motivation for kids or adults who aspired to be a grandmaster, just like you. Well, the grandmaster title is one that takes a lot of work and if you're passionate about it, if you really wish to get to that kind of level, it's obviously it's going to entail a lot of study and a lot of practice. The key is to make sure you're always having fun because after all, chess is a fun game is what it's supposed to be. It's a game and it's been around this long because it is so rich, so many ideas in it even now, after 40 years plus of playing the game, I'm still learning stuff. So it's a long journey, but it's a fun one. Thank you so much for joining us on this friday. That's Maurice Ashley, grandmaster, chess commentator and Storytime chess Ambassador.