In Episode 131, I converse with Sunil Weeramantary, Founder of National Scholastic Chess Foundation. He originally hails from Sri-Lanka. He is the step-father of US Chess Champion Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. He won the the New York State State Chess Championship in 1975 and 2001. 

He has been teaching chess since 1979 when he launched the program at Hunter School, which has more national championships than most schools in the country. Since then, he has founded National Scholastic Chess Foundation in 1990, which has served 60+ schools in New York area and community programs in South Florida as part of Sunrise Chess entity.

He also serves as the Co-Chair of the US Chess Scholastic Council. Two of his biggest accolades are winning University of Texas at Dallas' Chess Educator of the Year in 2004 and getting the FM Sunil Weeramantry National Blitz Tournament of State Champions named after him in 2020. 

We speak about his start to chess in Sri Lanka, the connection between law and chess, the fundamentals of a successful school program, practical thinking, travelling with his step-son Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura,  the cancellation of the US Chess Supernationals, online fair play, his book "Great Moves: Learning Chess Through History" and more.

Episode 131 with Fide Master Sunil Weeramantry, Founder of National Scholastic Chess Foundation

In Episode 132, I converse with Michael Khodarkovsky, President of the Kasparov Chess Foundation. Khordakovsky is a FIDE Senior Trainer, FIDE Vice President, and Founder of International School. He was a member of Kasparov's coaching staff in 1995 and 2000 World Championship and Deep Blue matches. In 2008 he won a Scholastic Service award from US CHESS. He is the author of seven books.

We speak about his relationship with Garry Kasparov, the Kasparov vs. Deep Blue matches, his seven books, coaching tips, game analysis, Kasparov Chess Foundation's work, online tournaments, the continuation of the Grand Chess Tour, women involvement in chess  and more.

Episode 132 with Michael Khodarkovsky, President of the Kasparov Chess Foundation,

In Episode 134, I converse with Fide Master Andrey Terekhov, Author of The Life and Games of Vasily Smyslov.  Andrey Terekhov is also a International Master in Correspondence Chess and holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science. Two if his best tournament results were victories in the 2008 Munich Open and the 2021 Nabokov Memorial. He currently resides in Singapore, where by day he works for Microsoft, leading a team of Product Marketing Managers, focused on accelerating the growth of Azure in Central & Eastern Europe.

We talk about his training in the St. Petersburg Chess School, decision making in business and chess, time pressure, public relations of World Champions, his book and much more.

Episode 134 with Fide Master Andrey Terekhov, Author of The Life and Games of Vasily Smyslov

I am a national chess master, who was born and raised in New York City. After working in Enterprise Sales for a years after graduating Cum Laude from Brandeis University with a BA in Business International Studies, I decided to begin Premier Chess in September 2017. Since then, we have partnered with 75+ schools and companies including the law firm Kramer Levin. On this podcast, I talk about chess, education and business and bring on frequent guests.

This podcast is now on Buzzsprout, Google, Apple etc. Starting with Episode 133, the episodes will not be uploaded to Soundcloud.

National Master Evan Rabin, CEO of Premier Chess

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