[Music]
do you mind if we do a brief chess
lesson promise it’ll only take about
five minutes or so so today I want to
talk a little bit about chess chess for
economic and political change
so d4 d5
c4 now this is the Queen’s Gambit
opening the Queens gambit is one of the
oldest chess openings they’re artists it
was started in the late 13th century and
this opening is so important to me
because it’s a sacrifice black is the
ability to take that pawn on c4 now
traditionally black doesn’t do that
black plays c6
it’s faux fortress critics when I say I
want that pawn to take on c4 they get
mad at me but today I want us to think
about what happens when that pawn does
take on c4 so when I first started to
play chess at the age of 4 sacrifices
like this and most sacrifices for that
matter were not encouraged they would
tell you to shoot for the center don’t
get your queen out too early
be safe and develop now all of those
things I still do tell my students to do
but I encourage them to look for
opportunities I encourage them to take
hold of those sacrifices and one way I
do that is I ask them to think 5 to 10
moves ahead and that’s what we’re going
to do today with that pawn move that
pawn move to c4 now there’s a saying in
the chess world that chess is easy to
learn but it’s hard to master it was a
Pittsburgh native you can imagine how
much I disagree with this statement I’m
from the city of Champions nothing is
hard to master but I want you to think
about this
in a different sense for chess educators
like me you know chess isn’t hard to
master
we think about chess everyone talks
about the educational benefits of the
game and I can agree with you there are
so many educational benefits but there’s
so much more to chess that we don’t talk
about and that’s why I’m here today
so let’s continue our chess game our
opponent played e3 now you guys have to
trust me we’re gonna play b5 so I ran a
nonprofit organization and we go out and
we teach chess to the community and one
of the stories that I I want to tell you
all today is about a little boy that I
met when I was playing chess so I want
you to close your eyes I want you to
imagine 14 year old me
so I’m 18 now 14 and I want you to
imagine a little boy and he’s nine years
old okay and I want you to think about
this it was a warm afternoon and I
remember our pieces were sticky we were
playing on a wooden chess board and
that’s something I thoroughly remember
so pretend you’re the pieces had honey
on them or something and I want you to
think about this
so I anytime I play chess with my
students I ask them you know what do you
want to do when you grow up and my
student was like you know I really
really wanted to do this and that and he
was telling me about all these amazing
things he wanted to do and I said that’s
incredible how are you gonna make it
happen and you know what he said
so no and for me I don’t like the the
term I don’t know because again it
limits us just like just like when we
don’t take all the sacrifices it limits
us so a few weeks later I asked my
student how I was gonna make this happen
and something incredible just happened
so if you weren’t closing your eyes
before I close them right now cuz this
is this is something he came up to me
and he said miss Ashley these are the
policies that need to be in place to
help my family this is the type of job I
need to get my family out of debt now
some background on the student he had a
hard childhood put it nicely he grew up
in an abusive household his parents were
separated and often he would go to
school he wouldn’t go to school he would
go to work to help take care of
family now a nine year old said policies
when I say that people don’t believe me
he said that he used chess to come up
with different policies to help his
family he saw it as this metaphor for
his life that’s incredible and the
opening he showed me to make that happen
was the Queen’s game but that’s what we
all just went over right now and he’s
the one that told me to take that
sacrifice he said part of my plan is to
take that pawn on c4 because if I take
that pawn on c4 this is what’s gonna
happen this is how I’m gonna help my
family now for those of you that play
chess for those of you who don’t I want
you to just remember that this student
was having a discussion with me that
politicians have on a daily basis and
that’s incredible and it was all because
of chess it was the strategy that chess
had it’s rehearsing for life it is a
small world and that’s really really
incredible and one thing I want to want
to end with is right now my student is
he’s very successful he’s um he’s he’s
still in high school and when I was
talking with him the other day and I was
telling I was gonna tell this story he’s
like tell them tell them that any time
when they play chess when they play the
Queen’s Gambit they must take that pawn
on c4 thank you
[Applause] [Music]
do you mind if we do a brief chess
lesson promise it’ll only take about
five minutes or so so today I want to
talk a little bit about chess chess for
economic and political change
so d4 d5
c4 now this is the Queen’s Gambit
opening the Queens gambit is one of the
oldest chess openings they’re artists it
was started in the late 13th century and
this opening is so important to me
because it’s a sacrifice black is the
ability to take that pawn on c4 now
traditionally black doesn’t do that
black plays c6
it’s faux fortress critics when I say I
want that pawn to take on c4 they get
mad at me but today I want us to think
about what happens when that pawn does
take on c4 so when I first started to
play chess at the age of 4 sacrifices
like this and most sacrifices for that
matter were not encouraged they would
tell you to shoot for the center don’t
get your queen out too early
be safe and develop now all of those
things I still do tell my students to do
but I encourage them to look for
opportunities I encourage them to take
hold of those sacrifices and one way I
do that is I ask them to think 5 to 10
moves ahead and that’s what we’re going
to do today with that pawn move that
pawn move to c4 now there’s a saying in
the chess world that chess is easy to
learn but it’s hard to master it was a
Pittsburgh native you can imagine how
much I disagree with this statement I’m
from the city of Champions nothing is
hard to master but I want you to think
about this
in a different sense for chess educators
like me you know chess isn’t hard to
master
we think about chess everyone talks
about the educational benefits of the
game and I can agree with you there are
so many educational benefits but there’s
so much more to chess that we don’t talk
about and that’s why I’m here today
so let’s continue our chess game our
opponent played e3 now you guys have to
trust me we’re gonna play b5 so I ran a
nonprofit organization and we go out and
we teach chess to the community and one
of the stories that I I want to tell you
all today is about a little boy that I
met when I was playing chess so I want
you to close your eyes I want you to
imagine 14 year old me
so I’m 18 now 14 and I want you to
imagine a little boy and he’s nine years
old okay and I want you to think about
this it was a warm afternoon and I
remember our pieces were sticky we were
playing on a wooden chess board and
that’s something I thoroughly remember
so pretend you’re the pieces had honey
on them or something and I want you to
think about this
so I anytime I play chess with my
students I ask them you know what do you
want to do when you grow up and my
student was like you know I really
really wanted to do this and that and he
was telling me about all these amazing
things he wanted to do and I said that’s
incredible how are you gonna make it
happen and you know what he said
so no and for me I don’t like the the
term I don’t know because again it
limits us just like just like when we
don’t take all the sacrifices it limits
us so a few weeks later I asked my
student how I was gonna make this happen
and something incredible just happened
so if you weren’t closing your eyes
before I close them right now cuz this
is this is something he came up to me
and he said miss Ashley these are the
policies that need to be in place to
help my family this is the type of job I
need to get my family out of debt now
some background on the student he had a
hard childhood put it nicely he grew up
in an abusive household his parents were
separated and often he would go to
school he wouldn’t go to school he would
go to work to help take care of
family now a nine year old said policies
when I say that people don’t believe me
he said that he used chess to come up
with different policies to help his
family he saw it as this metaphor for
his life that’s incredible and the
opening he showed me to make that happen
was the Queen’s game but that’s what we
all just went over right now and he’s
the one that told me to take that
sacrifice he said part of my plan is to
take that pawn on c4 because if I take
that pawn on c4 this is what’s gonna
happen this is how I’m gonna help my
family now for those of you that play
chess for those of you who don’t I want
you to just remember that this student
was having a discussion with me that
politicians have on a daily basis and
that’s incredible and it was all because
of chess it was the strategy that chess
had it’s rehearsing for life it is a
small world and that’s really really
incredible and one thing I want to want
to end with is right now my student is
he’s very successful he’s um he’s he’s
still in high school and when I was
talking with him the other day and I was
telling I was gonna tell this story he’s
like tell them tell them that any time
when they play chess when they play the
Queen’s Gambit they must take that pawn
on c4 thank you
[Applause] [Music]
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