00:01:15.100 --> 00:01:18.166
Perhaps the most notable feature
that stands out from our detailed

00:01:18.166 --> 00:01:23.666
exploration of chess’ cultural impact is
its remarkable level of internationalism:

00:01:24.166 --> 00:01:27.500
that throughout its long history,
the game has managed to be

00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:30.600
so enthusiastically adopted
by so many people

00:01:30.766 --> 00:01:35.233
in such widely different times and places.

00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:38.200
Far from being regarded as an Indian game,

00:01:38.666 --> 00:01:42.433
very few people neither know
nor care about where chess originated.

00:01:42.933 --> 00:01:45.166
It's as if it had somehow always existed

00:01:45.633 --> 00:01:48.133
everywhere.

00:01:48.266 --> 00:01:53.566
This universality, as we shall soon
see, is linked to a wide range of powerful

00:01:53.566 --> 00:01:58.800
and inspiring chess-related applications
from schools to prisons

00:01:59.233 --> 00:02:02.033
to social integration
and personal empowerment.

00:02:02.766 --> 00:02:06.066
But it also provides us
with a unique opportunity to better

00:02:06.066 --> 00:02:09.900
understand key aspects of our particular
beliefs and values.

00:02:10.133 --> 00:02:12.566
Through a careful observation of this one

00:02:12.733 --> 00:02:17.633
globally-practiced activity: chess.

00:02:17.633 --> 00:02:22.133
To return to a key point made back at the
beginning of Part One by Johan Huizinga:

00:02:22.566 --> 00:02:26.100
What separates play from virtually
everything else we engage in

00:02:26.466 --> 00:02:30.766
is that we do it simply
because we want to, because it's fun.

00:02:31.766 --> 00:02:32.400
Nobody is

00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:38.066
forcing anyone to play or watch chess,
which means that in examining

00:02:38.066 --> 00:02:41.300
contemporary societal issues
through the mirror of chess,

00:02:41.700 --> 00:02:44.900
we can be confident that what we're seeing
is not how people think

00:02:44.900 --> 00:02:49.466
they ought to be behaving or say
that they're behaving, but a genuine

00:02:49.466 --> 00:02:52.433
reflection of what they actually feel
and believe

00:02:52.966 --> 00:02:56.266
for better or worse.

00:02:56.266 --> 00:02:58.800
In what follows, we focus on three

00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:01.933
overlapping issues: our sense of community,

00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:04.766
our modern sports
and entertainment culture,

00:03:05.166 --> 00:03:07.766
and current attitudes
towards gender differences -

00:03:08.366 --> 00:03:13.133
all three of which are rapidly evolving
due to a combination of technological

00:03:13.133 --> 00:03:17.500
and social factors
and all three of which are intriguingly

00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:21.133
illuminated by chess.

00:03:21.566 --> 00:03:24.133
We start with community.

00:03:24.133 --> 00:03:26.100
It's hardly a secret that technology

00:03:26.100 --> 00:03:28.500
has radically transformed
our sense of community

00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:33.400
and the contemporary chess world offers
a spectrum of concrete examples

00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:37.266
of how to both broaden and safeguard
our present-day communities,

00:03:38.033 --> 00:03:41.066
all while significantly enhancing
the shared experience

00:03:41.466 --> 00:03:44.233
that defines them.

00:03:48.100 --> 00:03:48.900
The Internet really

00:03:48.900 --> 00:03:52.066
gave birth
to a more intimate level of access

00:03:52.066 --> 00:03:55.900
to chess educators and entertainers
than we would have had without technology.

00:03:55.900 --> 00:03:58.800
And really, I would say that
one of the very cool things about chess

00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:01.966
as a game, the online chess community
as a larger entity,

00:04:02.233 --> 00:04:06.766
is that unlike a lot of other experiences
online, whether it's social media

00:04:06.766 --> 00:04:09.566
that is anything
but truly social in connecting people,

00:04:09.566 --> 00:04:11.800
whether it's video games
that often are a fantasy,

00:04:12.533 --> 00:04:15.566
maybe disconnecting people from reality
would be what they're doing more

00:04:15.566 --> 00:04:18.566
than connecting them with anything
that they might really be able to do in

00:04:18.566 --> 00:04:19.266
real life.

00:04:19.266 --> 00:04:23.200
Chess is not that. Chess
is actually the same game online as it is

00:04:23.200 --> 00:04:26.400
physically over the board, the same game
that has been a piece of human history

00:04:26.633 --> 00:04:29.500
for literally hundreds of years,
if not thousands.

00:04:29.500 --> 00:04:32.600
And so the fact that the Internet
as a tool, as a resource

00:04:32.866 --> 00:04:35.900
is actually connecting
the chess community, giving access

00:04:35.900 --> 00:04:38.933
to the best chess players and educators
in the world that they previously

00:04:38.933 --> 00:04:43.366
would not have had access to as a fan
and actually providing a platform

00:04:43.566 --> 00:04:47.400
for people to understand
the game in a deeper way

00:04:47.400 --> 00:04:49.300
is actually really cool and fascinating.

00:04:51.400 --> 00:04:57.000
Lichess began as a project, a kind of
intellectual curiosity of Thibaut Duplessis

00:04:57.266 --> 00:05:01.066
a particularly exceptionally dedicated
and passionate software developer

00:05:01.400 --> 00:05:06.000
back in 2010. At the time,
he just wanted to expand his knowledge

00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:07.500
with some new software languages,

00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:12.100
and there was absolutely no intention
at the time of Lichess

00:05:12.100 --> 00:05:15.600
being a popular chess server
or really even a chess server.

00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:18.600
It was just a technological experiment

00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:21.300
and learning project of
this developer, Thibault,

00:05:22.466 --> 00:05:24.766
to become more familiar with the language.

00:05:25.200 --> 00:05:26.100
And, you know,

00:05:26.100 --> 00:05:30.333
chess is chosen because it lends itself
very well to learning programing.

00:05:30.333 --> 00:05:35.233
You have the rules of chess, how different
pieces move, how the board looks,

00:05:35.566 --> 00:05:39.133
the clocks, you know, that the players
have different amounts of time and so on.

00:05:39.366 --> 00:05:42.333
These all provoke different challenges
when learning new new languages

00:05:42.333 --> 00:05:43.200
for software development.

00:05:43.200 --> 00:05:45.366
So that's particularly
why chess was chosen.

00:05:45.833 --> 00:05:48.833
As he went on,
he decided to make all of his efforts

00:05:49.333 --> 00:05:51.900
free and open source
so that anyone else who wanted to learn

00:05:52.666 --> 00:05:55.300
this language could see the mistakes
that he'd made

00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:59.666
and the options that he had chosen.
As he was kind of developing,

00:05:59.666 --> 00:06:04.133
he saw this small hobby
project had four, five, ten, twenty users.

00:06:04.466 --> 00:06:05.666
So he added a little kind

00:06:05.666 --> 00:06:08.933
of chat function there
so that users could then talk to him

00:06:09.466 --> 00:06:13.700
and these early adopters who somehow
found this tiny hobby site,

00:06:14.300 --> 00:06:17.700
they began using the chat function
to discuss with him improvements

00:06:17.700 --> 00:06:20.133
and new features. Thibault listened.

00:06:20.133 --> 00:06:24.500
He kind of played Whack-A-Mole
with the different feature requests

00:06:25.500 --> 00:06:27.600
and the site grew significantly from there.

00:06:27.666 --> 00:06:31.266
You know, that was this this developer
who was passionate and listening

00:06:31.266 --> 00:06:34.566
to the community and who knew very little
about chess at the time,

00:06:34.933 --> 00:06:38.600
and there was a community
who was also giving him this feedback

00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:39.900
to improve the site.

00:06:39.900 --> 00:06:43.833
And that's really linked to
what makes us unique

00:06:44.233 --> 00:06:48.800
because that kind of community input,
listening to the community,

00:06:49.033 --> 00:06:52.633
that's really driven
our entire focus on everything:

00:06:52.633 --> 00:06:56.166
doing chess for the benefit
of the community, doing technology

00:06:56.166 --> 00:07:00.000
and open source purely
for the benefit of the community.

00:07:00.333 --> 00:07:04.233
And we've now got tens
of millions of users , we’re the second-

00:07:04.233 --> 00:07:08.966
largest chess website on the Internet -
up there with the commercial websites

00:07:09.733 --> 00:07:12.400
and everything
remains completely open source and free

00:07:12.900 --> 00:07:17.700
to the extent that almost
every new project now in the chess world

00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:23.466
and many which currently exist, use
some of our code in the chess ecosystem.

00:07:23.933 --> 00:07:26.700
And I think that's something
that's really unique:

00:07:26.700 --> 00:07:30.600
that intellectual curiosity,
that community perspective...

00:07:31.100 --> 00:07:34.500
and those philosophies, you know,
just generally make it a major success

00:07:34.500 --> 00:07:37.866
in the open source world
and also in the chess world.

00:07:40.100 --> 00:07:43.500
We are trying to make this game
a more international game.

00:07:44.066 --> 00:07:49.100
We believe that the number of players
between chess and xiangqi

00:07:49.233 --> 00:07:54.333
actually that they should be quite
similar. Xiangqi is many an Asian game.

00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:59.166
95% of people who play this game,
they are Chinese or Vietnamese.

00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:03.366
Not only the people who live in China
or Vietnam, but also, you know,

00:08:03.433 --> 00:08:05.500
there are lots of overseas Chinese and Vietnamese.

00:08:05.833 --> 00:08:06.866
It has a huge

00:08:06.866 --> 00:08:10.533
number of players,
but it is not international enough.

00:08:10.900 --> 00:08:15.700
And that's why we have Xiangqi.com.
Unike playing chess

00:08:16.166 --> 00:08:18.600
in so many place on earth,

00:08:19.033 --> 00:08:21.900
playing online is the only option they have.

00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:26.433
Just imagine when you are living in a town in the U.S.

00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:29.400
or living in a small city in Europe,

00:08:30.433 --> 00:08:34.333
it's very difficult for you
to find a xiangqi player

00:08:34.666 --> 00:08:36.100
to play over the board.

00:08:38.166 --> 00:08:41.700
Because the game was played online
and not physically,

00:08:41.700 --> 00:08:42.500
you couldn't really

00:08:42.500 --> 00:08:45.866
see what your opponent was doing and
whether they were accessing information.

00:08:46.300 --> 00:08:50.200
And one of the truly
only existential crises

00:08:50.200 --> 00:08:51.966
we ever faced at Chess.com,

00:08:51.966 --> 00:08:55.766
and probably speaking for all online
chess platforms really, was how

00:08:55.766 --> 00:09:00.533
we were going to deal with this problem:  that every human being

00:09:00.533 --> 00:09:04.566
was suddenly better than Garry Kasparov,
and they were better than him for free.

00:09:04.566 --> 00:09:07.033
And we didn't really know
how to detect them.

00:09:07.033 --> 00:09:08.833
We took a look at what was happening.

00:09:08.833 --> 00:09:11.700
We took a look at the complaints
from the top titled chess players:

00:09:11.700 --> 00:09:14.000
the grandmasters who felt like
they were playing cheaters.

00:09:14.200 --> 00:09:17.533
We took a look at what we were
dealing with, and we recognized that

00:09:18.033 --> 00:09:22.333
the only way we were ever going to be able
to maybe hope to contain this problem -

00:09:22.333 --> 00:09:26.333
We can't stop or predict murder,
but we can contain and deal with it

00:09:26.333 --> 00:09:29.800
and have a process in a system that provides

00:09:30.966 --> 00:09:32.266
punitive action

00:09:32.266 --> 00:09:35.700
and therefore ultimately serves
to protect the community, right?

00:09:35.700 --> 00:09:38.700
With our form of capital punishment,
for lack of a better way to say it,

00:09:38.733 --> 00:09:40.833
how do we deal with someone who cheated?

00:09:40.833 --> 00:09:43.500
We weren't ever going to try
to catch someone with the murder weapon.

00:09:43.800 --> 00:09:48.133
We were going to dive into analytics
essentially what could be described as CSI

00:09:48.166 --> 00:09:52.166
for chess and crime scene investigation,
leading to the DNA analysis

00:09:52.166 --> 00:09:53.133
of what we were looking at.

00:09:53.133 --> 00:09:56.400
And what that meant for us
was that, again, instead

00:09:56.400 --> 00:10:00.233
of being afraid of the computers,
we were going to use them to our advantage

00:10:00.533 --> 00:10:04.300
by investing in algorithms
and systems and models

00:10:04.300 --> 00:10:08.433
that told us what the computers
would do in a game; and therefore gave us

00:10:08.433 --> 00:10:11.666
a baseline of comparison
for what a human could do;

00:10:11.933 --> 00:10:13.866
and therefore have something
to measure against.

00:10:16.300 --> 00:10:20.700
One of the things Lichess really does
is to make chess more accessible

00:10:20.700 --> 00:10:25.800
and more inclusive to all parts
of the community.  And one community

00:10:25.800 --> 00:10:29.266
that Lichess in particular serves are
those users who are visually impaired.

00:10:29.566 --> 00:10:33.833
We were the first chess server
back in 2014 to offer what we call

00:10:33.966 --> 00:10:37.733
visually impaired mode,
which allows users who are

00:10:38.800 --> 00:10:39.766
legally blind

00:10:39.766 --> 00:10:42.900
or hard of sight
alternative ways to play chess.

00:10:43.566 --> 00:10:47.100
And recently it was announced that the legendary

00:10:47.100 --> 00:10:50.666
visually impaired
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli uses

00:10:50.766 --> 00:10:54.600
Lichess to play chess;
and that he's very passionate about chess.

00:10:54.600 --> 00:11:00.266
And in my opinion, that's just a really
fantastic show of what Lichess can do:

00:11:00.300 --> 00:11:04.100
the power of the community -
that we've been able to give someone who's

00:11:04.100 --> 00:11:07.566
brought so much pleasure and joy
and entertainment to so many people,

00:11:08.533 --> 00:11:11.066
some small measure of pleasure

00:11:11.066 --> 00:11:13.166
and enjoyment himself in playing chess.

00:11:15.266 --> 00:11:18.300
But the international chess community
is much more than simply

00:11:18.300 --> 00:11:21.166
a global network of people
playing the game with each other.

00:11:21.866 --> 00:11:24.933
In keeping with its steady evolution
from game to sport,

00:11:24.933 --> 00:11:29.700
detailed in Part Three,
the world of elite-level chess with its

00:11:29.700 --> 00:11:33.900
growing array of professional competitors,
corporate sponsors

00:11:34.500 --> 00:11:36.733
and legions of international fans,

00:11:37.366 --> 00:11:40.233
presents a unique vantage point to closely observe

00:11:40.233 --> 00:11:44.000
many key features of our contemporary
sports and entertainment culture

00:11:44.300 --> 00:11:49.600
that is also rapidly changing under the
growing influence of technology.

00:11:53.066 --> 00:11:56.333
If you're a sportsman, if you have to
stay healthy, if you have to stay fit,

00:11:57.433 --> 00:11:59.600
if you have to endure long periods

00:12:00.833 --> 00:12:05.200
glued to the board
when you can't move away,

00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:08.133
there are certain things you can't do.

00:12:08.133 --> 00:12:10.533
One of them is smoke,

00:12:10.900 --> 00:12:13.433
another one is take drugs.

00:12:13.433 --> 00:12:16.833
Another one is to drink alcohol.

00:12:16.966 --> 00:12:21.000
And there were great players of the past

00:12:22.200 --> 00:12:26.966
who were characters in their own right -
in a sense because they were bohemians.

00:12:28.100 --> 00:12:30.400
Alexander Alekhine was a bohemian,

00:12:30.400 --> 00:12:33.033
Viktor Korchnoi was a bohemian.

00:12:33.033 --> 00:12:35.866
Mikhail Tal was the King of Bohemia.

00:12:35.866 --> 00:12:38.400
And these people were characters.

00:12:38.933 --> 00:12:42.966
There was also the backdrop, you know,
there was the Cold War:

00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:46.800
Russia against America, communists
against capitalists,

00:12:47.700 --> 00:12:49.933
people who overtly hated each other.

00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:52.000
And now

00:12:53.100 --> 00:12:54.833
the top players have to be physically fit.

00:12:54.833 --> 00:12:58.133
They can't smoke, they can't drink.
They certainly don't take drugs.

00:12:59.100 --> 00:13:00.500
And they don't hate each other.

00:13:00.500 --> 00:13:01.900
They all like each other.

00:13:01.900 --> 00:13:04.033
And this takes away a lot of the color

00:13:05.166 --> 00:13:06.366
of the combat.

00:13:06.366 --> 00:13:08.833
I mean, you know, if you know,

00:13:09.466 --> 00:13:14.000
as in the Korchnoi-Karpov match,
that given the chance,

00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:16.166
Korchnoi would gladly
have plunged a dagger

00:13:16.166 --> 00:13:19.933
into Karpov’s back off the chessboard
if he could get away with it,

00:13:20.566 --> 00:13:22.833
that adds a certain frisson to the game.

00:13:22.833 --> 00:13:25.800
But if you know that
these guys are all best buddies

00:13:26.666 --> 00:13:28.033
and they're all going to go and,

00:13:28.033 --> 00:13:31.300
you know, have an ice cream or drink
some mineral water after the game together;

00:13:31.966 --> 00:13:35.300
or go and play bridge or something
dangerous like that,

00:13:35.300 --> 00:13:36.633
it’s not quite the same.

00:13:36.633 --> 00:13:40.500
There's the bohemian aspect, the hatred aspect,

00:13:40.800 --> 00:13:44.900
the antagonism between different types of culture and society.

00:13:45.133 --> 00:13:45.833
It's all gone.

00:13:45.833 --> 00:13:48.000
You know, they're all much of a muchness.

00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:50.966
The real nice young men, nice women,
they all love each other.

00:13:51.833 --> 00:13:53.400
They all play the same kind of chess.

00:13:56.066 --> 00:14:00.500
A player, 30 years from now, is
going to be someone who knows

00:14:00.500 --> 00:14:03.733
computers inside out

00:14:03.733 --> 00:14:08.333
and also learns a lot from the A.I. technology.

00:14:08.533 --> 00:14:13.966
They will really learn from that.
And probably to read books and so on,

00:14:14.266 --> 00:14:15.733
it's going to be a bit out.

00:14:15.733 --> 00:14:20.700
They will look for sure be
some applications and other things.

00:14:20.766 --> 00:14:24.266
And  you can already see it now: that there is

00:14:26.066 --> 00:14:27.833
this new coming generation

00:14:27.833 --> 00:14:31.500
of top players
that are very computerized,

00:14:31.900 --> 00:14:33.933
and they think differently

00:14:34.500 --> 00:14:36.700
they act a bit more like computers

00:14:37.800 --> 00:14:39.333
in many senses.

00:14:39.333 --> 00:14:43.866
And it was like – one of  my colleagues

00:14:43.866 --> 00:14:47.966
on the Swedish National team, Tiger, said.
He was asked a question

00:14:47.966 --> 00:14:51.500
during the last Swedish championship.

00:14:51.900 --> 00:14:55.300
They asked him about this development of chess.

00:14:55.300 --> 00:14:59.433
And he said, Okay, it's quite simple.

00:14:59.433 --> 00:15:05.533
I have taken the last year to accept
the fact that I have to change or die.

00:15:07.333 --> 00:15:11.100
And he means chess-wise, of course, not in the other way.

00:15:12.700 --> 00:15:15.933
And that's how it is: that you
you have to change.

00:15:15.933 --> 00:15:20.700
And I also see it with my own game.  It’s different now.

00:15:20.700 --> 00:15:22.500
You know, it's really different.

00:15:22.500 --> 00:15:26.500
People are playing better, and they're
more prepared, more computer lines,

00:15:27.233 --> 00:15:30.600
and they defend better. They think better.

00:15:30.600 --> 00:15:36.166
But you can also see clear weaknesses, like if
you go into end games and

00:15:36.233 --> 00:15:41.133
those traditional things where you maybe
have to read the book, at least for now -

00:15:41.733 --> 00:15:44.966
and there, the new generation is lacking there

00:15:46.233 --> 00:15:49.400
because they are not doing that.
But they are very flexible,

00:15:49.400 --> 00:15:50.433
they can play all openings.

00:15:50.433 --> 00:15:54.766
They can study some things
through an app on their phone.

00:15:55.266 --> 00:15:58.633
And I think that development
will just keep on going.

00:15:59.133 --> 00:16:04.100
And then, it's like Tiger said, you have to
either change and follow it or die.

00:16:04.933 --> 00:16:06.200
I think that's how it is.

00:16:08.500 --> 00:16:11.666
One of the effects of computers
is that it's been an equalizer.

00:16:11.666 --> 00:16:16.500
It's made it so that anyone in the world
who can afford a computer, at least

00:16:17.566 --> 00:16:18.300
can become a

00:16:18.300 --> 00:16:20.966
good player if they really want to.

00:16:21.400 --> 00:16:24.500
They can watch great players all the time.

00:16:24.500 --> 00:16:30.466
They can download free software,
they can see videos on how to play.

00:16:30.500 --> 00:16:32.000
They can play online.

00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:36.066
It's very,
very easy for a talented young person

00:16:36.066 --> 00:16:39.900
to become a great player
now, whereas it was incredibly difficult,

00:16:40.400 --> 00:16:46.866
unless you happen to just be in the right
time and circumstances, a long time ago.

00:16:46.866 --> 00:16:49.866
So that's the positive effect.

00:16:50.600 --> 00:16:53.800
The negative effect of computers
is that it's

00:16:54.500 --> 00:16:57.133
changed the game, at least at the higher level.

00:16:57.133 --> 00:17:01.200
It's changed it from being more of  a thinking game
to being more of a game of memory.

00:17:01.800 --> 00:17:06.600
There’s so much emphasis now on simply memorizing

00:17:06.600 --> 00:17:09.533
the lines that the computers tell
you are the best

00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:13.333
and the computers have gotten so good that there's

00:17:13.333 --> 00:17:18.133
not even much point in
trying to find good moves in the opening.

00:17:18.133 --> 00:17:19.666
You can try to find tricky moves.

00:17:19.666 --> 00:17:20.633
You can try to

00:17:20.633 --> 00:17:24.566
find moves that you think another human
won't be able to find the right answer to.

00:17:24.900 --> 00:17:25.833
So there is that.

00:17:25.833 --> 00:17:29.600
But it has put a much bigger
emphasis on memory

00:17:29.600 --> 00:17:31.433
as opposed to thinking for yourself.

00:17:31.433 --> 00:17:33.566
That's the real downside, I would say.

00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:36.400
But computers have also

00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:39.633
changed the game in some other ways.

00:17:39.633 --> 00:17:42.200
For one thing, we've learned that

00:17:43.100 --> 00:17:45.566
you can play for a win in positions

00:17:45.733 --> 00:17:52.166
that we used to think were just too drawish.

00:17:52.433 --> 00:17:54.333
Computers have shown

00:17:54.333 --> 00:17:59.200
that they can beat human players
from very drawish-looking positions.

00:17:59.566 --> 00:18:02.700
So now top players,
especially Magnus Carlsen,

00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:07.966
try hard to win from positions
where 30 or 40 years ago

00:18:07.966 --> 00:18:10.133
the top players would have just called it
a draw.

00:18:11.033 --> 00:18:12.833
That's one thing.

00:18:12.833 --> 00:18:14.966
And another big thing is that

00:18:15.166 --> 00:18:17.800
- this was a big surprise -

00:18:18.333 --> 00:18:22.100
that the value of material in chess

00:18:22.100 --> 00:18:24.800
is not quite what we thought it was.

00:18:25.266 --> 00:18:28.366
The computer that eventually beat Kasparov,

00:18:28.500 --> 00:18:32.666
it was programmed to not care about anything

00:18:33.166 --> 00:18:35.766
except material first. In other words,

00:18:36.066 --> 00:18:39.300
only if material was tied did it care about the position.

00:18:39.900 --> 00:18:45.733
But since then there's been a revolution
and the computers nowadays aren’t at all that way.

00:18:45.833 --> 00:18:50.866
They will often sacrifice a pawn
or even two pawns for what they believe is

00:18:52.133 --> 00:18:54.800
excellent positional compensation.

00:18:57.133 --> 00:19:00.000
As chess, which is a game of complete information,

00:19:00.433 --> 00:19:04.433
moved into a stage where the computers
were better than humans,

00:19:04.433 --> 00:19:06.666
it became a very difficult spot
to be a human

00:19:06.900 --> 00:19:10.500
who's trying to provide entertaining
tidbits, educational moments -

00:19:10.500 --> 00:19:14.733
but at any moment, the computer on screen
via the evaluation bar that we have

00:19:14.733 --> 00:19:16.600
that says who has a better position,

00:19:16.600 --> 00:19:18.666
might tell you that you're wrong.

00:19:18.666 --> 00:19:22.966
And so learning to embrace our human
nature, learning to embrace

00:19:22.966 --> 00:19:26.133
that I, even as a very strong chess player,
didn't understand this concept,

00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:30.433
and here's what the computer just taught
me about my knowledge of this position,

00:19:30.733 --> 00:19:31.800
has been really critical.

00:19:31.800 --> 00:19:34.800
Because I think in the early stages
of when chess commentary started

00:19:34.800 --> 00:19:38.533
being influenced by computers,
it actually was quite dysfunctional

00:19:38.533 --> 00:19:41.100
Ii you go back and look at some of that.
There were times where commentators

00:19:41.366 --> 00:19:44.400
didn't know how to not be
the smartest person in the room anymore.

00:19:44.566 --> 00:19:47.200
They didn't know how to deal with the
computer, telling them they were wrong.

00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:50.933
And so they often either
fought the computer and tried to disagree,

00:19:50.933 --> 00:19:54.966
which didn't look very good,
or maybe they would avoid talking

00:19:54.966 --> 00:19:59.633
about the computer’s understanding, or what
the computer said, or even sometimes

00:19:59.700 --> 00:20:03.033
want to take the commentary backwards
and deny the fact that, hey,

00:20:03.233 --> 00:20:05.233
we have complete information
by the computers,

00:20:05.233 --> 00:20:08.400
we should find some way to use it,
because the fans want to know that.

00:20:08.600 --> 00:20:10.800
And I think that we're in a very lucky spot

00:20:10.800 --> 00:20:12.866
because now that we've been doing that
for a long time,

00:20:12.866 --> 00:20:15.366
as fans of the next generation
are coming online,

00:20:15.633 --> 00:20:19.033
they really like the way we do things
and they like the way that we explain

00:20:19.033 --> 00:20:21.133
and break down things
because it makes them feel connected

00:20:21.366 --> 00:20:24.200
to people that they admire at the sport
or a game they're watching

00:20:24.200 --> 00:20:26.400
and not just there to admire them.

00:20:28.233 --> 00:20:32.633
Lastly, as both a highly regulated sport
and informal pastime

00:20:32.633 --> 00:20:35.166
actively engaged in by both men and women,

00:20:35.733 --> 00:20:39.433
chess naturally provides
an array of highly revealing insights

00:20:39.433 --> 00:20:42.266
on our current attitudes
regarding gender differences;

00:20:42.966 --> 00:20:47.700
through those who have personally
experienced the impact of gender-related issues,

00:20:47.700 --> 00:20:51.433
and those who have turned to chess
to inform our broader understanding

00:20:51.433 --> 00:20:54.933
of how factors related to gender directly influence

00:20:54.966 --> 00:20:56.533
human decision-making.

00:20:59.600 --> 00:21:03.833
I tried my fight in 2018
when I was top ten in the list

00:21:04.433 --> 00:21:07.733
to be equally paid
with the average of men,

00:21:07.800 --> 00:21:13.233
I mean the average men's national team,
and I was mentioning this years before

00:21:13.233 --> 00:21:16.933
and always they told me, “You’re rating is lower”
and stuff like this

00:21:16.933 --> 00:21:21.033
and I said, “OK, my rating is lower, but I
bring medals to my country.”

00:21:21.033 --> 00:21:25.500
Whereas none of the male players
can really count so many medals.

00:21:25.500 --> 00:21:28.766
And each medal I bring to the country
gives you better support

00:21:28.766 --> 00:21:31.000
from the Ministry of Sport.

00:21:31.866 --> 00:21:36.600
And yet it took me a long time;
and I had to withdraw

00:21:36.600 --> 00:21:39.666
from the national team
to make a serious point.

00:21:39.666 --> 00:21:45.000
And eventually now I get the same payment
as the average of men

00:21:45.266 --> 00:21:47.766
and my female colleagues
gets the same support

00:21:48.033 --> 00:21:52.200
as all the other men
in the same category of the sports list.

00:21:52.533 --> 00:21:55.666
But this was a fight
which couldn't have been won without

00:21:55.666 --> 00:21:58.200
basically making a radical kind of step.

00:21:58.866 --> 00:22:01.266
And I'm happy now that my federation

00:22:01.266 --> 00:22:04.266
in this way changed by 180 degrees.

00:22:04.500 --> 00:22:08.400
But I know that there are still
a lot of female colleagues,

00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:11.566
top players from other countries,
who are suffering from this.

00:22:11.933 --> 00:22:16.300
And especially, like, in the corona times,
it was quite frustrating

00:22:16.300 --> 00:22:21.000
for many of us to watch online
events like the Carlsen event.

00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:24.500
I mean, obviously Magnus Carlsen must have
been very bored from the lockdown

00:22:24.733 --> 00:22:28.300
because he was organizing
a lot of Internet events,

00:22:28.300 --> 00:22:30.466
online events which huge prize funds.

00:22:30.866 --> 00:22:34.800
And so the top elite of the men's
players was basically busy

00:22:34.800 --> 00:22:39.533
and working every week, whereas
the female professionals

00:22:39.766 --> 00:22:41.600
didn't know how to to make money.

00:22:41.600 --> 00:22:45.800
We were just basically—for us a kind of lost case.

00:22:46.200 --> 00:22:50.366
And I remember that when I at some point checked out

00:22:50.433 --> 00:22:51.966
the online games, and I saw

00:22:52.166 --> 00:22:52.900
1. e4, e5

00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:54.666
2. Ke2, Ke7

00:22:54.666 --> 00:22:55.900
3. Ke1, Ke8.

00:22:56.400 --> 00:23:00.000
I was thinking that this is so humiliating

00:23:00.300 --> 00:23:03.366
to see that the top elite players
have nothing else to do

00:23:03.400 --> 00:23:07.633
then to basically rape the cultural
and traditional point of the game,

00:23:07.900 --> 00:23:10.566
whereas we don't know how to survive in this time.

00:23:13.400 --> 00:23:15.966
when it comes to chess and my gender

00:23:15.966 --> 00:23:18.466
this is always been an issue in my life.

00:23:18.466 --> 00:23:21.600
I mean, it started off very young
when I was a girl

00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:25.433
and I was often the only girl
playing in a chess tournament.

00:23:25.433 --> 00:23:27.466
So I would get a lot of negative attention.

00:23:27.700 --> 00:23:30.766
And by negative attention, this would often be the boys

00:23:30.766 --> 00:23:33.433
coming up to me and saying, “I'm
going to beat you .”

00:23:33.433 --> 00:23:39.033
Now, because I grew up with an older brother
who wasn't so nice on the chess board.

00:23:39.566 --> 00:23:43.033
I actually relished the challenge
of beating younger boys,

00:23:43.300 --> 00:23:48.233
but as I grew older, the negativity
became a little bit more insidious.

00:23:48.633 --> 00:23:53.100
And when I first played in the Olympiad
when I was 18 years old,

00:23:53.866 --> 00:23:58.200
there would be a lot of negative talk around women.

00:23:58.366 --> 00:24:03.000
And it would go something like this: whenever we made
a blunder, it would be “Chick's Chess”.

00:24:03.400 --> 00:24:08.100
Now, at the time these were Oxbridge
guys telling me in a very witty way,

00:24:08.100 --> 00:24:11.866
that things that went wrong with women's
chess was “Chick’s Chess”.

00:24:12.166 --> 00:24:14.866
And so I kind of just accepted it, because I really wanted

00:24:14.866 --> 00:24:17.566
to be admired and respected by these grandmasters.

00:24:18.066 --> 00:24:23.200
I realize now that this was unacceptable,

00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:26.466
that instead of putting me down and kind of creating

00:24:26.466 --> 00:24:29.466
this kind of lack of self-confidence,
they kind of raise me up.

00:24:29.900 --> 00:24:31.300
But that didn't happen.

00:24:31.300 --> 00:24:35.233
And now, as a result of that, I'm very,
very aware of language.

00:24:35.566 --> 00:24:39.300
I'm very aware that we have to be
very careful with what we say

00:24:39.533 --> 00:24:40.833
when it comes to women's chess.

00:24:40.833 --> 00:24:44.300
For instance, when a woman wins a women's prize,

00:24:44.300 --> 00:24:48.066
It’s very very important that you just say
“Congratulations. Well done.”

00:24:48.566 --> 00:24:51.433
There's no need to put the woman
on the defensive by saying,

00:24:51.433 --> 00:24:52.866
“Well, hang on a second:

00:24:52.866 --> 00:24:57.966
Can you justify your place?
Can you justify why there is a women’s championship?”

00:24:57.966 --> 00:24:59.100
That needs to stop.

00:24:59.466 --> 00:25:01.066
I would like to that to change.

00:25:01.066 --> 00:25:03.866
And it is getting better, it really is.

00:25:03.866 --> 00:25:07.066
Our federations are becoming
much more aware of these things

00:25:07.066 --> 00:25:10.700
and they're saying,
“Okay, will take that fight on ourselves.”

00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:15.133
So for instance, in Germany,
the women are actually being paid

00:25:15.133 --> 00:25:17.700
the same as the men's team
when it comes to the Olympics.

00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:19.733
And this is fantastic.

00:25:19.733 --> 00:25:22.166
And they say,
“Well, if there's any questions on this,

00:25:22.166 --> 00:25:25.600
please just direct them at us, not at our female players.”

00:25:25.900 --> 00:25:30.466
And as a result of that, you get better
and better females, because suddenly

00:25:30.700 --> 00:25:33.700
the emphasis is just on chess;

00:25:33.700 --> 00:25:38.200
as opposed to politics, as opposed to biology.

00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:41.700
And that's what we're here for: just to play chess.

00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:47.100
Gender-related issues, probably not only in chess

00:25:47.100 --> 00:25:51.166
but also in other sports
is about the amount of prize money.

00:25:51.500 --> 00:25:55.966
We play the same tournament
in the same amount of days.

00:25:56.200 --> 00:25:59.400
We also get the same amount of games.

00:25:59.700 --> 00:26:03.700
Everything is the same,
but in the end it's always like that.

00:26:03.733 --> 00:26:07.466
The prize money for women
will always be lower than men.

00:26:07.966 --> 00:26:11.400
Okay, we see some changes in tennis,
for example:

00:26:11.400 --> 00:26:16.033
the US Open, they changed to have
the same amount of prize money.

00:26:16.033 --> 00:26:20.666
But it was through many efforts done

00:26:20.666 --> 00:26:25.500
by the people; and I don't see it
happening in chess anytime soon.

00:26:25.600 --> 00:26:31.933
Although women in chess right now
is way more respected than we were before

00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:35.966
in terms of everything:
in terms of opportunity, offers

00:26:36.966 --> 00:26:38.633
the number of tournaments

00:26:38.633 --> 00:26:40.500
and also about prize money.

00:26:40.800 --> 00:26:45.300
But I don't see it any time soon
that our prize money will be equal to men.

00:26:45.700 --> 00:26:49.866
In terms of achievements
of Indonesian chess:

00:26:50.500 --> 00:26:52.833
back then it was dominated by men.

00:26:52.866 --> 00:26:56.066
Maybe like 80% of Indonesian

00:26:56.700 --> 00:27:00.300
chess achievement was being made by the male players.

00:27:00.666 --> 00:27:04.300
But now, since I got the WGM title,

00:27:04.633 --> 00:27:09.366
every girl is kind of like, “OK, I want to play chess.

00:27:09.366 --> 00:27:11.400
I want to be a grandmaster too.

00:27:11.400 --> 00:27:14.033
If Irene can do that, I can do that as well.”

00:27:14.166 --> 00:27:17.066
And that is so heartwarming to actually witness them

00:27:17.066 --> 00:27:18.866
say that to my own face, you know?

00:27:21.566 --> 00:27:25.400
when I was in that primary school hobby class

00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:28.633
which includes both boys and girls,

00:27:28.633 --> 00:27:33.700
at that time the teacher would always compliment me
when I beat the boys,

00:27:33.900 --> 00:27:36.900
but would say nothing when I beat the girls.

00:27:37.333 --> 00:27:40.500
At that time, actually, I was happy about it.

00:27:41.133 --> 00:27:43.500
The only thing I  thought about was,

00:27:43.500 --> 00:27:46.066
Wow, the teacher says I played so great!

00:27:46.566 --> 00:27:49.466
But I became a little bit older,

00:27:49.833 --> 00:27:53.466
I realized that there is a very deep gender stereotype

00:27:54.066 --> 00:27:58.300
that boys can play xiangqi better than girls.

00:27:58.300 --> 00:28:06.000
But this is weird.  I think most people will acknowledge

00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:07.966
that boys are not smarter than girls,

00:28:07.966 --> 00:28:16.000
but people's reaction reveals a completely different thing.

00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:18.333
And I think, well, this is a very

00:28:19.866 --> 00:28:22.700
implicit gender stereotype.

00:28:22.700 --> 00:28:25.700
And as long as people around us

00:28:25.933 --> 00:28:28.433
always say these kind of things to us,

00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:31.433
we are being harmed

00:28:31.433 --> 00:28:34.533
more from this reverse discrimination.

00:28:35.500 --> 00:28:38.033
And we will always think that,

00:28:38.033 --> 00:28:44.500
Well, if I do something less perfect than boys

00:28:44.500 --> 00:28:46.433
it's perfectly okay.

00:28:46.433 --> 00:28:49.200
But actually, no.

00:28:51.566 --> 00:28:55.033
Due to a along traditional culture we tend to say,

00:28:55.033 --> 00:28:57.900
“Girls play chess less technically” or

00:28:57.900 --> 00:29:01.800
“Girls make more emotional decisions”,

00:29:02.466 --> 00:29:07.733
Or, you know, “The unstable performance
normally occurs in female players.”

00:29:07.733 --> 00:29:09.433
These kind of things, I don’t know why,

00:29:09.433 --> 00:29:12.000
but it seems like not only a stereotype, in fact,

00:29:12.066 --> 00:29:16.400
but also a kind of belief
or a kind of phenomenon

00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:19.800
that people kept talking about for years, for decades.

00:29:20.033 --> 00:29:21.666
And then, this is

00:29:22.766 --> 00:29:24.733
the kind of topic that

00:29:24.733 --> 00:29:28.266
is so easy to make jokes or talk with people about.

00:29:28.266 --> 00:29:33.433
I think it is very important
to take a kind of objective perspective

00:29:33.433 --> 00:29:37.233
to realize that
for what type of discussions or for

00:29:37.233 --> 00:29:42.333
what kind of behavior
or expressions is it really not appropriate,

00:29:42.833 --> 00:29:46.166
that it really offends and is against women.

00:29:46.533 --> 00:29:51.666
If someone just saya something like,
“You really need to improve your technique in the endgame.”

00:29:51.666 --> 00:29:53.900
I mean, that's the truth, at least for me.

00:29:54.066 --> 00:29:55.133
I just accept it

00:29:55.133 --> 00:29:58.933
because according to my own experience
and according to the chess games

00:29:58.933 --> 00:30:02.933
that I've seen, I've learned that it's
and it is really true that at the moment

00:30:03.266 --> 00:30:07.733
the techniques of female
players in the endgame should be improved.

00:30:08.200 --> 00:30:10.200
I mean, it shows in the statistics,

00:30:10.200 --> 00:30:14.766
so why should we deny it?

00:30:15.066 --> 00:30:18.266
So I feel that we should be less sensitive to these kinds of things

00:30:18.266 --> 00:30:20.466
and just accept them and try to improve.

00:30:20.466 --> 00:30:26.966
I believe this should be used as a form of encouragement
and not a kind of sensitive issue that we can’t talk about.

00:30:26.966 --> 00:30:30.800
But the other type of comments that are really inappropriate

00:30:30.800 --> 00:30:35.200
that’s the sort of thing I hope we will see less of in the future.

00:30:37.966 --> 00:30:43.066
Chess is a really great environment to study gender differences in general

00:30:43.066 --> 00:30:45.533
because on the surface it's a game

00:30:45.533 --> 00:30:48.833
that should be a completely level
playing field for everyone.

00:30:49.033 --> 00:30:52.433
And yet in the real world,
we observe these massive gaps,

00:30:52.766 --> 00:30:56.400
not just in terms of participation,
but also at the very elite levels

00:30:56.400 --> 00:30:59.600
where only 2% of grandmasters are female.

00:31:00.233 --> 00:31:04.466
So it's a real puzzle as to why it is,
and the debate is still quite open

00:31:04.466 --> 00:31:05.600
and not solved.

00:31:05.600 --> 00:31:07.500
There are biological explanations there.

00:31:07.500 --> 00:31:10.200
There are also statistical explanations.

00:31:10.200 --> 00:31:12.466
Neither of them really fully
explain the story.

00:31:12.466 --> 00:31:15.833
And the area that I care more about,
and my research cares more about,

00:31:16.033 --> 00:31:21.666
is the social and psychological effects
that might explain it, such as

00:31:21.933 --> 00:31:24.566
what are the societal norms,
cultural norms,

00:31:24.566 --> 00:31:28.200
things like peer pressure, role models,
and those sort of factors

00:31:28.466 --> 00:31:32.233
that might explain why there aren't
as many girls at the top of chess as boys.

00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:35.400
If there is just some

00:31:35.400 --> 00:31:39.866
cold, hard difference in playing strength
or potential between men and women

00:31:39.866 --> 00:31:43.066
then it shouldn't matter what the gender of your opponent is.

00:31:43.066 --> 00:31:46.500
We should always just find that men
do somewhat better than women.

00:31:47.033 --> 00:31:48.700
But it matters.

00:31:48.800 --> 00:31:52.366
For example, one of the great things about
chess is that we have chess ratings,

00:31:52.366 --> 00:31:56.400
which gives us some sort of objective
benchmark about players’ strengths.

00:31:56.700 --> 00:31:58.033
And here's the interesting thing.

00:31:58.033 --> 00:32:02.433
If a man plays against a man
or against a woman with the identical strength

00:32:02.433 --> 00:32:05.200
we should imagine that they'd play exactly the same way:

00:32:05.200 --> 00:32:06.900
same strength, same performance.

00:32:07.166 --> 00:32:08.333
But that doesn't happen.

00:32:08.333 --> 00:32:11.400
A man plays on longer
when he's playing against a woman

00:32:11.600 --> 00:32:15.366
and it takes him longer to resign,
and he plays more aggressively.

00:32:15.566 --> 00:32:18.000
And this has got nothing to do
with the strength of the opponent.

00:32:18.300 --> 00:32:20.233
So there's something else going on here,

00:32:20.233 --> 00:32:24.000
something that's cultural or a gender norm
or whatever you want to call it,

00:32:24.266 --> 00:32:28.333
that is affecting
how people play against different genders.

00:32:29.266 --> 00:32:32.633
My research has revealed
a pretty strong gender effect also

00:32:32.633 --> 00:32:36.833
when women play against either
a man or against another woman.

00:32:37.033 --> 00:32:41.100
When they play against a man, even if
objectively they've got the same strength,

00:32:41.400 --> 00:32:45.100
they play worse.
The quality of their moves is worse.

00:32:45.400 --> 00:32:47.333
And in addition,
when they're playing against a woman,

00:32:47.333 --> 00:32:51.633
they're more likely to sue for peace,
if you will, by offering a draw

00:32:51.633 --> 00:32:54.166
or accepting a draw
than if they play against a man.

00:32:54.166 --> 00:32:57.033
There's not really any good reason
or justification

00:32:57.033 --> 00:32:58.133
that we've worked out for that.

00:32:58.133 --> 00:33:01.633
But there's definitely a gender effect
depending on who it is

00:33:01.633 --> 00:33:03.566
that you're facing
on the other side of the board.

00:33:10.433 --> 00:33:15.666
David Smerdon’s determination to harness chess data
to study particular aspects of human behavior

00:33:15.900 --> 00:33:19.800
represents a fitting moment to move
from using chess as a societal mirror

00:33:20.233 --> 00:33:23.366
to actively investigating the many concrete applications

00:33:23.366 --> 00:33:27.000
of chess to a wide array of contemporary social issues.

00:33:28.300 --> 00:33:30.000
We begin with education,

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.066
where Elisabeth Spiegel, the charismatic and insightful
teacher and chess coach

00:33:34.066 --> 00:33:37.533
profiled in the award-winning documentary “Brooklyn Castle”,

00:33:37.533 --> 00:33:42.533
leverages her extensive personal experience
to highlight two essential ways that chess can

00:33:42.533 --> 00:33:46.200
uniquely contribute to a child's emotional
and intellectual development.

00:33:46.800 --> 00:33:49.833
While Monash University economist Wang-Sheng Lee

00:33:49.833 --> 00:33:53.066
describes the intriguing results of his study

00:33:53.066 --> 00:34:00.300
to rigorously assess the impact of learning chess
on a group of schoolchildren in rural Bangladesh.

00:34:04.166 --> 00:34:07.033
I think it's not apparent outside of chess

00:34:07.300 --> 00:34:11.100
how useful chess is in many ways, educationally.

00:34:11.100 --> 00:34:14.733
I think one of the other very, very useful things about it

00:34:14.733 --> 00:34:19.333
is the amount to which you can study on your own,

00:34:19.333 --> 00:34:22.300
and you don't need a teacher to unlock knowledge for you.

00:34:23.433 --> 00:34:26.833
Like in the same way as playing musical instruments, right?

00:34:26.866 --> 00:34:28.700
You can take it home and you can practice it

00:34:28.700 --> 00:34:32.033
and you have ears so you can hear
without an outside authority telling you

00:34:32.466 --> 00:34:34.066
what the feedback is.

00:34:34.066 --> 00:34:38.366
But you get infinite amounts of immediate
feedback, which is sort of a prerequisite

00:34:38.366 --> 00:34:42.333
for teaching yourself something.

00:34:42.333 --> 00:34:44.700
And so I think it's incredibly valuable
in that way.

00:34:44.700 --> 00:34:49.566
And I think it also teaches children
the value of studying:

00:34:50.400 --> 00:34:53.833
it teaches you how to teach yourself something

00:34:54.066 --> 00:34:54.900
and then provides

00:34:54.900 --> 00:34:56.733
checks to see if you've really learned it.

00:34:56.733 --> 00:34:58.000
You study an opening.

00:34:58.200 --> 00:35:02.000
You go and play blitz with it online,
and you see that you won all your games

00:35:02.033 --> 00:35:02.566
or you see that

00:35:02.566 --> 00:35:04.300
you lost all your games in this variation

00:35:04.300 --> 00:35:06.600
and you see exactly
what you need to work on.

00:35:06.966 --> 00:35:09.566
And so, I think the educational value

00:35:10.700 --> 00:35:14.733
is not just in the analytical training,
but it's in the fact that

00:35:15.966 --> 00:35:18.133
ultimately you're responsible
for what you learn

00:35:18.133 --> 00:35:21.900
and you have to figure out if you've
learned it or not in an effective way,

00:35:22.166 --> 00:35:25.600
which I think is incredibly valuable
for any scientist or

00:35:27.833 --> 00:35:30.533
anyone to grow up
and be able to sort of check their ideas

00:35:30.533 --> 00:35:33.266
and be able to test
if they've learned something.

00:35:35.866 --> 00:35:40.066
I thought that doing a study
on the effects of chess education

00:35:40.066 --> 00:35:41.800
would be very interesting

00:35:41.800 --> 00:35:45.866
in light of the fact that there's
a lot of stuff that has been done before,

00:35:46.166 --> 00:35:49.966
but none of
it seems to be particularly rigorous

00:35:50.333 --> 00:35:53.166
in terms of doing the empirics correctly.

00:35:53.833 --> 00:35:56.666
And so, as a former chess

00:35:56.666 --> 00:36:00.466
player myself,
I have some thoughts or opinions

00:36:00.466 --> 00:36:03.866
about what I think
the potential benefits of chess are.

00:36:03.866 --> 00:36:08.800
The setting for this particular
study was in rural Bangladesh,

00:36:09.333 --> 00:36:13.833
and the advantage of having the setting
in a rural country is that the children

00:36:13.833 --> 00:36:19.500
that we are studying here almost surely
have had no exposure to chess as a game.

00:36:19.966 --> 00:36:23.066
We use what is known as a randomized trial,

00:36:23.366 --> 00:36:26.766
which means that we randomly chose

00:36:27.100 --> 00:36:30.633
to assign some kids
to receive chess lessons

00:36:31.000 --> 00:36:34.066
and some other kids
to not receive chess lessons.

00:36:34.066 --> 00:36:38.533
And the idea here is that
by comparing their outcomes over time,

00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:42.633
we will be able to see something
quite definitive

00:36:43.100 --> 00:36:46.800
about the causal effect
of receiving chess lessons.

00:36:47.566 --> 00:36:51.066
And we found that
the kids who took the chess training

00:36:51.533 --> 00:36:53.866
became less risk averse.

00:36:54.100 --> 00:36:56.400
They were more willing
to take some sort of risks.

00:36:57.166 --> 00:36:59.100
And that's because, I think,

00:37:00.533 --> 00:37:03.500
we understand that chess has the ability

00:37:03.500 --> 00:37:06.933
to conceptualize this notion of risk very well.

00:37:07.533 --> 00:37:10.533
For example, beginners often start

00:37:10.533 --> 00:37:14.466
by moving their queen out
very early to go for an early checkmate.

00:37:14.700 --> 00:37:17.833
And that's because the queen
is the most powerful piece on the board.

00:37:18.766 --> 00:37:21.733
But the chess coaches quickly

00:37:21.733 --> 00:37:23.766
taught these kids that

00:37:23.766 --> 00:37:28.333
going for the 4-move checkmate all the time is a really bad idea.

00:37:28.566 --> 00:37:32.633
It's a really risky strategy,
because if you're playing a weak player

00:37:32.633 --> 00:37:34.733
yes, it can lead to quick success.

00:37:35.033 --> 00:37:37.266
But if you're playing a much stronger player

00:37:37.266 --> 00:37:40.933
or even an intermediate-level player,
it actually is going to cost you.

00:37:41.733 --> 00:37:46.433
And another notion of risk that was taught by the coaches to the kids

00:37:46.433 --> 00:37:48.866
was this concept of sacrifice.

00:37:49.566 --> 00:37:53.400
So, in order to sometimes checkmate the opponent's king,

00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:56.700
you know, it's important or necessary

00:37:56.700 --> 00:38:01.166
to try to break down
the defensive structures around the king.

00:38:01.433 --> 00:38:04.433
And that could mean giving up some material

00:38:04.933 --> 00:38:09.366
in order to get rid of a pawn
that is in the way, for example.

00:38:09.766 --> 00:38:13.366
So again, what I'm suggesting here is that

00:38:14.500 --> 00:38:16.766
maybe for the first time,

00:38:17.100 --> 00:38:20.466
you know, teaching them
these ideas in chess

00:38:21.033 --> 00:38:25.200
got these kids thinking about risk
in a completely different way,

00:38:25.466 --> 00:38:29.566
because risk is a concept
that is not easily

00:38:29.566 --> 00:38:31.600
taught in any school subject.

00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:36.500
When you play chess, it's not that you lose “sooner or later”.

00:38:36.700 --> 00:38:39.166
It's that you lose all the time, right?

00:38:39.500 --> 00:38:43.100
If you sit down and play ten blitz
games, you're going to lose half of them

00:38:43.566 --> 00:38:46.166
and you have to be able
to pick yourself up and keep going.

00:38:46.566 --> 00:38:51.333
And I think schools have become a lot
more child-friendly in the last 50 years.

00:38:51.733 --> 00:38:56.433
But I think part of the cost of that
is that we set up assignments

00:38:56.433 --> 00:38:58.300
so that children are successful

00:38:58.300 --> 00:39:01.700
and there's not a lot of practice

00:39:02.100 --> 00:39:06.533
that anybody gets anymore at publicly failing

00:39:06.533 --> 00:39:08.333
and having to figure out

00:39:08.333 --> 00:39:12.266
why you failed and having to do it
again 30 minutes later.

00:39:13.233 --> 00:39:15.533
And I think chess is so valuable because

00:39:15.533 --> 00:39:17.033
you have to find a way

00:39:17.033 --> 00:39:20.100
to come to terms with the fact that you're
going to lose half of your games.

00:39:20.566 --> 00:39:23.333
And so many kids are so protected from that

00:39:23.333 --> 00:39:27.000
and from the ego hit that it causes,

00:39:27.866 --> 00:39:30.566
that they go away to college
and they've never failed at anything.

00:39:30.966 --> 00:39:34.466
And suddenly they have to do something really difficult

00:39:34.466 --> 00:39:36.400
and they fail spectacularly and collapse.

00:39:37.200 --> 00:39:41.133
But if you have a child who from elementary school is used to

00:39:42.266 --> 00:39:46.733
losing; and losing at chess is so painful psychologically

00:39:46.733 --> 00:39:49.500
because there's no chance, there's no luck.

00:39:49.900 --> 00:39:54.766
It's just that you tried your hardest and someone else beat you.

00:39:55.166 --> 00:40:01.033
But being able to separate yourself from that and learn from it

00:40:01.033 --> 00:40:05.600
is an incredible life skill that I don't see anybody else teaching.

00:40:05.600 --> 00:40:07.533
I don't see anywhere in the school system

00:40:07.533 --> 00:40:12.000
that children get any practice at that
or any support with that.

00:40:12.833 --> 00:40:13.300
And I think

00:40:15.333 --> 00:40:19.466
I think especially with gifted students

00:40:19.466 --> 00:40:21.500
in highly privileged environments

00:40:21.500 --> 00:40:23.933
it’s the thing that they need the most.

00:40:26.600 --> 00:40:29.300
Chess’ extraordinary level of internationalism

00:40:29.300 --> 00:40:32.900
is clearly an important ingredient for broad social impact,

00:40:32.900 --> 00:40:35.500
but in itself is hardly sufficient.

00:40:36.466 --> 00:40:39.300
It's not just the chess is globally identifiable,

00:40:39.733 --> 00:40:45.033
it's the high level of internationally-recognized status
associated with chess proficiency

00:40:45.033 --> 00:40:46.766
that naturally transforms it

00:40:46.766 --> 00:40:49.533
into an exceptional tool
for social change.

00:40:51.300 --> 00:40:54.266
Since becoming a successful
chess player is universally

00:40:54.833 --> 00:40:58.933
and deservedly, viewed as something
demanding intellectual respect,

00:40:59.566 --> 00:41:02.500
ably participating
in a great historical tradition

00:41:02.500 --> 00:41:05.766
that has captivated
many of history's most respected thinkers;

00:41:06.866 --> 00:41:09.333
and since, as we've seen in Part One,

00:41:09.666 --> 00:41:13.133
acquiring significant chess playing
skill is something accessible

00:41:13.133 --> 00:41:17.533
to virtually everyone prepared to invest
the necessary time and effort to do so,

00:41:18.200 --> 00:41:23.300
the stage is set for a virtuous circle
of achievement, pride and confidence

00:41:23.700 --> 00:41:27.266
that anyone can participate in
to at least some degree,

00:41:27.766 --> 00:41:30.400
something that makes it
particularly relevant for those

00:41:30.400 --> 00:41:32.400
who, more often than not,

00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:36.533
have never been exposed to such opportunities in their entire lives,

00:41:36.533 --> 00:41:40.500
such as many who currently find themselves behind bars.

00:41:43.833 --> 00:41:50.000
Back in 2014, I knew that with the English
Chess Federation there was a position

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.233
the manager of chess imprisons,
and I thought, I fancy that.

00:41:54.633 --> 00:41:57.366
And, you know,
we have many chess communities.

00:41:57.800 --> 00:42:01.766
We have the older players, we have schools, juniors.

00:42:01.766 --> 00:42:04.666
And I thought,
Well, prison is a community.

00:42:04.833 --> 00:42:06.500
Why don't I do something with that?

00:42:06.500 --> 00:42:07.533
And I thought, you know what?

00:42:07.533 --> 00:42:09.533
I know the power of chess.

00:42:09.533 --> 00:42:11.133
I think it can make a difference.

00:42:11.133 --> 00:42:15.633
And I started to look at what's going on
in the prison community, recidivism rates

00:42:15.633 --> 00:42:16.333
and the rest of it.

00:42:16.333 --> 00:42:19.666
And the education programs not actually “working” as such.

00:42:19.733 --> 00:42:21.133
And I thought, you know what?

00:42:21.133 --> 00:42:23.100
I know what chess has done for me.

00:42:23.100 --> 00:42:25.100
I know what chess can do for prisoners

00:42:25.733 --> 00:42:29.266
A little bit over ten years ago,

00:42:29.266 --> 00:42:32.400
in one of the Scholastic
Chess Tournament in Chicago,

00:42:33.800 --> 00:42:37.700
one young boy came to play chess

00:42:38.366 --> 00:42:42.400
and his dad was standing in the hall and reading a newspaper.

00:42:43.666 --> 00:42:46.266
And I did not know who his father is,

00:42:46.800 --> 00:42:50.266
but I was told by the other parents,
“You need to go and talk with that gentleman

00:42:50.266 --> 00:42:52.366
who's standing in the corner and reading the newspaper.”

00:42:53.433 --> 00:42:55.233
And I said, “Why should I?”

00:42:55.233 --> 00:42:58.733
And they said, “Well, just go and talk with him; he’s an interesting fellow.”

00:42:58.733 --> 00:43:01.900
So I did. I introduced myself.

00:43:01.900 --> 00:43:07.000
And we had a talk during the Scholastic tournament.

00:43:07.666 --> 00:43:10.900
And I told my story

00:43:10.900 --> 00:43:13.400
about teaching chess
in an alternative high school.

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:17.066
And the gentlemen said, “Oh, that's great.”

00:43:17.066 --> 00:43:20.700
“I want this to be in my shop tomorrow.”

00:43:20.700 --> 00:43:22.433
I said, “What do you mean in your shop?”

00:43:22.433 --> 00:43:25.766
And he said, “Well, it's in the Cook County
Jail, because I am the Sheriff.”

00:43:26.933 --> 00:43:29.266
And I said, “Wow.  And you want it tomorrow?”

00:43:29.266 --> 00:43:31.400
He said, Sure, I want tomorrow.”

00:43:32.033 --> 00:43:36.266
Chess in jails and prisons is not horribly unique.

00:43:36.266 --> 00:43:39.666
In some form or fashion they've been going on for years all over.

00:43:39.666 --> 00:43:42.933
Most of the ones that I've seen were very rudimentary.

00:43:43.500 --> 00:43:47.000
Namely, you give them the boards, you give them the pieces,

00:43:47.366 --> 00:43:50.733
you may or may not give them instruction, you may not.

00:43:51.566 --> 00:43:53.933
And it was meant almost exclusively

00:43:53.933 --> 00:43:59.033
for purposes of entertainment/killing time.

00:43:59.466 --> 00:44:04.333
And I wanted every part of what I was
doing in the jail to be purpose-driven.

00:44:04.600 --> 00:44:08.466
It's like, Okay, I have people who have obviously loads of different issues

00:44:08.466 --> 00:44:11.100
all across the spectrum in my custody.

00:44:11.400 --> 00:44:15.366
Why not, when I have them here,
utilize this opportunity

00:44:15.366 --> 00:44:19.366
to try to address the issues, try
to give people skills they may not have,

00:44:19.566 --> 00:44:21.300
give them opportunities they may not have.

00:44:21.300 --> 00:44:23.766
This does not have to be
this sort of net-zero thing

00:44:23.766 --> 00:44:27.400
where our only hope is to get them back
and forth to court and feed them

00:44:27.400 --> 00:44:30.100
and then, frankly, spew them back out in the street.

00:44:30.566 --> 00:44:32.966
I initially wanted to use it as a way

00:44:33.000 --> 00:44:35.366
to try to get people
to change their thought processes.

00:44:35.733 --> 00:44:38.166
I've played chess over the years,
not very well.

00:44:38.433 --> 00:44:42.366
I have a son who does play it well;
and I've gone all over the country

00:44:42.366 --> 00:44:45.000
with him for annual chess tournaments.

00:44:45.466 --> 00:44:51.733
And the thing that I’ve always been impressed about was something
that I had gained myself - it was somewhat obvious -

00:44:51.733 --> 00:44:53.633
was that it made you think differently.

00:44:53.866 --> 00:44:58.400
If nothing other than just that baseline part of it,

00:44:58.400 --> 00:45:02.433
where it made you think multiple moves ahead,
that to me was a big winner

00:45:02.433 --> 00:45:05.700
because so many of the things
I've read over the course of the years

00:45:05.700 --> 00:45:10.133
about people who commit crimes,
who are involved with antisocial behavior,

00:45:10.466 --> 00:45:14.700
it's because of a thought process
where it's basically on a survival mode,

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:17.233
where they're just thinking minute
to minute to minute

00:45:17.233 --> 00:45:19.500
and there is no such thing as long-term goals.

00:45:19.800 --> 00:45:22.500
There's no such things
as thinking about consequences.

00:45:22.866 --> 00:45:26.400
And so for me, chess was the ideal thing
to not just teach them

00:45:26.400 --> 00:45:30.166
a game that consumed time,
but got them to think through

00:45:30.166 --> 00:45:33.733
that if you're to succeed, certainly in chess,

00:45:33.733 --> 00:45:38.633
you’re going to have to be a very deliberative person
who thought multiple moves ahead

00:45:38.933 --> 00:45:42.433
and understood that there was other
pieces, there's other players,

00:45:42.766 --> 00:45:46.200
there's other things that will be going on
that will require you to react,

00:45:46.200 --> 00:45:48.600
but yet also require you to have a plan.

00:45:51.200 --> 00:45:53.033
And it was sort of fascinating, because at times

00:45:53.033 --> 00:45:56.800
I thought that I might be just delusional.

00:45:57.000 --> 00:46:02.200
But I've had numerous detainees
and inmates in my place grab me

00:46:02.200 --> 00:46:05.433
at different points when I'd go
and watch the chess or something like that

00:46:05.733 --> 00:46:09.866
and, truly unsolicited ,would tell me,
“Hey, Sheriff, thanks a lot.”

00:46:10.433 --> 00:46:12.666
“Since I started doing this, I think differently”.

00:46:13.300 --> 00:46:15.766
The winner of the chess game is

00:46:15.766 --> 00:46:20.566
not the one who has a brilliant plan or idea,

00:46:20.566 --> 00:46:24.800
the winner of the chess game is the one
who understand what the opponent is doing.

00:46:25.566 --> 00:46:27.866
I see what he or she is doing.

00:46:28.500 --> 00:46:30.500
I understand this.

00:46:30.500 --> 00:46:34.733
And I will play against this opponent right now.

00:46:35.300 --> 00:46:37.866
When they will get this message

00:46:37.866 --> 00:46:40.500
that should change the way they're thinking.

00:46:41.066 --> 00:46:45.800
They will not be thinking: “I am the center of the universe.”

00:46:45.800 --> 00:46:48.466
No, “There are people around me

00:46:49.000 --> 00:46:51.166
and I need to think what they're doing

00:46:51.733 --> 00:46:55.000
and where is my role in this society

00:46:55.233 --> 00:46:58.600
and how can I fit into that?”

00:46:58.600 --> 00:47:01.133
So, if I understand what other people are doing

00:47:02.400 --> 00:47:04.433
that is a different way of thinking.

00:47:05.300 --> 00:47:07.600
And I might be wrong,

00:47:07.600 --> 00:47:10.666
but chess might be the best way to teach it.

00:47:11.900 --> 00:47:14.633
It is remarkable what chess has done.

00:47:15.500 --> 00:47:18.033
You can give me all the data you want,

00:47:18.033 --> 00:47:20.633
but the best data for me is a heartfelt letter.

00:47:20.833 --> 00:47:23.900
You know, it's a written letter
saying what chess means for you.

00:47:24.600 --> 00:47:27.200
I've had prisoners write to me and say

00:47:27.200 --> 00:47:29.466
“I was going to commit suicide.”

00:47:29.466 --> 00:47:30.366
“I had nothing.”

00:47:30.366 --> 00:47:33.300
“And then, at Christmas, they brought a chess set into the prison.”

00:47:33.433 --> 00:47:37.500
“I found chess. As a result of that I started to play with somebody else -

00:47:37.500 --> 00:47:40.233
nice, quiet environment; and then somebody else.”

00:47:40.766 --> 00:47:45.566
“And then all the big mouths from the pool table, they came across.”

00:47:45.900 --> 00:47:47.533
“They became interested.”

00:47:47.533 --> 00:47:49.200
“I got out of my cell more.”

00:47:49.200 --> 00:47:50.700
“I didn't want to kill myself.”

00:47:50.700 --> 00:47:52.600
“I just wanted to play chess.”

00:47:52.600 --> 00:47:54.300
“And I've made some new friends.”

00:47:54.300 --> 00:47:57.500
So. that's incredibly powerful.

00:47:57.500 --> 00:48:00.166
And then you get somebody says,  “Thanks to chess,

00:48:00.833 --> 00:48:02.400
I read your column in the paper.

00:48:02.400 --> 00:48:05.333
I started to play chess and I thought, You know what?

00:48:05.366 --> 00:48:07.600
I haven't seen my father for 30 years.

00:48:08.100 --> 00:48:10.300
We used to play chess when I was a kid,

00:48:10.300 --> 00:48:13.700
so I wrote to him and said, ‘I've started to play chess again.’

00:48:13.700 --> 00:48:16.333
And now I'm back with my father.”

00:48:16.333 --> 00:48:18.766
You know, all these little streams

00:48:18.766 --> 00:48:22.100
that run into big rivers, if you like, are just quite remarkable.

00:48:22.700 --> 00:48:25.333
Then we started taking it to other levels.

00:48:25.800 --> 00:48:31.866
Like when my son approached me and said,
“Hey dad, what if we start training detainee’s children?”

00:48:31.866 --> 00:48:35.200
And I said, “Well, that would be a really neat things, son.”

00:48:35.533 --> 00:48:38.266
“And I think it'd be really cool.”

00:48:39.200 --> 00:48:40.133
“How do you want to do it?”

00:48:40.133 --> 00:48:44.566
And so, he would have the kids come to a local high school,

00:48:44.566 --> 00:48:46.900
his high school, Mt. Carmel High School,

00:48:46.900 --> 00:48:49.133
who graciously gave us their place.

00:48:49.566 --> 00:48:52.566
And the families would come there
and he'd spend time teaching

00:48:52.566 --> 00:48:55.566
the children the basics of chess.

00:48:55.566 --> 00:48:58.133
And the thing that was cool about it,
and he really drove this home,

00:48:58.133 --> 00:49:00.900
was that he wanted just the basics taught.

00:49:01.166 --> 00:49:04.200
The reason being was that, once again,
we wanted this to work on multiple levels.

00:49:04.566 --> 00:49:07.800
And the real level we were getting at there is

00:49:08.733 --> 00:49:10.866
that we wanted

00:49:10.866 --> 00:49:14.033
not just the interaction
between the child and their parent,

00:49:14.433 --> 00:49:17.100
but the child seeing their parent differently,

00:49:17.400 --> 00:49:20.600
seeing their parent as someone who has accomplished something.

00:49:20.600 --> 00:49:22.566
And for many these kids,

00:49:22.566 --> 00:49:25.866
their father has just been an
embarrassment, if they even know who he is.

00:49:26.400 --> 00:49:28.966
And so instead, now they're looking at the father

00:49:28.966 --> 00:49:33.366
in a whole different way, as someone who's
learned this wildly complicated game.

00:49:33.600 --> 00:49:37.900
and now is mentoring and teaching their child something,

00:49:38.166 --> 00:49:39.366
something they've never done.

00:49:39.366 --> 00:49:43.533
Most of the kids, we'd hear from them,
their father never read them a book

00:49:43.533 --> 00:49:44.900
He was not terribly engaged.

00:49:45.333 --> 00:49:50.166
Now, they're teaching them this,
and they're going back and forth playing.

00:49:50.166 --> 00:49:52.433
The father’s teaching them the moves,

00:49:52.433 --> 00:49:53.833
teaching them what moves are good, what moves are bad.

00:49:53.833 --> 00:49:57.900
And as the weeks progressed, they got to a stage of
more competitive games going on.

00:49:58.166 --> 00:50:01.900
Father and daughter or father and son
now have this game they’re playing together,

00:50:01.900 --> 00:50:04.200
which, once again, they had never done before.

00:50:04.200 --> 00:50:08.100
And the final hook in it is that when they leave our custody,

00:50:08.733 --> 00:50:11.133
this is a game they can play with their children forever.

00:50:11.266 --> 00:50:12.233
Forever.

00:50:15.466 --> 00:50:18.533
We're here in the Department of Corrections.

00:50:19.500 --> 00:50:21.833
It's not the Department of Punishment.

00:50:22.566 --> 00:50:25.133
We're trying to help people,

00:50:25.133 --> 00:50:29.333
who at some point of time in their life, made mistakes.

00:50:30.333 --> 00:50:33.366
Those mistakes may be huge,

00:50:33.366 --> 00:50:37.200
maybe small, but they're all mistakes.

00:50:37.200 --> 00:50:38.366
That's why they here.

00:50:39.333 --> 00:50:41.966
Unsurprisingly, there's a mixed reaction to this,

00:50:41.966 --> 00:50:45.433
and even one or two of my closest friends still maintain,

00:50:45.433 --> 00:50:47.366
“Why would I do it?”

00:50:47.366 --> 00:50:51.000
Now, I have to ask the question:
What is the purpose of prison?

00:50:51.733 --> 00:50:54.800
When you have an adult who sends a child to their room

00:50:54.800 --> 00:50:59.400
because they've been naughty,
they send them to their room as punishment.

00:50:59.933 --> 00:51:01.900
They don't send them to the room for punishment.

00:51:01.900 --> 00:51:04.566
They don’t then go in and give them a bowl of gruel and thrash them.

00:51:04.566 --> 00:51:07.266
They send them to their room.  That's the punishment.

00:51:07.266 --> 00:51:11.900
Now, people go to prison as punishment, not for it.

00:51:11.900 --> 00:51:12.533
And so

00:51:13.666 --> 00:51:15.466
I say to people, “What are we going to do?”

00:51:15.466 --> 00:51:17.300
“What are we going to do with people who are in prison

00:51:17.300 --> 00:51:19.066
and keep coming back to prison?”

00:51:19.066 --> 00:51:20.700
“What can we do differently?”

00:51:21.366 --> 00:51:26.266
Can you think of any other industry - anything -
say, furniture manufacturing

00:51:26.600 --> 00:51:31.266
that 70% of their couches broke within two years,

00:51:31.533 --> 00:51:33.633
and can you imagine that you're still in business?

00:51:33.766 --> 00:51:35.466
Of course not. You're out of business.

00:51:35.466 --> 00:51:39.233
But the recidivism rate across this country is about 70%

00:51:39.233 --> 00:51:41.800
within a year and a half to two years.

00:51:41.800 --> 00:51:45.100
And yet, what, we're going to keep doing the same thing,

00:51:45.600 --> 00:51:47.833
same program, same mindset, same everything?

00:51:47.833 --> 00:51:49.833
It's like, “You should all be fired.”

00:51:50.433 --> 00:51:53.633
Chess on every prison agenda.

00:51:54.633 --> 00:51:56.500
That's what I want.

00:51:56.700 --> 00:52:01.033
Too many prisons have written to me
and said, “Hmm, sounds interesting,

00:52:01.033 --> 00:52:03.666
but we don't have the resources. We can't afford to do it.”

00:52:04.433 --> 00:52:07.633
To which I respond, “Hmm, can you afford not to do it?”

00:52:08.266 --> 00:52:12.000
There just always seems to be some of excuse

00:52:12.033 --> 00:52:16.133
as to why this program or that program can't be implemented.

00:52:16.133 --> 00:52:22.000
And most of the excuses, I'll be completely honest with you, are made up.

00:52:22.266 --> 00:52:23.266
They're not true.

00:52:23.266 --> 00:52:24.733
I mean, they just aren't, you know.

00:52:24.733 --> 00:52:27.266
Once again, I’ve been around enough where I can sit here and say that.

00:52:27.266 --> 00:52:30.200
I don't need to play games anymore

00:52:30.200 --> 00:52:33.300
or come up with some complex term as to why you can't do that.

00:52:33.500 --> 00:52:36.833
People will come up, traditionally, in correctional facilities and talk about

00:52:36.833 --> 00:52:40.300
how because of security issues, we can't do certain things.

00:52:40.300 --> 00:52:42.566
Well, that same person will literally say,

00:52:42.566 --> 00:52:44.866
“Well, because of security issues, that’s why we can’t feed them.”

00:52:44.866 --> 00:52:45.933
I'm like, What?

00:52:45.933 --> 00:52:49.100
“Yeah, because they could stab themselves
with one of the plastic sporks.”

00:52:49.400 --> 00:52:51.500
And I was like, “Oh, I suppose you're right.”

00:52:51.500 --> 00:52:52.633
“I suppose you're right.”

00:52:52.633 --> 00:52:55.666
“And they could take the styrofoam tray

00:52:55.666 --> 00:53:00.000
and they could grind that up and ingest it...”

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:02.833
You get to the point where it gets so silly; and you're like, Come on.

00:53:03.466 --> 00:53:09.100
The reality of it is if you have baseline moderation of these programs and supervision

00:53:09.100 --> 00:53:11.700
they all come off without a hitch.

00:53:12.566 --> 00:53:16.800
So, I started playing this
lady, a lovely, demure lady,

00:53:17.966 --> 00:53:19.266
Scottish lady.

00:53:19.266 --> 00:53:24.600
She only had one tooth in her whole head,
but she had these big marble blue eyes

00:53:24.600 --> 00:53:26.266
and we started playing and

00:53:27.666 --> 00:53:30.733
she suddenly asked me this question.  She said:

00:53:30.933 --> 00:53:34.066
“Why is it that men are better players than women?”

00:53:34.533 --> 00:53:37.066
“Or let me say, why do you think that women are weaker?”

00:53:37.733 --> 00:53:39.833
And I thought, Oh, that's put me on the spot.

00:53:40.700 --> 00:53:42.066
So I had to think on my feet.

00:53:42.066 --> 00:53:46.666
And I said, “Well, I'll quote what Garry Kasparov, the former world champion, once said.”

00:53:46.666 --> 00:53:50.533
“He once said that, ‘Women aren’t as good as men

00:53:50.533 --> 00:53:52.800
because they lack the killer instinct.’”

00:53:53.866 --> 00:53:56.600
And she paused and leant across
and looked at me and said,

00:53:57.300 --> 00:54:01.266
“Well, I bloody didn't.”

00:54:01.266 --> 00:54:03.066
And I said, “Fair enough.”

00:54:03.066 --> 00:54:04.433
It was just a wonderful moment

00:54:04.433 --> 00:54:06.133
and we both fell about laughing.

00:54:08.933 --> 00:54:13.000
The final leg of our long journey turns
out to be the most remarkable one of all.

00:54:13.800 --> 00:54:21.233
Its unique combination of offering internationally recognized status
through rigorous age-independent intellectual engagement

00:54:21.233 --> 00:54:27.766
enables chess to be one of the single greatest tools
imaginable for personal empowerment and connection

00:54:27.766 --> 00:54:32.900
across an increasingly unequal world.

00:54:36.200 --> 00:54:39.700
I call it an equalizer. Because, like, for example,

00:54:39.700 --> 00:54:41.600
a kid coming from the Middle East here

00:54:41.600 --> 00:54:46.466
cannot join the debate club in three months.

00:54:46.466 --> 00:54:47.766
But he can join the chess club.

00:54:47.766 --> 00:54:49.866
He or she can join the chess club in three months.

00:54:50.400 --> 00:54:54.435
And that's the way he can - he can join a new culture.

00:54:54.966 --> 00:54:56.100
He can become part of it.

00:54:56.100 --> 00:55:00.199
That's the tie that you as a host nation or culture

00:55:00.199 --> 00:55:02.600
is offering to the people who are coming there.

00:55:02.600 --> 00:55:06.200
And I think that's the fascinating and beautiful thing about it.

00:55:06.200 --> 00:55:09.769
I started learning English when I was 18, seriously studying it.

00:55:09.769 --> 00:55:12.066
And it's really hard to learn a new language.

00:55:12.066 --> 00:55:13.633
It's really, really hard.

00:55:13.633 --> 00:55:15.466
But chess has a universal language.

00:55:15.466 --> 00:55:19.400
I can play chess with someone in Uganda or in Australia

00:55:19.400 --> 00:55:24.033
or in Caledonia, or anywhere you can name on earth

00:55:24.033 --> 00:55:26.033
And we are speaking basically the same language.

00:55:28.200 --> 00:55:31.000
Chess In Slums Africa is a nonprofit organization

00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:35.966
that uses the game of chess to foster the social
and intellectual developments of children

00:55:35.966 --> 00:55:38.666
living in low-vincome communities in Africa.

00:55:39.266 --> 00:55:41.733
I'm from Lagos, Nigeria, and I'm an African.

00:55:42.400 --> 00:55:44.633
And I believe very strongly in the future of Africa.

00:55:45.333 --> 00:55:47.900
I also believe that Africa must be built by Africans.

00:55:48.833 --> 00:55:52.800
I grew up in a slum community myself, and chess gave me a lifeline

00:55:53.300 --> 00:55:55.800
at a point in my life when I couldn't go to school.

00:55:55.800 --> 00:55:58.133
So, I was able to get a scholarship because I was good at it.

00:55:58.800 --> 00:56:02.013
What we do, I call it a revolutionary idea,

00:56:02.013 --> 00:56:06.766
because we’re taking something that has always been there
and we're giving itv new meaning.

00:56:06.766 --> 00:56:10.800
And one powerful connotation it has is the identity it gives.

00:56:11.233 --> 00:56:14.666
And this is very integral to the context of the work

00:56:14.666 --> 00:56:15.733
that we're trying to do,.

00:56:15.733 --> 00:56:17.979
Because when you think poverty in Africa,

00:56:17.979 --> 00:56:21.300
and children in impoverished communities,
what immediately comes to mind

00:56:22.033 --> 00:56:26.833
is pictures of children suffering very deeply in poverty, right?

00:56:27.166 --> 00:56:29.933
So how can we use chess really as a tool

00:56:29.933 --> 00:56:32.533
to change this societal perception

00:56:33.000 --> 00:56:36.333
and actually solve the problems
that plague these children?

00:56:36.333 --> 00:56:39.766
Because the only problem
that is prominent in places like this

00:56:39.800 --> 00:56:42.333
is the lack of opportunities, the lack of access.

00:56:42.833 --> 00:56:48.433
So, chess for me was a way to give them an intellectual identity.

00:56:48.766 --> 00:56:50.800
It's a game that is respected all over the world,

00:56:50.800 --> 00:56:53.033
that has been played through the centuries.

00:56:53.033 --> 00:56:57.700
So the idea was if a child from the slums
or one of the poorest places in the world

00:56:58.066 --> 00:57:01.466
can gain mastery of it, that becomes identity.

00:57:01.633 --> 00:57:04.505
And people would only judge him based on that premise,

00:57:04.505 --> 00:57:09.078
not for what he looks like or where he’s from,
but by what he has the ability to do.

00:57:09.233 --> 00:57:11.466
Teaching them chess was a way to give them the ability

00:57:11.466 --> 00:57:15.300
to do something, the ability
to also be intellectually inclined.

00:57:15.300 --> 00:57:18.866
So, that was the idea behind it,
and that was why I understood

00:57:18.866 --> 00:57:22.266
that this would become very powerful for the child.

00:57:22.266 --> 00:57:24.100
It could become empowering for them

00:57:24.100 --> 00:57:27.800
beyond just going to places like that
and just giving handouts.

00:57:27.900 --> 00:57:29.233
That doesn't solve anything.

00:57:29.233 --> 00:57:33.200
But giving them an identity which they can build their entire future on,

00:57:33.200 --> 00:57:36.200
that their hopes and dreams could really stem from,

00:57:36.200 --> 00:57:39.033
was what I thought we could do with chess,

00:57:39.033 --> 00:57:41.533
and I think that is the power that chess has:

00:57:41.533 --> 00:57:44.100
to give people an identity.

00:57:46.600 --> 00:57:49.833
I think chess is great, because everyone can play.

00:57:50.900 --> 00:57:56.666
I mean, it doesn't matter what your age is, or your gender,
or where you're from,

00:57:56.700 --> 00:58:00.366
or if you're rich or poor, you can play.

00:58:00.466 --> 00:58:05.500
If somebody teaches you the rules, then it’s possible to play.

00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:09.066
And I think that's something
that should be used more

00:58:09.700 --> 00:58:12.033
so that you can basically

00:58:12.033 --> 00:58:15.200
use chess as a point of connection between different people.

00:58:15.866 --> 00:58:18.900
Because, there are of course,
a lot of problems in the world

00:58:19.466 --> 00:58:23.833
and one is helping people
who are living under the poverty line,

00:58:23.989 --> 00:58:28.333
people who don’t have food for the day,
who don't have health care, and so on.

00:58:28.800 --> 00:58:31.533
And, of course, there are many people who want to help.

00:58:31.533 --> 00:58:34.900
And chess can actually be a way
to connect those people with each other.

00:58:35.366 --> 00:58:37.600
And that's what, for example,
what we are doing with

00:58:37.600 --> 00:58:38.866
Business Meets Chess & Kids

00:58:38.866 --> 00:58:42.066
that we basically connect people through chess.

00:58:42.666 --> 00:58:45.500
You can have some investor that plays chess

00:58:45.800 --> 00:58:50.300
who sits in England or in Sweden or in the United States

00:58:50.300 --> 00:58:54.666
or something like this; and then they can
connect with a young child or young chess talent

00:58:54.666 --> 00:58:58.100
in Kenya or in Uganda or in Zambia,

00:58:58.766 --> 00:59:01.100
and they can have a good time together.

00:59:01.100 --> 00:59:02.833
They can understand each other.

00:59:02.833 --> 00:59:04.733
Then, of course, it can lead to that

00:59:04.733 --> 00:59:09.400
maybe they will help out with their school -
so they can help them with the school fees.

00:59:09.866 --> 00:59:12.833
And that's perfect, you know.

00:59:12.833 --> 00:59:13.900
It's really perfect.

00:59:13.900 --> 00:59:16.900
And those two people would never have met if it wasn't for chess.

00:59:17.700 --> 00:59:20.100
I mean, there is enough money
to give people food.

00:59:20.700 --> 00:59:22.833
There is enough money
to give people shelter.

00:59:22.833 --> 00:59:26.966
But people just need to share more.

00:59:26.966 --> 00:59:30.733
And I think that the reason why people don't share more is

00:59:30.733 --> 00:59:32.733
because they don't know the other people.

00:59:32.733 --> 00:59:35.500
So I think that there needs
to be much more avenues for contact.

00:59:36.200 --> 00:59:39.100
Everyone has prejudices.

00:59:39.300 --> 00:59:43.166
There have been many events that someone has said to me afterwards,
they come to me -

00:59:43.166 --> 00:59:46.166
For example, in Sweden, one of the lawyers,

00:59:46.166 --> 00:59:52.033
He told me that he thought that the kids
from that inner city community where they came from

00:59:52.033 --> 00:59:56.233
that they were more like hooligans, because he has read the media.

00:59:56.833 --> 00:59:59.666
Then he got to meet with the kids and he really liked them.

01:00:00.461 --> 01:00:06.866
So he ended up meeting them outside of the
the events as well,

01:00:06.933 --> 01:00:09.766
because he likes them. And now he's mentoring them and so on.

01:00:10.200 --> 01:00:14.100
And these kind of things are just really nice

01:00:14.766 --> 01:00:18.094
when people change a little bit, you know?

01:00:19.300 --> 01:00:23.666
For me, of course, I like to win tournaments and play tournaments.

01:00:24.033 --> 01:00:28.200
But this gives more.  Because it's about life and it's about

01:00:29.500 --> 01:00:30.466
helping people and that's

01:00:30.466 --> 01:00:34.566
And that, I think, is more important than winning something.

01:00:35.633 --> 01:00:38.433
So, I think when you do this,
it feels like you're winning

01:00:38.566 --> 01:00:41.266
four tournaments, or five, at the same time.

01:00:41.266 --> 01:00:43.000
For me it’s more important.

01:00:45.800 --> 01:00:48.633
I think an important thing
the media can do differently

01:00:48.800 --> 01:00:52.600
is to not just focus on the stories
that demean us as a people:

01:00:52.800 --> 01:00:56.866
“the sad stories from Africa”, just focusing on poverty...

01:00:57.233 --> 01:01:02.100
Africa is not a village or a jungle
where there are animal skins, and all of that.

01:01:02.100 --> 01:01:07.400
No, we have access to the internet too; we have
access to great technological devices.

01:01:07.400 --> 01:01:09.433
I've never been outside Africa before.

01:01:09.766 --> 01:01:13.966
I've lived all my life here in Nigeria,
and I strongly believe

01:01:13.966 --> 01:01:16.833
that it is indeed possible
to do great things from a small place.

01:01:17.533 --> 01:01:21.100
More African stories that reflect

01:01:21.100 --> 01:01:24.333
the true strengths of its people should be told.

01:01:24.333 --> 01:01:26.133
There are two ways to tell a story.

01:01:26.133 --> 01:01:29.600
You can tell the story of poor children living in Africa

01:01:29.600 --> 01:01:32.766
and how they’re suffering, by picturing them
or capturing them

01:01:32.766 --> 01:01:35.800
at their worst: in tattered
clothes, malnourished and all of that.

01:01:36.233 --> 01:01:38.400
Just to score pity points:

01:01:38.400 --> 01:01:41.733
you see these children, they’re suffering - help them.

01:01:41.733 --> 01:01:43.566
That is one way to tell the story.

01:01:43.566 --> 01:01:45.766
I think that is the wrong way to tell the story.

01:01:45.766 --> 01:01:47.700
And that is something that we're very particular about

01:01:47.700 --> 01:01:49.800
at the Chess in Slums project.

01:01:49.800 --> 01:01:54.166
We are not capturing these children
that we're advocating for at their worst,

01:01:54.900 --> 01:01:58.566
we’re empowering them with a skill that dignifies them,

01:01:58.566 --> 01:02:02.133
that helps them to become independent thinkers.

01:02:02.466 --> 01:02:06.333
So, we're telling a story by shining a spotlight instead

01:02:06.333 --> 01:02:08.400
on the potential that they have.

01:02:09.033 --> 01:02:11.000
And this is the story of becoming.

01:02:11.000 --> 01:02:14.500
This is what they can truly become if
you give them this kind of opportunity.

01:02:14.500 --> 01:02:18.233
Because, while talent is universal, opportunity isn't.

01:02:18.433 --> 01:02:23.333
So, this is the lens through which we tell our stories,
for the children that we’re advocating for.

01:02:26.166 --> 01:02:29.866
This student, Tani Adewumi, had never played chess before.

01:02:29.866 --> 01:02:33.500
I think he understood that
chess could be his opportunity to connect

01:02:33.500 --> 01:02:35.133
to this new world of America.

01:02:35.133 --> 01:02:38.366
He's in a foreign country,
and chess could be his bridge

01:02:38.766 --> 01:02:42.333
to figuring out how to survive in this new
landscape after what he's been through,

01:02:42.333 --> 01:02:43.900
and all the trauma and life experience

01:02:43.900 --> 01:02:45.500
that led him to be in a homeless shelter.

01:02:45.500 --> 01:02:47.700
And then then all of a sudden he's
given chess and he grabs it,

01:02:47.700 --> 01:02:48.933
he grabs this game of chess.

01:02:48.933 --> 01:02:51.566
And we we see the look in his eyes.
We see the passion.

01:02:51.566 --> 01:02:54.300
And even though he never played before,
there was something very special

01:02:54.300 --> 01:02:58.866
and unique about his interest and passion
and curiosity around the game.

01:02:58.866 --> 01:03:01.100
So, we invited him into our chess program.

01:03:01.100 --> 01:03:03.433
We brought him into our community
with open arms,

01:03:03.700 --> 01:03:07.200
and that passion translated
into really rapid improvement.

01:03:07.500 --> 01:03:08.500
We gave him every resource

01:03:08.500 --> 01:03:09.300
that we had available:

01:03:09.300 --> 01:03:10.166
all of our coaching,

01:03:10.166 --> 01:03:11.900
all of our technology,
all of our tournaments, camps,

01:03:11.900 --> 01:03:14.200
all of our programs;
and everything that we threw out,

01:03:14.200 --> 01:03:16.700
He grabbed. He grabbed it and he took advantage of it.

01:03:16.933 --> 01:03:20.100
And he started to go like this
from 100 to 200 to 400...

01:03:20.400 --> 01:03:24.100
By the time that summer came around,
he was a 700-800 level player.

01:03:24.100 --> 01:03:27.400
By the time that summer camp finished
at the end of August, he was at 1100.

01:03:27.933 --> 01:03:29.600
Then 1200, 1300...

01:03:29.600 --> 01:03:32.400
He's becoming an extremely competitive,
talented player.

01:03:32.400 --> 01:03:34.833
I mean, we're talking about after only 6-7 months.

01:03:34.833 --> 01:03:37.633
Now, fast forward to March 2019.

01:03:37.800 --> 01:03:40.933
New York State holds its annual state chess championship.

01:03:41.233 --> 01:03:43.966
And we drove Tani Adewumi up along with his team

01:03:44.200 --> 01:03:47.100
from PS 116.  We rented a van from Midtown Manhattan.

01:03:47.100 --> 01:03:48.800
We threw all the coaches in the van

01:03:48.800 --> 01:03:51.133
to go up there and coach, along with Tani and his mother.

01:03:51.466 --> 01:03:54.000
First day, he wins round one, round two, round three.

01:03:54.166 --> 01:03:55.166
And I'm looking at the coaches.

01:03:55.166 --> 01:03:57.700
I'm saying there's
something different about this moment.

01:03:57.700 --> 01:03:59.400
There's something magical
about this moment.

01:03:59.400 --> 01:04:01.500
He wins round four, round five.

01:04:01.500 --> 01:04:03.800
He's getting ready to go to round six,
which is the final of the tournament,

01:04:04.033 --> 01:04:07.200
and he's so far ahead of the field
that all he needs to do is draw.

01:04:07.200 --> 01:04:09.500
He doesn't need to win. If he draws,
he wins first place.

01:04:09.500 --> 01:04:11.466
We lift him up
and he's the New York State champion.

01:04:11.466 --> 01:04:13.800
If he loses, he can lose the tournament,
not be first place.

01:04:14.066 --> 01:04:16.166
And I said, “Tani,” and all the other coaches were there,

01:04:16.166 --> 01:04:17.400
“You don't need to win this match.”

01:04:17.400 --> 01:04:20.100
“You've won enough, you've done enough,
you've achieved enough; hold a draw

01:04:20.100 --> 01:04:21.666
and you win the New York State Championship.”

01:04:21.666 --> 01:04:23.833
Sure enough, he walks into the room

01:04:23.833 --> 01:04:26.533
shortly after  - 20 moves in -  and I'm like,
“What happened?”

01:04:26.533 --> 01:04:28.733
This is for a win (thumbs up).

01:04:28.733 --> 01:04:30.000
This is for a loss (thumbs down), and this (sideways), for a draw.

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:32.166
He walks in and he says, “I got a draw” (thumb sideways).

01:04:32.166 --> 01:04:34.833
And I think he was disappointed from
the fact that his instincts are to win.

01:04:35.033 --> 01:04:37.133
And I picked him up. I said, “Tani, do you know what just happened?”

01:04:37.133 --> 01:04:38.633
“You just won the New York State Chess Championship

01:04:38.633 --> 01:04:40.666
for all players, kindergarten through third grade,

01:04:40.666 --> 01:04:42.300
within a year of you first learning how to play,

01:04:42.300 --> 01:04:44.433
while living in a homeless shelter, while overcoming

01:04:44.433 --> 01:04:46.500
all these obstacles, fleeing your country.”

01:04:46.500 --> 01:04:49.500
And it was, Wow, this is a magical moment.

01:04:49.500 --> 01:04:50.666
So what ended up happening...

01:04:50.666 --> 01:04:53.466
We leave Saratoga Springs, which is 4 hours from New York City.

01:04:53.466 --> 01:04:56.000
We get back to New York City
and I'm like, Wow, this is big.

01:04:56.000 --> 01:04:59.600
Something just happened that is big and that story needs to be told.

01:04:59.600 --> 01:05:00.566
And there's a moment

01:05:00.566 --> 01:05:03.066
to talk about the power, chess
and how it changed someone's life.

01:05:03.366 --> 01:05:05.400
Someone with no opportunity
that was fleeing as a refugee

01:05:05.600 --> 01:05:07.433
now has been elevated to that top.

01:05:07.433 --> 01:05:11.300
And chess is a metaphor for people
of intelligence, sophistication.

01:05:11.300 --> 01:05:12.766
And this person who’s living in a homeless shelter

01:05:12.766 --> 01:05:15.266
just rose to the highest levels of the chess ranks.

01:05:15.633 --> 01:05:16.566
So I start to tell the story.

01:05:16.566 --> 01:05:19.233
I write to our staff of coaches; we have about,

01:05:19.233 --> 01:05:22.100
I would say, about 50 coaches that support
our chess programs across New York.

01:05:22.333 --> 01:05:24.433
And I wrote the very next morning,
“Dear Team,

01:05:24.666 --> 01:05:28.138
This past weekend,
one of our students from P.S. 116,

01:05:28.138 --> 01:05:31.800
Tani Adewumi, who first learned chess a year ago,

01:05:32.333 --> 01:05:34.033
and is currently living in a homeless shelter,

01:05:34.033 --> 01:05:35.466
just won the New York State Championship.

01:05:35.466 --> 01:05:36.666
This is more than chess.

01:05:36.666 --> 01:05:39.533
This is changing lives.
Keep up the great job.

01:05:39.566 --> 01:05:40.866
What we do matters.

01:05:40.866 --> 01:05:43.100
And I was like, This needs to be told.
This needs to be told.

01:05:43.100 --> 01:05:45.133
Trying to find the right person
that could help share that message.

01:05:45.133 --> 01:05:48.850
This powerful story of the power of
chess to transform lives.

01:05:48.850 --> 01:05:51.966
And I'm calling and reaching out.

01:05:51.966 --> 01:05:52.666
I'm working.

01:05:52.666 --> 01:05:53.933
Who's going to tell the story?

01:05:53.933 --> 01:05:55.600
And nothing, nothing, nothing.

01:05:55.600 --> 01:05:57.100
I get in touch with an old contact of mine,

01:05:57.100 --> 01:05:58.300
a very good friend,

01:05:58.300 --> 01:06:00.066
And he said, “Russ, I know just the right person

01:06:00.066 --> 01:06:01.733
that's going to help you share this story.”

01:06:01.733 --> 01:06:06.500
His name is Nicholas Kristof from the New York Times.

01:06:06.500 --> 01:06:09.333
Nicholas Kristof's New York Times piece on Tani

01:06:09.500 --> 01:06:13.700
not only quickly rippled around the world,
it also led to thousands

01:06:13.700 --> 01:06:17.666
of people directly assisting
the Adewumis, enabling them to quickly

01:06:17.666 --> 01:06:20.600
move out of the homeless shelter
and into their own home.

01:06:21.633 --> 01:06:26.500
For Russ, his growing conviction of chess’ power to change lives,

01:06:26.500 --> 01:06:31.200
led him to start The Gift of Chess, a not for profit that began as offering

01:06:31.200 --> 01:06:35.033
children in New York City free chess sets in the depths of the coronavirus

01:06:35.033 --> 01:06:39.066
pandemic and has now spread to incorporate education,

01:06:39.433 --> 01:06:43.200
refugees, prisons and global outreach.

01:06:44.266 --> 01:06:45.566
Tani, meanwhile,

01:06:45.566 --> 01:06:48.900
continues his inspiring rise through the elite chess ranks.

01:06:49.500 --> 01:06:52.400
Now 12, he is on the cusp of becoming

01:06:52.400 --> 01:06:56.200
an International Master, a hugely impressive achievement

01:06:56.300 --> 01:07:00.866
that continues to grab media attention both in and beyond the chess world.

01:07:01.833 --> 01:07:04.033
But as Tunde Onakoya reminds us,

01:07:04.433 --> 01:07:06.766
it's not enough to simply tell stories.

01:07:07.200 --> 01:07:09.766
We must get the story straight.

01:07:09.766 --> 01:07:14.133
And the story here is not
that Africans can become grandmasters

01:07:14.700 --> 01:07:16.866
or that Tani Adewumi is a genius,

01:07:17.700 --> 01:07:20.566
but the chess has the capacity to make us see,

01:07:21.033 --> 01:07:25.166
like virtually nothing else, the remarkable human potential

01:07:25.300 --> 01:07:27.237
that is in all of us.

01:07:27.237 --> 01:07:30.200
That is the true gift of chess.

01:07:30.800 --> 01:07:35.000
And it has never been more evident
than it is right now.

01:07:35.000 --> 01:07:41.233
If only we’d pay attention.

01:07:42.450 --> 01:07:44.858
I could have moved a lot of things at that moment

01:07:45.566 --> 01:07:49.066
and the situation was overwhelming.

01:07:49.433 --> 01:07:50.900
It came quickly.

01:07:50.900 --> 01:07:53.700
And at that moment
I didn't have the capacity to capture it.

01:07:53.700 --> 01:07:57.666
And since that day, I do find it frustrating.  I say, “I can do it again.

01:07:57.666 --> 01:07:58.800
“We can do it again.”

01:07:58.800 --> 01:08:00.900
“Chess has this power. Give me one more chance.”

01:08:01.400 --> 01:08:02.966
“Give me one more chance to tell another story.”

01:08:02.966 --> 01:08:05.723
“Give me one more chance to highlight that impact on another level.”

01:08:05.723 --> 01:08:07.300
There’s been so many more kids impacted.

01:08:07.300 --> 01:08:08.966
There's been so many more stories told.

01:08:08.966 --> 01:08:12.533
Give me a chance to get that platform
again and I won't waste it this time.

01:08:12.966 --> 01:08:14.633
I'll talk about The Gift of Chess,

01:08:14.633 --> 01:08:18.504
how I see communities all over Africa being transformed by the act of giving a chess set.

01:08:18.504 --> 01:08:20.700
I see communities in New York being rebuilt

01:08:21.000 --> 01:08:23.200
around the idea that kids can connect over the game of chess.

01:08:23.200 --> 01:08:26.166
That chess is our universal language, it’s played in every country,

01:08:26.166 --> 01:08:28.500
every continent, every nook and cranny of this world.

01:08:28.633 --> 01:08:33.366
And it has tremendous value,
tremendous value, tremendous value.

01:08:33.366 --> 01:08:34.500
And I will tell that story.

01:08:34.500 --> 01:08:36.500
And this time around, it won't be about one child.

01:08:36.500 --> 01:08:38.300
It'll be about every child.