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Chessville
Advertise to Single insert:
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The Susan Polgar South Texas Chess Center
Hundreds of kids in the area will soon have a safe place to come to learn and play chess daily. Something like this can positively change a community for generations to come! The best part is all net profits will be reinvested back into chess in the community! This is what can happen when a chess celebrity works with parents, coaches, local businesses and the local government. Below is the letter from the chess coach who was responsible for bringing Susan Polgar to South Texas.
May 2, 2005 The idea for the Susan Polgar South Texas Chess Center began with reading about GM (Susan) Polgar and the accomplishments of her and her sisters. The fact is that through all the barriers they have encountered, the goal has always been to play, promote and enjoy the game of Chess. GM Polgar could be involved with activities in Europe and be making twice the money and enjoying popularity in her country. Instead, she does things for the U.S. I see her as a person with great passion for the game and the biggest heart for doing what she can so that everyone can enjoy this sport! This is where my Idea began. I am a chess coach at a small Catholic school here in Corpus Christi, Texas. For this area, my chess team has accomplished a lot and it has rocketed a few of my students to the top 100 in the nation and created quite a stir when we go to tournaments with 80 or more kids on a team. I have always felt that Girls, which my team is mostly composed, of have to play at a disadvantage (especially my little ones in kindergarten because they have to go to the big tournaments and play against mostly older boys). What people do not realize is that at that age to play against a boy can be quite an unnerving experience just because they are boys! I came up with the idea to have an all girls local tournament and find local businesses to sponsor the individual prize groups and award desktop computers to the overall winner in each division. With GM Polgar being such an advocate of girl’s chess, I invited her to attend our now (Region VII) tournament. After checking her schedule and making arrangements, she was able to attend and the weekend was a huge success.
While she was here, I explained to her my idea of an active chess center in South Texas which we could teach and promote chess to the surrounding areas and promote girls chess while doing all of this. She was very receptive to the idea and saw that the people of Corpus Christi and South Texas had the spirit of volunteerism and supported chess with a passion. I took GM Polgar to the airport that (Saturday) afternoon and we agreed to keep in touch about the center if I could make it happen. I told her consider it done. On Monday morning, I hit the ground running and came up with the building donated for the center and several people who wanted to help made this happen. We are on our way. I contacted GM Polgar and advised her that it was a "go" and that I had already got a building for the center. Several chess passionate people will help put it all together. GM Polgar was very excited and now we are just a few weeks from opening the Susan Polgar South Texas Chess Center.
I feel that the support GM Polgar and I have received from these people allows their privacy to be respected. The day draws near for the Grand Opening and the word has filtered through the South Texas chess world and the response has been very welcoming. To have a world-class grandmaster taking the time to help promote and teach chess in our small community and the surrounding areas of South Texas is what we in Texas call "Very Neighborly". Welcome to South Texas Susan Polgar! Sincerely, Coach Dan
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In
early April, 2005, GM Susan Polgar visited Corpus Christi in South Texas to
attend a girl's chess event. She was quite touched by the overwhelming
support from the players, their parents and the local community.
Within a few days after her trip, the parents of one of the players agreed
to donate a building to create the Susan Polgar South Texas Chess Center to
promote chess in Corpus Christi and the surrounding areas, especially for
girls.
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The
people that are truly responsible for this historic moment in chess have
asked not to be named. They have all met GM (Susan) Polgar and she is
well acquainted with them, having met them when she was here for the Region
VII girl’s chess championship in early April.
