All the Right Moves

The May 8th "All the Right Moves' kickoff was by all accounts a great success, judging by the smiles and the lively, friendly atmosphere -- and the fact that after just half an hour the plaza management agreed to make it a monthly event! 

The weather stayed nice, and passersby -- including lots of kids -- stopped to see what was going on, and then stayed to play chess at the wonderful tent and stage setup provided by Jennifer Nettles and her staff at Downtown Silver Spring.

The event was dominated by a stage with oversized plastic chess pieces on a rollout chess mat.  Allan Savage (a FIDE Master, U.S. Chess Life Master, and International Master in Correspondence Chess) lent some chess prestige to the proceedings, and played a number of games on stage, some against kids, some against passersby, and a grand finale against Senator Jamie Raskin.

Also on hand were community and chess activists like Susan Katz Miller, Fernando Moreno, Mary Hylander, Mike Hersh, and Alan Bowser -- who took a great series of photos of the event that you can look at at his flickr.com site.

But the real story was how many kids enjoyed themselves playing chess on a beautiful Friday afternoon, and what a great spirit "All the Right Moves" brought to Silver Plaza and downtown Silver Spring. 

About 2 dozen kids and a dozen volunteers signed up to play in or help with the May 30 tournament -- we'll be getting back to them soon. 

Again, many heartfelt thanks to Jennifer Nettles and the Downtown Silver Spring management for providing a wonderful venue and lots of support.  Thanks also to everyone else for helping, for watching -- and for playing chess!