9 minute read
Education
Black Teen and Chess Phenom, Miles Kwasi Davis, Organizes Tournaments for Youth
Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
The U.S. Chess Federation (USCF) will soon host its annual K-12 grade championship at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, located in a majority-Black county and miles away from what used to be called Chocolate City.
For years, local chess instructors and players have raised concerns about the lack of USCF-rated matches in the District, Prince George’s County and inner-city communities across the U.S. They said Black youth have been kept out of a sport that encourages strategic thinking and mental aptitude while imparting lessons of patience, foresight and caution.
That’s why, in anticipation of the USCF national K-12 grade championship, high school student and newly-minted USCF affiliate Miles Kwasi Davis has set out to organize USCF-sanctioned chess tournaments for Black youth in the D.C. metropolitan area.
“There definitely could be more young Black people in Prince George’s County [playing chess] but they were never introduced to it,” said Miles, founder and CEO of the BeEmpowered clothing brand through which he became a USCF affiliate earlier this year.
Miles has played chess and participated in local tournaments since the age of five. In recent years, he’s endeavored to make an impact in a different way. During the earlier part of August, 32 elementary, middle and high school students participated in the first BeEmpowered Chess Tournament which Miles hosted at Second Street Baptist Church in Northwest.
After six hours, four young people clinched championships based on their age group. Within a few weeks, youth chess players will have another chance to increase their ranking during another BeEmpowered Chess Tournament in College Park, Maryland.
“A lot of young people have the skill and focus to understand the game,” said Miles, a 14-yearold sophomore at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, Maryland.
“It’s about strategies that can help them maneuver [the world] every day,” he said. “People in my age group think it’s difficult but it varies based on the skills level. If they understand how the pieces move and the strategies, it would make more sense.”
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE INSTITUTIONAL HURDLES
Membership in the USCF for youth below the age of 18 costs $20 and has to be renewed annually. Members often compete in tournaments in their area and establish ranking after 25 matches or seven tournaments, whichever comes first. In many chess tournaments, computers determine pairings by rankings and rankings affect the types of tournaments available to chess players.
The more competitive tournaments, characterized as intense, quiet and timed, come with a cash prize amounting to thousands of dollars. USCF awards the national chess master title to a player whose rating surpasses 2,200. Original life masters achieve this feat with 300 games under their belt while chess grandmasters and international masters represent the highest ranking one can achieve at the national and international levels, respectively.
However, any exposure to these types of opportunities requires participation in tournaments hosted by a USCF affiliate. In the late 1990s, Maurice Ashley became the first Black chess grandmaster in the world. To this day, he is one of a dozen Black chess grandmasters across the globe to come from the U.S.
Vaughn Bennett, a former D.C. firefighter and chess instructor of more than a decade, said by not ever hosting any chess tournaments in Prince George’s County for several years, the Maryland Chess Federation has systematically kept young Blacks out of the sport.
Bennett, Miles’ chess instructor during middle school, encouraged Miles to gain affiliate status and fill a void in the D.C. metropolitan area. Before then, Bennett hosted free, USCF-sanctioned tournaments in the District and Maryland for decades.
On August 27, the USCF told Bennett he has 30 days to change the name of his three-year-old affiliate, DC State Chess Federation, as it had been deemed similar to the DC Chess League, an 82-year old organization with mostly-white leadership that coordinates matches in the D.C. metropolitan area throughout the year.
Bennett said this situation highlights ongoing efforts to keep Black youth out of chess.
“Miles is the first Black child to ever organize and direct a USCF-sanctioned tournament in the D.C. metropolitan area,” Bennett said. “I can say that has [never] happened here or across the country.”
“We have to consider that Blacks didn’t have access to chess until the 1960s,” he continued. “They’re bringing one of the biggest tournaments in the country to Prince George’s County but there haven’t been any tournaments there. That’s not by coincidence,” he said.
5 Daveyon Jones (L-R), Demarcos Pinckney, Jahani Hester, Fred McRoy and Carlos McGill participate in the BeEmpowered Chess Tournament at Second Street Baptist Church in Northwest on August 6. (Courtesy photo)
AN UP-ANDCOMING CHESS PLAYER SPEAKS
After participating in the BeEmpowered Chess Tournament at Second Street Baptist Church in early August, Demarcos Pinckney said he has visions of sharpening his skills and increasing his ranking. To do so, he often goes toe-to-toe with friends and online competitors.
Demarcos, a 14-year-old youth who attends Digital Pioneers Academy in Southeast, learned to play chess in the months preceding the pandemic as a member of The Creative School, a program that equips young people to capture their peers’ stories and design solutions to problems facing their communities.
He said chess taught him to think more clearly and plan his life.
While he commended Miles’ efforts to bring more young people into the game, Demarcos had some suggestions about how to ensure that all participants get better and involve their peers who might lack the confidence to give chess a try.
“At the end of a game, give them a chess board,” Demarcos said as he reflected on chess’ impact on his life. “This is a game that calms me down and makes me think. You have to think before you make your move.”
WI @SamPKCollins
STUDENT LOAN from Page 17 giveness despite the government ultimately forgiving those members of Congress Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.
The White House account specifically homed in on GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Reps. Markwayne Mullin and Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania and Vern Buchanan of Florida.
Each received large PPP loans during the pandemic.
Greene went on television to call Biden’s student loan forgiveness unfair – to which the White House Twitter account sprang into action.
“Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven,” the White House tweeted along with a video of the congresswoman complaining about Biden’s new student loan policy.
On Fox News, Buchanan insisted, “As a blue-collar kid who worked his way through college, I know firsthand the sacrifices people make to receive an education. Biden’s reckless, unilateral student loan giveaway is unfair to the 87% of Americans without student loan debt and those who played by the rules.”
Tweeting the video, the White House rebuked Buchanan: “Congressman Vern Buchanan had over $2.3 million in PPP loans forgiven.”
Also on Fox, Mullin claimed, “We do not need farmers and ranchers, small business owners and teachers in Oklahoma paying the debts of Ivy League Lawyers and doctors across the U.S.”
The White House fired back and put him on blast:
“Congressman Markwayne Mullin had over $1.4 million in PPP loans forgiven.”
Responding to Hern’s tweet that claimed the administration “forced [taxpayers] to pay for other people’s college degrees,” the White House replied, “Congressman Kevin Hern had over $1 million in PPP loans forgiven.”
The White House also pointed out that Congressman Mike Kelly had $987,237 in PPP loans forgiven and Congressman Matt Gaetz had $482,321 in PPP loans forgiven.
Social media erupted over the White House’s diss of Republicans attacking loan forgiveness.
“Today is the day that Joe Biden officially became the second Black president of the United States,” Twitter user @BlackKnight10K wrote. “Because only my people would do some [stuff] as gangster as this.” @BlackKnight10K wasn’t done.
“Yo, the White House twitter account has temporarily reinstated slavery in the United States because they are owning every single Republican who had a PPP loan forgiven,” the user wrote.
Added U.S. military veteran Eric Garcia: “My house provides shelter. The White House provides shade.”
The White House “Twitter account pulling a ‘this you?’” Philip Lewis, a Huffington Post editor, tweeted.
Singer and actress Malynda Hale tweeted, “The @WhiteHouse putting Republicans on blast that had PPP loans forgiven is the kind of petty [thing] I want to see more of. Drag them. DRAG. THEM.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell of California chimed in: “Dear GOP colleagues, before you offer your hot takes on student debt relief, please make sure you or your colleagues didn’t have one of your government loans forgiven. Otherwise, I will absolutely scorch you.”
Biden also offered a hot take.
“To those Republicans in Congress who believe student debt shouldn’t be forgiven: I will never apologize for helping America’s middle class – especially not to the same folks who voted for a $2 trillion tax cut for the wealthy and giant corporations that racked up the deficit,” Biden wrote.
WI
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