Ingredients of a Successful Venture

Enthusiastic about making great teams, developing others’ ideas, sharing knowledge openly and generously, and making prudent judgments based on their own deep experience.

Proposed in the first century B.C. by the Roman philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero

On Saturday September 10th a community of chess players and their volunteers came together to honor the memory of another talented volunteer Joan Eickelberg. Joan was a force to be reckoned with when she served. Being in a wheelchair did not daunt her because that meant she involved more people to serve with her.

This is a short video about her:

The unique team of chess players and service leaders beginning with the US Chess Champion GM Yury Shulman dedicated their work of bringing chess to 50 chess players while also raising funds for a refugee family that Joan would have wanted to help. A total of $1250 was donated to this family after subtracting expenses.

The magic of this event was the enthusiasm, hard work, challenges of diverse age groups working together and generosity of spirit as the team shared ideas and food together.

The hallmark of these fundraising ventures are that they are youth led and driven.

Barrington High School students, Anthony Zhu and James Zhang have been busy learning to market and do publicity for chess events. Brennen and Joellene Moi, also at BHS served selling food and being the accountant at the tournament. Several adult mentors John Schwartz, Dr Pradip Sethi, Rishi Sethi, Sidney Moi and Tanya Shulman and others sold food and organized the tournament.

There is tremendous intellectual, social and emotional growth when dedicated minds come together. The work place becomes a hub for creativity and surprises. For example, as youth experienced the attraction of home made food served at the tournament they hatched a plan to sell home made spices by gifted cook Zein Bertacchi. A portion of the sales from Zein's Magical Spices will go towards various charities. The advantage of this creation would be in promoting easy meals that "even teenagers can make" said Brennen Moi. This will be a way of students facing the challenges as they try to market, sell, keep accounts and organize this social entrepreneurial project.

Chess tournaments are a place for improving chess skills and learning to handle life lessons such as winning and losing. They bring all age groups together based on ability and all ethnicities and backgrounds become irrelevant when one plays chess. Chess Without Borders makes an effort to promote its mission of combining chess education with service and philanthropy. It has raised over $216,000 for local and global charities, has regularly engaged award winning youth volunteers and chess high school students have tied for tied for 4th place at the National US Scholastic Tournament.

For more information visit: https://shulmanchess.com/biogr...

The next tournament is at Roslyn Elementary School on November 12th 2022

Register here: https://shulmanchess.com/tourn...