Last week, after the Marshall Chess Club’s 95th Annual Championship, I emailed Dylan Loeb McClain of the NYTimes chess column and suggested that perhaps he might include a game by the 12 year old Phenom Christopher Wu, who finished in clear second place at the MCC Championship and put up a stellar performance in order to do so. I have a feeling that this email was either ignored or unopened. However, I was pleased to see an article this morning featuring one of the games from that event, along with profiling three talented young African American masters from New York City.
Every Sunday morning before riding my bike over the williamsburg bridge to open the chess club, I hang out at Variety coffee shop in Brooklyn and read McClain’s Sunday chess column. The barista, who pulls the column out for me, often shouts out ideas over the roar of the Marzocco and Mazzer machines. Today’s column can be read in full here. In the game, Black beats Treger almost effortlessly, grabbing space and refuting his dubious opening with a mixture of king-side pressure and zen-like patience. (Treger’s defense in the game is “Tiger’s Modern.”) Black managed to finish 5th in the tournament, an impressive result for a young master at a prestigious event. I’ve known Black for about a year now in my role as Tournament Director, and I will say he is one of the nicest masters I have ever met; as genial as he is genius. He has no sense of entitlement or overbearing ego. He never makes absurd claims and is as gracious in losing as he is in winning. He is always smiling and friendly and says hello. Along with his colleagues and several other members of the Marshall, he is headed off to Brazil next week for the World Youth Championship- and we will be cheering him/them on.
Treger’s king before the game.
Treger’s king after the game.
5 Responses to “James A. Black, Jr. Featured in the New York Times”
I’m glad you liked the column. I never received your e-mail suggesting that I write about Christopher Wu. He certainly had an impressive performance and if I wasn’t already committed to writing about James, Justus and Joshua, I would have considered writing about what Christopher did.
Yes Christopher Wu put together a fabulous performance and needed only to draw in the last round to take first place, however, I can see how your article is more timely with the upcoming World Youth Championship, as it’s my understanding that Wu unfortunately will not be attending though he obviously qualifies and would be a real contender.
In the future, is there a better email address to reach you at than the one provided on the NYtimes website? Along with Kavalek’s column, I read yours regularly and hope that the Times doesn’t give up on it the way that they did with the Gambit blog (which I also loved.)
You can e-mail me at mcclaind@nytimes.com
And I, too, hope that the column continues for a long time.
Excellent game by James. I thought Treger achieved a draw position with the locked pawns. I’m equally impressed by the genial+genius combo, very rare indeed! I’m interested in offering a modest sponsorship to James to help him pursue his ambitions. Please forward this note to James. Regards -Walt
Walt, that is wonderful news and I will certainly forward that note to him. Is there an email address that he should contact you at? You can email me at lefthandsketch@gmail.com and I will do everything I can to make that arrangement come to fruition.