Chess

Yasser Seirawan, a four time U.S. champion has an article in the WSJ about the loss of Russian dominance in world chess.

One factor is democratization. ChessBase, one of the game's leading databases, was founded it in 1986. ChessBase gives its users access to thousands of games, historical and modern, enabling them to hone their skills and analyze opponents' tendencies. Magnus Carlsen, who was born in 1990, the year the Internet as we know it began to take shape, has been able to hone his skills at home by playing online against opponents all over the world. his chess score is now among the best ever. Ever.

Garry Kasparov, the former world champion and foe of Mr. Putin's authoritarianism, founded Kasparov Chess Foundation. It grooms tomorrow's champions by offering scholastic chess initiatives and handpicking the best and brightest pupils for personalized instruction

Susan Polgar, a member of the Hungarian family of famous chess stars, including sisters Judith and Sofia has jump-started the game at the collegiate level by building championship teams through generous scholarships she has persuaded universities to give to players from around the globe. Her success, first at Texas Tech University in Lubbock and now in St. Louis at Webster University, has stirred excitement about chess on campuses across the nation.

About a decade ago, a wealthy chess enthusiast, Rex Sinquefield, decided that he wanted to foster the game's growth in America, largely because he believed that it contributed strongly to the mental and character development of children.

So in 2007 Mr. Sinquefield and a group of other enthusiasts formed the nonprofit Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and established its headquarters in a building they renovated into the premier chess facility in the country. Mr. Sinquefield and his wife, Jeanne Sinquefield, provided most of the funding.

Within a few years, the Chess Club's work promoting chess inspired America's top player, three-time U.S. chess champion Hikaru Nakamura, to move to St. Louis from Seattle! The club also began the hard work of introducing chess to the area's K-12 schools. There are now 75 after-school programs across the metropolitan area and socio-economic spectrum.

The club recruited grandmasters to help plan, organize and execute top-level tournaments, quickly making St. Louis the go-to venue for championship competitions. And in June 2012, the Chess Club established a five-year grant program with the Kasparov Chess Foundation to identify and develop the top junior chess players in the U.S.

The Chess Club in St. Louis is now the largest in the country, with more than 1,000 members. In May it will host the U.S. Chess Championship for the sixth consecutive year, along with the U.S. Women's Championship, followed by the U.S. Junior Championship. In September, some of the best players on the global stage, most of whom would not have bothered to come to America in the past, will converge here to play for the Sinquefield Cup and the $100,000 for the winner. Magnus Carlsen may be among them. He came last year, and won.