Ukraine charity chess tournament results in massive success
Young competitive chess players (ages 11-14) in the DMV area organized a charity chess event at Rachel Carson Middle School to help the children of Ukraine. The event was a success beyond what anyone expected. $5467 were raised and 78 people showed up to play, smashing the original goal of $2000 dollars and 50 players. All proceeds were donated to UNICEF to help the children of Ukraine. For the young organizers, the process was an incredible journey where they dealt with both success and rejection.
“ I was looking at all these people putting up the Ukraine flag in their yards and saying #SayNoToWar and wondered why there aren’t any charity events in support of Ukraine. Then, it occurred to me that we could create a charity chess tournament. I told my dad, my dad got really motivated, and now we’re here, ” said tournament leader Kent Slate.
The initial seeds were planted and Slate started getting more people to take part in the event. He recruited many people from both his school and competitive chess network. Getting more people involved made it easier to get resources for the tournament.
“ When I say I couldn’t have done it without the community, that’s not a metaphor. I literally couldn’t have done it without the community. That’s pretty much the truth here,” said Slate.
Once the team was put together, they got right to work. A planner was created with a list of “to do’s”. Flyers were circulated and a website was built. At the 3rd Colonial Open chess tournament, Kent and the team spoke to numerous tournament directors about the event. A full fledged effort to publicize the tournament was underway.
“ One of the things we did was to talk to businesses so they could sponsor us,” said Slate.
While on the quest for getting sponsorships, the team received numerous positive responses. Tournament leader Ameya Haldankar said that they received a very warm response from Food Lion along with a substantial gift card. Slate also stated that when they went to Ledo Pizza, they received an extremely nice response because the person they spoke to was an avid chess player himself. However, amidst all the positive responses, there were an equal number of negative responses.
“ I don’t want to call out any businesses, but there’s a certain popular fast food chain that we went to, and right as we entered and were giving our speech, one of the workers started immediately giggling in this high pitched demonic screeching sound. Then we heard the employees talking in the background about which one of them wanted to deal with us. Finally, one of them came and told us they didn’t have a manager on board even though this place always has a manager on board,” said Kent.
Despite the setbacks, the team was able to push past them. After months of hard work, the day of the tournament finally arrived. The players had a great time and really loved the atmosphere of the tournament.
“ For most ordinary chess tournaments, people are being all sweaty and competitive. They really care about money and rating points. So they turn into barbarians and betray their friends and just destroy everyone. But in this tournament, no one really cares about the results and just plays for fun. We’re all just together to bond over chess, and it’s for a good cause too,” said chess player Benjamin Tyrrell.
