Chess champion visits Madison players

International Master Stuart Rachels, seated center, visits between matches with members of Madison City Chess League. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – International Master Stuart Rachels, the most awarded chess player in Alabama history, played against Madison City Chess League students on June 27-28.

“Those were the first chess games I had played in about seven years — the longest stretch I have ever gone without playing,” Rachels said. Rachels played against the Madison youth as a return match from March when seven students visited Rachels in Tuscaloosa and played 15 games.

In this weekend’s rematch, Rachels played 38 games against Madison children at Grounded Coffee and Hitachi Government Services Offices. The final score was “Rachels at 38, Kids 0,” Madison chess league coach Don Maddox said.

“But no one minded losing. Rachels delighted, entertained and instructed kids with a broad array of stories, tips, trash-talk and jokes between moves,” Maddox said.

Local players included Om Badhe, Lawrence Zhang, Joel Friedman, Ethan Xu, Edward Calinsky, Victor Lundy, Constance Wang, Zachary Calinsky, Madhushalini Balaji, Wesley Gaddy, and Sohan Mynampally. These youth won the Madison City Chess League Blitz qualifier on June 22.

Other blitz winners were Jenson Wilhelm, Puja Chopade, Maanasi Limaye, Alex Lee, Nacer Harris, Chris Baker, Cameron Baker, Michael Guthrie and Jonah Tuttle.

Earlier this year, Madison City Chess League players had won three state chess championships in Mobile and the National Elementary Chess Championship in Nashville.

Maddox is providing technical support for Rachels’ forthcoming book, “The Best I Saw in Chess: Combinations, Games, and Stories from an Alabama Prodigy Who Became U.S. Champion.”

Madison City Chess League meets on Monday evenings at Hogan Family YMCA. For information about the league, email to executive director Ranae Bartlett at mccl.director@gmail.com or visit madisonchess.com.