Longer Tables Needed in Portland Maine

6 months ago we traveled to Portland Maine, with a few simple chess sets. A community is now built. Hosted at Baxter Academy, supported by The Maine Chess Association and including our team from Howard United, our Expo friends & a diverse group of Mainers we hosted our 1st US Chess Rated Summer Tournament Series.

US Chess Master Majur Juac who is one of The Lost Boys Sudan and was widely spotlighted by the Wall Street Journal for his incredible chess journey took 1st place in the top section. This was his first tournament since the covid pandemic. Majur will be competing weekly.

Other winners on Saturday included Dr Laurie Leonard, a retired surgeon and army veteran, and Jeremias a shining star from Angola and team leader for our Howard Johnson club.

For winning his section, Jeremias was given the book “My Name is Tani” a story about the life of Tani Adewumi who was a refugee from Nigeria living in a homeless shelter when he becoming the New York State Chess Champion. Tani’s story was first shared by Nick Kristof from the NY Times.

Our The Gift of Chess program hosted at The Howard Johnson Hotel was featured by The Portland Press Herald and highlighted the power of chess to engage the asylum seeking community. The response was incredible with tons of volunteers now working together to build more opportunities.

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