Today we take a look at the movers and shakers at ChessTech2020, organised and presented by ChessPlus.
Chessable acted as sponsors of the world’s leading chess conference in addition to their role of key speakers. This helped to provide a worthy platform for a whole range of movers and shakers from all across the chess world.
Following on from yesterday’s look at Chessable’s impressive appearances at ChessTech2020, we now present captured moments from the rest of the weekend.
Videos of the sessions will soon be made available on the official conference website but today’s bonanza of photographs should serve to whet the appetite.
Opening Speakers
Zurab Azmaiparashvili (President ECU) welcomed everyone to the conference on the Saturday morning.
FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich made the first keynote presentation.
ECF Book of the Year
The session in which we presented the award for the English Chess Federation Book of the Year Award had plenty of Chessable connections, especially as the winner was David Smerdon’s The Complete Chess Swindler.
This excellent book, published by New in Chess, is coming to Chessable soon.
The session generated considerable interest.
Ray Edwards, Chairperson of the ECF Book of the Year panel, explained the reasons behind naming The Complete Chess Swindler as the winning book.
Baroness Hale of Richmond was our very special guest. Lady Hale was President of the Supreme Court of England from 2017 until her retirement in 2020. She is the widow of former panellist Julian Farrand who died recently and is greatly missed by the chess community.
Allard Hoogland represented the publisher, New in Chess. It was certainly not the first time New in Chess has triumphed in this competition.
Utilising the miracles of modern technology, Brenda was able to pass the certificate through a screen in England…
…and it then appeared in the hands of David Smerdon, the winning author.
I interviewed David immediately after the award ceremony. We then had another surprise, when we unveiled out new ECF Book of the Year panelist to be none other than…
…the great Jovanka Houska!
That was all just at the very start of the weekend! As the conference progressed, we saw a galaxy of stars, with each one instructing and entertaining the respective audiences in equal measure.
ChessTech2020 Gallery
Here is a gallery from the busy weekend.
Sanjoy Banerjee (of chess24)
Niels van der Mark (Chesser)
Raghuraman S. (Chesslang)
Alexander Kostyev (Russian Chess Federation)
Luis Blasco de la Cruz (Villalba 64, Madrid)
Ljubica Lazarevic (Kingston Chess Club)
Chess cat!
Two Chessable Authors in Action
Sarah Longson, representing the Delancey UK Chess Challenge, is always a popular speaker. Sarah was the subject of one our Chessable blog interviews a short time ago.
The session with Daniel King proved to be extremely popular. Daniel explained all about his YouTube channel and then we discussed the many and varied aspects of his chess career.
Sarah and Daniel share a Chessable connection to, thanks to their Tournament Ready series of courses.
UK charity Chess in Schools and Communities made a presentation on re-training their tutor workforce in order to deliver chess lessons remotely.
The technology on display was fabulous and we are all learning to cope with the online world of chess. However, as Luis Blasco de la Cruz quite rightly pointed out…
…we want to do this again!
There were plenty more movers and shakers at ChessTech2020 and they will be shown in the videos when they are added to the website.
It is, of course, very unclear whether the next London Chess Conference will take place online or not. Whichever way it goes, 2020’s event will be a hard act to follow – but we are ready for the challenge.
