Chess has helped these kids with their academics.

The kids beg for chess. They'd rather have extra chess time than prizes.

I feel that my chess strengths are still here, ... I believe I can still improve.

In chess, as a purely intellectual game, where randomness is excluded, - for someone to play against himself is absurd ...
It is as paradoxical, as attempting to jump over his own shadow.

I am lucky, ... that the popular sport in the Soviet Union was chess and not baseball.

More than 50 percent of kids who play an instrument go on to college, yet music education programs at the inner city public schools who need them most continue to be hit hard with budget cuts.