Tucson, AZ-On Saturday August 15th, 2015 from 3-6pm, Hotel Congress will play host to 9 Queens 8th Annual Chess Fest, a community wide celebration, with special guest US Women’s Chess Champion and International Grandmaster Irina Krush.
This years 8th Annual Chess Fest will feature an array of free chess themed activities for everyone regardless of age or chess experience. Most activities will be indoors and include: beginner chess lessons with The Hendricks Knight Hawks Chess Team and Bookmans, chess arts and crafts with The Children’s Museum Tucson, pick-up chess games and chess puzzles with the National Chess Champions of Catalina Foothills High School, face painting, smooth grooves from AZsessions DJs, and our much loved lawn chess set staged on a giant human-sized chessboard painted on the Hotel Congress parking lot that is viewable on Google Earth! The highlight of Chess Fest is a chess simultaneous exhibition game with GM Irina Krush. Twenty lucky guests, picked by a lottery, will have the opportunity to show Irina Krush their best moves as they challenge her in a chess simultaneous exhibition of twenty-five games at the same time. Simul lottery tickets will be handed out beginning at 2:30pm and winners will be called during Opening Ceremony after 3:00pm. Five “V.I.Player” seats will be offered on our online Kickstarter fundraiser.
Mayor Rothschild will present GM Irina Krush with the 9 Queens Player of the Year Award. This award is given to a player who embodies the 9 Queens mission of Empowerment Through Chess.
GM Irina Krush is the current and seven-time US Women’s Chess Champion, a title she first won in 1998, setting a record for youngest US Chess Champion ever at age fourteen. In 2013, she became the first American woman to earn the title of Grandmaster. She has been a member of the US Women’s Olympiad team since the age of 14, and has represented the US in eight world Olympiads, helping the team earn historic silver and bronze medals in 2004 and 2006. She graduated from NYU in 2006 with a BA in International Relations.
Most Chess Fest activities are free and open to the public thanks to a generous donation from The Connie Hillman Foundation and Paul Gold. No pre-registration is necessary. There will be some V.I.P. opportunities available through our online Kickstarter rewards. For more information regarding volunteer and sponsorship opportunities please contact Vicki Lázaro at vlazaro@9queens.org.
