12/14/25 I was honored to attend the Mindsets Chess in Education conference at the beautiful Quorum Conference Center in New York City on Saturday, Decmber 6, 2025. The conference was designed to empower educators with the tools and knowledge to effectively integrate chess into their curricula and unlock its full potential for student development.

The National Scholastic Chess Foundation, in partnership with the Kasparov Chess Foundation presented the Mindsets conference for educators, school administrators, and chess instructors. The conference drew broadly on the concept of mindsets and explored the role of chess in education--ranging from fundamental concerns about curriculum, educational policy, the positive uses of failure, and the nature of play, to practical questions about classrooms and other sites of learning.

Keynote speakers Dr. Barry Hymer and Grandmaster Peter Wells shared insights from their book Chess Improvement: It's all in the mindset. Barry and Peter drew on the research conducted for their book, and on mindset literature, to argue that chess educators should embrace mastery-based virtues like challenge and purposeful play, and not mystery-based virtues like 'natural talent.' Other panelists included leaders from the Purdue University Philosophy Department's Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence (VRAI) Lab discussing the philosophy of games and learning through play. Leading chess educators addressed such topics as justifying the inclusion of chess in school curriculum, innovative strategies for student engagement, and redefining success and personal achievement through chess. The event also featured a special address by World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov.

The conference took place at the beautiful and well-appointed Quorum conference facility located at 1221 6th Avenue in Manhattan.

Founding director of the National Scholastic Chess Foundation (NSCF) and stepfather of Hikaru Nakamura Sunil Weeramantry welcomed conference attendees at Hunter College Elementary School on the evening before the conference.

While participants were meeting each other and enjoying refreshments, Hunter College Elementary students took the opportunity to play some blitz chess.

As did some grown-ups!

Executive Director of the NSCF Matan Prilleltensky presented on the eve of the conference.

There were many fascinating workshop presentations including this one on Teaching Chess as an Academic Subject. Webster University actually has a minor in teaching chess as part of the curriculum.

The keynote address was given by Barry Hymer and Peter Wells based on research they did in writing their book Teaching Chess: It's All in the Mindset.

The book turned out to be a fascinating read.

Sunil Weeramantry welcomes Michael Khodarkovsky, president of the Kasparov Chess Foundation, to the stage.

Kasparov gave a riveting address in which he stressed the importance of doing one's own creative work around chess--not only relying on the engine. "Writing for chess improvement is a forgotten art." Kasparov said adding: "It's no fun, it's repetitive, but this is how you discipline yourself." He stressed that he always worked with a 3D chess board while his seconds would check his independent work on a computer.

Kasparov is an energetic and dynamic speaker. He is a big supporter of Freestyle Chess (also known as Chess 960 and Fischer Random Chess) and commented that Magnus Carlsen could separate himself from the screen. Carlsen had an attitude of, "I know it's right, let me check it with the engine." rather than depending on the engine's lines first.

We were treated to an exhibition of chess sets from around the world curated by Fernando Moreno, the Goodwill Ambassador of Chess in Education at the Judit Polgar Chess Foundation.

I had an opportunity to meet with the founder of The Gift of Chess Russell Makofsky in his Manhattan office. A tournament happened to be taking place--check out the person playing black on board 7. That's Gotham Chess himself Levy Rozman.

As it happened, the musical Chess was being performed on Broadway. I went to the show, and it was absolutely mind-blowing. There is nothing like live theatre in New York.

Mark your calendars for the St. Louis Chess Conference in October of 2026!

Wishing you Happy Holidays from the Big Apple!