First Black chess grandmaster visits St. Richard’s Episcopal School

The first Black international chess grandmaster, Maurice Ashley, visited St. Richard’s Episcopal School Students last week. Ashley is one of a few special guests to spend time with St. Richard’s students in honor of Black History Month. English teacher and chair of the Faculty DEIB Committee, Alyssa Stewart, said St. Richard’s specializes in hands-on and engaging curriculum, especially during cultural awareness months. “I think we have the opportunity because we have a rich community to pull from that wants to support their kids and the kids around them,” Stewart said. “When they get to see that it’s not just within these four walls … It makes it real for them, and not this theoretical equality, DEI, diversity kind of thing … it just acknowledges who they are as people.” Born and raised by his grandmother in Jamaica, Ashley moved to New York to be with his mother at age 12. Though he started chess later than most kids and didn’t make his high school team, Ashley told students at the assembly he studied chess three to four hours each day. He competed in local tournaments and eventually began coaching the Raging Rooks chess team at Harlem’s Junior High School #43....