Best of US Chess 2015 #7- Samir Sen on the US Chess School

The #7 article in Stepping Stones to 2500 at the U.S. Chess School  by Samir Sen. Judges praised the young writer and chess champion’s ability to pinpoint some of the most instructive moments from a US Chess School session in Seattle. Above the beautiful Seattle waterfront, 12 promising young players congregated with chess sets, clocks, and some notebooks. Aside from some Blitz and Bughouse, there was no tournament here. Instead, we gathered to train and collaborate for an intense, but exciting four days. Find out more about the US Chess School on their website , Facebook page, and YouTube Channel. Samir is a master from Vancouver, Washington and is now a freshman Stanford this fall.  Watch a video (find a text version here) produced by Vancouver Public Schools featuring Samir's chess skills, background and his charitable initiatives. On volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, he said, "It helps other people, so why not?" [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGQJKLk11u0&w=560&h=315] The Judges Sound Off Great recap of the US Chess School written by high schooler Samir Sen. Samir’s “character” descriptions were a great touch in personalizing his fellow camp mates.  He shows great promise for a long career in writing. I liked that he provided a solution to the intuition puzzle.  It gave me a chance to attempt it on my own before taking a sneak peak at the answer.  And yep….shows why I am still under 1000.  Samir obviously learned a great deal at the school and was able to effectively sum it up in a clear and concise way in this article.  As much as I would have liked to attend the camp myself, I felt like I got the cliff notes! – Jennifer Vallens