Photo courtesy of FM Peter Giannatos
FM Peter Giannatos,is the Founder and Executive Director of the Charlotte Chess Club and Scholastic Center (CCCSA), which is an award-winning chess club based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in 2007, Peter has taken the club from a small group meeting in a local library to a thriving organization with a large scholastic program, indispensable international tournaments, and a rapidly growing Twitch presence. In our conversation, Peter shares a lot of his hard-won wisdom about how to help build a vibrant local chess community, and he also discusses the difficulty that the club has faced recently due to the pandemic. Given the exploding popularity of chess, Peter is optimistic that any “brick and mortar” chess organization which can survive the lockdown period will come out of the Covid period better than ever. Lastly, Peter is a very accomplished chess player (2390 USCF) and improver in his own right, so he concludes the interview with some chess improvement tips and a few great book recommendations. Many of the details and timestamps related to the topics we discussed can be found below.
Click here to download the episode
0:00- We begin our conversation by getting into reliving the modest beginnings of the Charlotte Chess Center and Scholastic Academy, which has gone from being run at a local library to a beautiful brick and mortar facility, with city-wide outreach and international tournaments.
Mentioned: Grant Oen, FM Mike Klein, GM Daniel Naroditsky, Bradley Juopperi, Ursula Smith
28:30- GM Ben Finegold has built a successful chess center in Atlanta and credited Peter with helping him get started. How did Peter help? In this segment Peter also discusses how the pandemic has affected the chess center.
Mentioned: CBS Sunday Morning chess story featuring GM Maurice Ashley and WFM Alexandra Botez: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/online-chess-makes-its-biggest-move/, Silver Knights Chess Academy, Kids Chess, Chess Achieves, Raleigh Chess Academy
40:00- Perpetual Chess is proud to be brought to you in part by Chessable.com. Check out one of their latest, Lifetime Repertoires, Sam Shankland’s 1. d4, from former US Champion Sam Shankland. The course is on sale for a limited time, check it out here:
https://www.chessable.com/lifetime-repertoires-sam-shanklands-1-d4-part-2/course/53465/
40:30- Peter discusses the rough beginnings and then growth of Charlotte’s International Norm tournaments, which are well-regarded tournaments that enable young talents to earn GM and IM norms.
Mentioned: FM Yuriy Krykun, GM Michael Brown, IM Kassa Korley, Grant Oen. DGT Smart Boards, GM Pragganandha, GM Aman Hambleton, IM John Bartholomew, FM Gauri Shankar, IM Brandon Jacobsen
57:30- We discuss the Chess Center’s relationship with GM Daniel Naroditsky, Twitch Streaming, and their popular “Daniel Naroditsky vs. the World” Online events
Mentioned: Castle Chess Camp, Episode 191 with GM Daniel Naroditsky- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-191-gm-daniel-naroditsky/id1185023674?i=1000489096841
Charlotte Chess Center Twitch Channel- https://www.twitch.tv/charlottechesscenter, GM Wesley So, GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, GM Jan-Krzysctof Duda, GM Vladimir Fedoseev, GM Rauf Mamedov, GM Salem Saleh, GM David Bronstein
1:10:00- Peter has made huge gains in his rating in his 20s. What advice does he give for improvement? Where did he learn about all of the chess greats that he covers in his Learn from the Legends Twitch Series.
Mentioned: chessgames.com, Douglas Griffin’s twitter page, The Art of Sacrifice in Chess, GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Magnus Carlsen, Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, GM Alexander Shabalov, GM Vassily Smylov, GM Tigran Petrosian, GM Mikhail Botvinnik, GM Vladimir Kramnik, Simple Chess, NM Matthew Noble, Perfect Your Chess (Out of Print but Available on Kindle!),
1:22:30- Thanks so much to Peter for sharing so much of his experience and knowledge!
Here are all of the ways to keep up with the CCCSA:
Email Peter here: peter.giannatos@charlottechesscenter.org
Charlotte Chess Center and Scholastic Academy- https://www.charlottechesscenter.org/
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/charlottechesscenter/
Twitch- https://www.twitch.tv/charlottechesscenter
YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/user/charlottechesscenter
If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess, you can do so here:
https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/donate