Chess Femme News!

From Forbes.com
Associated Press
Top players seek EU support for chess in school
Associated Press, 09.20.11, 12:17 PM EDT BRUSSELS -- Chess stars Garry Kasparov and Judit Polgar are seeking European Union support to promote the game in schools across the continent.

Former world champion Kasparov said Tuesday he was looking for government support on top of private funding to spread the game across schools in the 27-nation EU. He said it was unclear how many kids were playing chess but said in French schools alone some 300,000 were involved in the game. Hungary's Polgar said chess cut across languages and cultural divides since the rules were universal and immediately engaged people into social contact.

It was still unclear how the EU could help but Kasparov said he was also looking how to better integrate chess into school curriculums.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.



From kalwnews.org
The real life story of San Francisco’s “Chess Cinderella” 

By Jen Chien on September 21, 2011 - 4:58pm

Dyhemia Young

Most of us love a good fairytale. And then there’s the tale of Dyhemia Young, a teenager from San Francisco’s Bayview district.

Young was invited to the coveted wild card invitation to the Susan Polgar Girls’ Invitational, a prestigious chess tournament held at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. But there was a problem: Young couldn’t be found. Her home life had been unstable for a couple years, and none of her old numbers or addresses worked. So mentors, teachers, and even the police got involved in the search.
They finally tracked her down at a group home – a foster home – in East Palo Alto, with less than a week to go until the start of the tournament. But there was another problem: Dyhemia couldn’t actually afford to go to the tournament.

Luckily, a story about her on the front page of the LA Times led to a flood of donations that paved her way to Texas.

It sounds like “happily ever after,” but the tale of the San Francisco Chess Cinderella is actually a lot more complicated. KALW’s Jen Chien has this story.

* * *

SUSAN POLGAR: Don’t make the move – this is the most important part of it – don’t make the move until you see me in front of your board.

JEN CHIEN: Ten girls are sitting in front of 10 chess boards at a long bank of tables. Most of them are under 10 years old, in pigtails and headbands, but at the far end of the tables sits a lone teenager with stylish side-swept bangs. That’s Dyhemia Young.

I’m at the Norcal House of Chess in Fremont, watching a “simul,” or simultaneous exhibition. That means all the girls at the table tonight are playing against one chess star. Tonight, that star is Grandmaster Susan Polgar. Cameras are rolling, taking video that will later be posted on Polgar’s many chess websites and YouTube. Amidst the hoopla, Young sits calmly, waiting to make her first move.

POLGAR: So, what I’m gonna do is, I’m gonna start the first round. I’m gonna start right here with Dyhemia, and then move on...

One of the people wielding a camera tonight is Lisa Suhay, who’s flown in from Virginia to attend the event. Suhay, a children’s book author and youth chess organizer is behind a lot of the online buzz about Young. The two met at a tournament in Texas. Actually Suhay’s the one who contacted the LA Times, which led to Young being splashed across its front page.

LISA SUHAY: I called the editor.

Suhay came up with the “Chess Cinderella” name, and she’s been working it all over the internet. She even calls herself Young’s “Fairy Godmother” in one article. Suhay believes that continued media attention can save Young from getting lost in the system like so many foster kids do.

SUHAY: It’s a big system, it’s a slow-moving system. Even though all of the people care very much, they’re stuck with the system. I think it’s important to keep the spotlight on a positive story and on the fact that when everyone got together and helped this one child, it had this huge positive ripple effect.

Young entered the foster care system two years ago after some serious conflicts with her mom. Since then, she’s been bounced from placement to placement, even spending a short stint in juvenile hall (she disobeyed a court mandate to return to her mom’s house). Playing chess helped her find some stability. Her mentor Adisa Banjoko runs the Hip Hop Chess Federation at John O’Connell High School. He sees the game as a way Young can focus her energy. Even though Young received a scholarship to Texas Tech through Polgar’s tournament, Banjoko is not so sure more media attention is what she needs.

ADISA BANJOKO: A lot of pressure was put on her to try to be this or be that, and everybody was trying to turn her journey into a fairy tale. And her journey is very real, her journey is not over.

Young is currently living at the East Palo Alto Teen Home, awaiting yet another foster home placement. She just started her junior year at a new school, and though she’s working hard, statistics for foster kids like her are not favorable. Nationally, youth in foster care are 44% less likely than their peers to graduate from high school. As they get older, it gets even more daunting. In California, 65% of youth aging out of foster care have no place to live. Young will age out in less than three years – a stark reality compared with the Cinderella story that’s been attached to her.

Sheila George operates the group home where Young currently lives.

SHEILA GEORGE: I don't know about the Cinderella part of this chess, but my main thing now is to get her back on target for school, get her grounded in school, so she can then think.

In the kitchen, an employee is frying chicken and potatoes in a huge cast iron pan to feed the four foster girls who live there. They’re all teenagers. One has a baby.

Young’s mom is there, too – for a visit and a meeting with the social worker, therapist, and attorney on her daughter’s case. She’s uneasy about Young’s newfound fame.

DYHEMIA’S MOTHER: I'm not too sure about the media, I'm not really thrilled about that. ‘Cause I don't want them to pull her in the wrong direction, might pull her in the wrong direction, she might stumble on something. She's only 15.

YOUNG: This is my dresser, got my teddy bear... And I like parrots ‘cause they talk a lot of mess...

At an age when girls need stability, Young doesn’t have much. She tells me when she needed glasses, it took two years to arrange for a prescription. She worries about where she’ll live next month. For the moment, she shares an upstairs bedroom with a girl she’s known only a few months.

YOUNG: This is my drawer, this is where I keep basically all my chess containments. This is my board, my Lubbock bag, my hair product, Chess Master edition...

The room is small but tidy – typical teenage girl: a flat iron near a big mirror. Snacks stashed near the head of her bed. Young also has mementos from the chess tournament up on the walls.

YOUNG: She got her side with her decorations, my side with my decorations, my newspapers, the signs, "Welcome Dyhemia Young, we support you” – I got that from when I was on my way to Texas, when I got off the plane. I had three posters, people was giving me flowers, posters, taking pictures with me I’m so famous!

For a child who can feel forgotten, it’s kind of a dream come true. Still, with so many people focusing their attention on her, Young says it’s hard not to feel the pressure.

YOUNG: It’s pressure to be the person that I want to be, pressure to have my little sister look up to me and be the person that she wants me to be, and then it’s pressure just to be in the system and have them on my back, and be the person that they want me to be. I’m like: Can I just be myself?

BANJOKO: If she can finish high school, I think she can go out and be a really devastating person at whatever she chooses. But the real tragedy, and we have to be honest about this, is that if she does not graduate, if her household is not made more stable, she absolutely could be another statistic. And that’s my fear, that all of this hype, and all of these gifts are just gonna end up with her being incarcerated, or worse, and I don’t want that for her, I don’t want that for her at all.

Young has her own thoughts as to what kind of ending – fairytale or not – her story should have.

YOUNG: I more identify with the “diamond in the rough” more than the Cinderella story. I mean, some people may look at my story and think, “Well, she is kind of a Cinderella.” No people, that’s just my name, that is not what I am, that is not who I am. I am a diamond in the rough.

CHIEN: Why is that more accurate?

YOUNG: Because a diamond has to be pressure put on, and you have to mold it and shape it and shine it to get it to be a diamond. And I’m still going through my pressure and molding and you know, all the shining and stuff. Probably my shining will be more in my college years... But no, I’m going through all of that to become that diamond and when I become that diamond y’all, I will be one of the top lawyers, one of the best judges, or even on the Supreme Court. Y’all going see me again, don’t worry.

Back in Fremont, at the Norcal House of Chess, the simul is about to begin.

POLGAR: Just try your best, and enjoy the experience. It’s a learning experience. Hope you’ll have fun, okay?

In chess, every move opens up new opportunities and obstacles. The best players look far ahead in the game, considering all of their possibilities. Young has made it this far. She eyes the board intently. Her hand inches slowly toward a chess piece and hovers above it for a moment…

For Crosscurrents, I’m Jen Chien.

Dyhemia Young Wins Texas Tech Scholarship for Chess Performance!

The story of the Chess Cinderella continues!  Thanks to Susan Polgar, SPICE and Texas Tech for giving girls like Dyhemia the opportunity to win a college education. 

From The Los Angeles Times

Young chess phenom wins scholarship to Texas Tech at tournament
Dyhemia Young's journey to the Susan Polgar Girls' Invitational chess tournament was long and difficult, and though she didn't win the competition, she did receive a scholarship to Texas Tech.

By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times
August 4, 2011
Reporting from East Palo Alto, Calif. -- Dyhemia Young left for Lubbock, Texas, with a black eye — compliments of a girl at her East Palo Alto group home — and returned the proud recipient of a chess scholarship worth $40,000.

Along the way, the 15-year-old from the wrong side of San Francisco, who could not have made it to a prestigious chess tournament without the kindness of strangers, became a nationally rated player.
"My journey here, it was tough, because I had a lot of situations going on at home," she said tearfully after her first win, Game 3 of the six-game Susan Polgar Girls' Invitational.

The tournament takes place each year at Texas Tech University, drawing the top-rated girl from each state. Polgar, the first woman to earn the title of grandmaster, also issues two "wild card" invitations to gifted players who haven't traveled the pricey road of official competition.

Dyhemia, who has spent the last three years in and out of foster care, received one of the wild card bids. But when Adisa Banjoko, her chess mentor, called in June with the good news, Dyhemia had disappeared.

It took nearly a month and the help of a San Francisco police detective to locate Dyhemia; after a short stint in juvenile hall, she had ended up in the teen home.

Then there was the matter of money — nearly $3,000 was needed to send the high-school junior and a chaperone to the six-day event. After reading her story in The Times, generous donors sent thousands of dollars Dyhemia's way.

Problem solved? Not so fast.

The night before her flight to Texas, Dyhemia was sitting in the group home studying for her driver's license test with the help of a staff member. When the woman left the room, Dyhemia continued to drill herself. "Why don't you just shut up?" one of the other girls said before charging Dyhemia and punching her in the face.

"It all stemmed from jealousy," Sheila George, who heads the group home and accompanied Dyhemia to Texas, said in a phone interview from Lubbock. "Dyhemia came down here with all this in her soul and mind and heart. She had to get rid of all that junk."

When the rattled girl and her worried chaperone stepped off the plane in Texas, they were greeted by Polgar and a cheering group of chess players — Dyhemia's competitors and newfound friends.

As the tournament got underway, Dyhemia resigned her very first game — an attack of new-to-national-competition nerves. But Abdul Shakoor, a chess coach who had traveled to Lubbock to help his own daughter compete, took Dyhemia aside and showed her nuances of the game that, he said, "you can't really prepare for unless you actually play" at the national level.

"With me being a single father and being raised in foster care myself, [Dyhemia's] story inspired me," Shakoor said in a video posted on YouTube by Lisa Suhay, who runs an urban chess program in Virginia and has helped Dyhemia along the way.

"I felt like it was meant for my daughter, Diamond, to meet Dyhemia," Shakoor said. "It's bigger than chess."

Dyhemia battled well in her second game, and won the third — her only victory. As the tournament wound down, she was philosophical.

"Without my supporters, I wouldn't have been able to do it," she told Polgar. "I'm happy to say that I … had fun playing all my games. At least my opponents can say I was a challenge to them."

Not only did Dyhemia not win the championship, she didn't even get the congeniality prize. But at the awards ceremony Friday, she ended up with something better — a scholarship to Texas Tech.

When Polgar announced her name, the roomful of girls began to cheer. Dyhemia got up from her seat to accept the certificate, looking stunned. She cried. She smiled. She could think of only one thing to say:

"Oh, my goodness."

Susan Polgar Invitational - Final Results

Another successful Susan Polgar Invitational has once again concluded. At the conclusion of training session for the invitees, there is a 6-round tournament for them, in conjunction with other events for friends and family.  Straight from Susan Polgar's Blog:

2011 Susan Polgar Girls' Invitational - Final Standings (6 Rounds)

# Name ID Rtng Post Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Rd 6 Tot TBrk[M] TBrk[S] TBrk[O] TBrk[C] Prize1 Apurva Virkud 13464694 1967 1987 W21 W20 W7 W8 W2 W6 6.0 20 23 90 21
2 Mandy Lu 13907446 1761 1778 W34 W13 W3 W9 L1 W10 5.0 22 24 90.5 19
3 Kristen Sarna 13102097 1591 1620 W38 W23 L2 W18 W8 D4 4.5 19.5 21.5 76.5 16.5
4 Maggie Feng 14105448 1728 1714 L23 W40 W29 W12 W9 D3 4.5 18 19.5 72 14.5
5 Maraani Kamphorst 14521372 1815 1819 Z43 U--- W43 W15 W29 W13 4.5 10.5 10.5 41.5 12.5
6 Claudia Munoz 13481236 1872 1856 W27 D19 W11 D10 W7 L1 4.0 21 24 86 16
7 Katherine Davis 14381402 1668 1667 W26 W30 L1 W11 L6 W18 4.0 20 22.5 83 15
8 Clarissa Abella 13528222 1692 1685 W25 W24 W18 L1 L3 W19 4.0 19.5 22.5 84 16
9 Savanah Naccarato 14207292 1600 1607 W40 W44 W14 L2 L4 W24 4.0 19 20.5 71 16
10 Evelyn Chen 13547567 1501 1552 D29 W17 W19 D6 W22 L2 4.0 18.5 21 81.5 15.5
11 Diamond Shakoor 13972728 1293 1393 W36 W16 L6 L7 W28 W20 4.0 17.5 19.5 71 14
12 Vanita Young 13835092 1461 1478 W41 L14 W25 L4 W34 W22 4.0 16 17.5 60.5 13
13 Rebecca Deland 13470414 1349 1390 W45 L2 W23 D14 W21 L5 3.5 19.5 20 69 13.5
14 Annastasia Wyzywany 13984743 1801 1763 W32 W12 L9 D13 D19 D15 3.5 18 20.5 74 14
15 Amelia Wyzywany 13984737 1466 1451 L30 W37 W34 L5 W25 D14 3.5 16 18 59 11.5
16 Sadia Qureshi 14024572 1607 1562 W33 L11 D30 W17 L20 W29 3.5 15.5 17.5 62 12
17 Aiya Cancio 13850035 1255 1265 D31 L10 W33 L16 W40 W21 3.5 15 16.5 58 10
18 Heather Young 13153973 1345 1368 W39 W22 L8 L3 W23 L7 3.0 14 20.5 75.5 13
19 Ashritha Eswaran 14044705 1484 1491 W46 D6 L10 W31 D14 L8 3.0 14 20 69.5 12.5
20 Cheryl Liu 12848066 1580 1547 W37 L1 W32 L21 W16 L11 3.0 13 21 71.5 12
21 Mina Takahashi 14333584 1254 1263 L1 W38 W26 W20 L13 L17 3.0 13 21 69.5 12
22 Cristina Pieve Ferrer 14697376 1674 1620 W28 L18 W27 W24 L10 L12 3.0 13 20 70.5 13
23 Logan Schoonover 14163285 1015 1084 W4 L3 L13 W36 L18 W33 3.0 13 19.5 69.5 10
24 Joy Chen 13499884 1295 1293 W35 L8 W28 L22 W26 L9 3.0 13 19 69 12
25 Tori Whatley 13269020 1006 1018 L8 W33 L12 W42 L15 W35 3.0 11.5 16.5 55.5 9
26 Rea Katarina Chroneos 14431605 921 1031 L7 W35 L21 W27 L24 W34 3.0 11 17 61 9
27 Anjana Murali 14490650 1179 1178 L6 W46 L22 L26 W32 W30 3.0 11 17 55.5 8 28 Bryn Dolan 14090925 928 938 L22 W39 L24 W35 L11 W37 3.0 10 16 55 9
29 Elisabeth Gondolo 13236653 593 826 D10 W31 L4 W30 L5 L16 2.5 17 22 73 11
30 Isabel James 13435414 1124 1155 W15 L7 D16 L29 W31 L27 2.5 15 19 65.5 10
31 Sneha Chikkala 13008090 1271 1208 D17 L29 W36 L19 L30 W40 2.5 11.5 15 56 8
32 Chenyi Zhao 14468305 1082 1052 L14 W41 L20 D40 L27 W36 2.5 11 14.5 48.5 7.5
33 Helen Vaughn 13832662 864 838 L16 L25 L17 W39 W42 L23 2.0 12.5 16 50 5
34 Alexandra Mann 14138695 1021 995 L2 W45 L15 W43 L12 L26 2.0 12 17 59 8
35 Ananya Murali 14692845 unr. 729 L24 L26 W37 L28 W43 L25 2.0 12 15 49.5 6 36 Marleah Mullen 14417932 101 240 L11 W42 L31 L23 W39 L32 2.0 11 15 48.5 7
37 Sarah Cheatham 14220140 622 625 L20 L15 L35 W45 W38 L28 2.0 10.5 14 43.5 5
38 Janna Borg 13284210 645 584 L3 L21 L39 W41 L37 W42 2.0 9.5 14 44.5 4
39 Faith Munoz 13999788 320 367 L18 L28 W38 L33 L36 W45 2.0 9.5 12.5 39 5
40 Esther Whitney 14084916 823 830 L9 L4 W45 D32 L17 L31 1.5 13 17.5 57 5.5
41 Jade Hibdon 13967740 339 316 L12 L32 L42 L38 D45 W43 1.5 7 11 35 2
42 Dyhemia Young unr. 111 L44 L36 W41 L25 L33 L38 1.0 10.5 13.5 33 4
43 Aksithi Eswaran 14583755 503 445 Z5 H--- L5 L34 L35 L41 1.0 5.5 10.5 29 4.5
44 Mary Kerr 14437867 179 231 W42 L9 U--- U--- U--- U--- 1.0 1 5 20 6
45 Jenaye Hibdon 13967755 338 297 L13 L34 L40 L37 D41 L39 0.5 9 12.5 39 1
46 Evelyn Kerr 14201134 574 572 L19 L27 U--- U--- U--- U--- 0.0 3 6 20.5 0

I highlighted the Murali sisters from Wisconsin.  I don't know why Wisconsin had two representatives (that was also a question posted to me here at the blog). 

More information from Susan Polgar's Blog:
Video of a Fox News broadcast covering Dyhemia Young's "Chess Cinderella" story.  Very nice video.  It is inspiring that so many people contributed to enable both Dyhemia Young and Vanita Young (not related to each other), to attend the SP Invitational. 

More information from Susan Polgar's Blog:
Final Results:

Overall Champion: Apurva Virkud
Under 13: Mandy Lu
Under 10: Chenyi Zhao
Scholarships to Texas Tech (approximately $40,000 each for out of state students):

Vanita Young
Cheryl Liu
Dyhemia Young
Sneha Chikkala

Parents / Friends:

1. David Chris Miller
2-4 Angelito Abella
2-4 Martha Underwood
2-4 Abdul Abdus-Shakoor

Puzzle Solving:

Maggie Feng 20/20
Katherine Davis 19/20
Rebecca Deland 19/20

Blitz:

Many Liu (Trophy winner by playoff)
Evelyn Chen

Bughouse:
Kristen Sarna / Clarissa Abella (Trophy on tiebreaks)
Apurva Virkud / Katherine Davis
Mandy Lu / Maggie Feng


A "Cinderella" fund has been established at the Susan Polgar Foundation that will be used to assist other invitees like Vanita Young and Dyhemia Young to attend future Susan Polgar Invitationals.

'Cinderella' Arrives at the Chess Ball!

Check out the video of Dyhemia Young being welcomed to Texas at the Lubbock Airport by Susan Polgar and others.  The young lady, from Los Angeles, is a wildcard pick of Susan Polgar to attend the 2011 Susan Polgar Girls Invitational in Lubbock, Texas at Texas Tech University.

Great News!  Will Smith and Jada Pickett Smith contacted Susan to pledge a contribution to the Susan Polgar Foundation to assist with the financial aspects of Dyhemia's attendance (with a chaperone) to the Girls Invitational.

Photo by Paul Truong:

Good luck to Dyhemia and, indeed, to all the young ladies in attendance.  I'm sure they'll have a great time meeting and socializing with each other, attending the training sessions and competing in the final 6 round tournament!

Fairy tales do come true, it can happen to you...

A Chess Cinderella Story

From Susan Polgar's chess blog: 

It takes many moves to find missing young chess whiz

When news came that Dyhemia Young had been invited to a prestigious chess tournament, the 16-year-old San Franciscan had vanished. Her mentor, founder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation, was worried.

By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times

July 23, 2011

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-chess-girl-20110723,0,6919112.story

Reporting from East Palo Alto, Calif.

 When Dyhemia Young was invited to compete in a prestigious all-girls chess tournament, at first it looked like the biggest hurdle would be raising the money to get her there.

 The Susan Polgar Girls' Invitational takes place each year at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and the price tag for flights and accommodations was around $1,600 — a hefty sum for a 16-year-old from San Francisco's hard-knock Bayview District.

The top-rated girl from each state is invited to the annual event. Polgar, the first woman to earn the title of grandmaster, also issues two "wild card" invitations to gifted players who haven't cracked into official competition. It's a world some liken to preparing for the Olympics, with its need for money, lessons and dedicated parents.

But when Adisa Banjoko, founder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation and Dyhemia's mentor, tried to call her in mid-June to tell her the good news, he realized the money would probably be a lot easier to find than the chess player.

Dyhemia, the very definition of wild card, had disappeared.

None of the phone numbers Banjoko had for her worked anymore, and he hadn't seen her since school let out. No one at John O'Connell High School, where he is a security guard and Dyhemia was a student, had seen the striking junior with the almond eyes, bright smile and sharp mind.

"I reached out to other kids who had gone to O'Connell on Facebook," he recounted. "I figured between Facebook and people who worked there, if that's not going to pull it off, that's bad."

Banjoko describes his protege as "a really good girl with a tumultuous home life. She's a very delicate plant in very harsh weather conditions. It's not whether or not she's a good flower. It's 'are we going to get the conditions right to help her bloom?' So far we haven't."

Dyhemia has played chess on and off since fifth grade, when her social studies teacher taught her how to navigate the 64 squares. She played for a year with Banjoko and the Hip-Hop Chess Federation in ninth grade, and he was struck by her skill. Last year, though, she began to back off.

The federation melds music, martial arts and the game of kings to teach young people the skills to help them through their difficult lives — traits like patience, planning, thinking ahead. Banjoko runs the West Coast operations; Lisa Suhay, a children's book author from Norfolk, Va., leads the East Coast effort.

With Dyhemia scarce and time running out, Suhay hit the computer. A Google search of the girl's name went nowhere, but a check of Google images June 24 gave Suhay and Banjoko their first lead: a missing person's poster from 2008.

"Missing Juvenile," its headline blared, above black-and-white photos of a wistful 13-year-old. "LSW: Blue jeans, possibly with a red jacket. Hair is in a pony tail." And finally, a phone number for the San Francisco Police Department.

Suhay emailed the poster to Banjoko. "Missing persons on her from '08," she wrote. "This our girl?"

The answer was yes.

Suhay dialed the number and was transferred to Det. Joseph Carroll, with the missing person's unit. "I'm going to make the strangest request you are going to get all week," she told him. A half hour later, he called back. "I've got a line on her," Carroll said. But it would take nearly a month for them to connect.

Dyhemia has been in and out of the foster care system for the last three years. Recently, it turned out, she had done a brief stint in juvenile hall — officials will not disclose why — before being sent to the East Palo Alto Teen Home on June 30. That's where Carroll tracked her down last week.

Three other girls, two with babies, live in the split-level, Band-Aid-colored house under the care of executive director Sheila George, who answered the phone last weekend when Dyhemia's social worker called with news of the invitation.

"Ms. George said, 'You that good at chess?'" Dyhemia recounted. "I said, 'I'll go and do my best and have fun.' "

She hasn't played regularly for a year and is nervous about Lubbock.

"I had to focus on my studies," she said. "I messed up in school in ninth-grade year. I had a lot going on in my home situation. But every time Adisa cracked open a board at the library, I wanted to play.

"Chess," she said, "kept me going. It kept me motivated and kept me trying."

Banjoko and Suhay are getting close to raising the funds for Dyhemia's trip, which has doubled in cost because state law requires that she travel with a chaperone. But they're not quite there.

The cost of the plane tickets is being covered by FedEx Corp.; Jupiter Jiu Jitsu, a martial arts tournament company; and Los Angeles rapper Rakaa Iriscience.

Dyhemia and George are scheduled to get on the plane Sunday.

The opportunity to play chess with the best girls in the country came as a shock, Dyhemia said. But the biggest surprise was how much effort went into finding her and getting her to Lubbock.

"This is crazy," she said. "That lets me know I'm loved."  

Cinderella and the Chess Queen
By Lisa Suhay

www.ChessDom.com

http://reports.chessdom.com/news-2011/cindarella-chess

Cinderella is alive, black and living in San Francisco’s foster care system right now.

Her name is Dyhemia, age 16, a talented chess player currently dug so deep in the system it took a top police detective to track her and pass on the news that she was selected to compete in the prestigious Susan Polgar Girls’ Invitational in Texas which begins July 24th.

I know this because this girl is a Hip-Hop Chess Federation player, selected on the recommendation of her mentor, HHCF Founder Adisa Banjoko and myself. We run free chess play, lessons and Life Strategies mentoring for at-risk children as unfunded volunteers.

Susan Polgar told me she has a single remaining Wild Card invitation to give to a deserving, unknown player. I remembered all the tales Adisa has told me over the years about Dyhemia.

It seemed like such a simple good deed to help facilitate. I called Adisa he gave agreed this was a great choice. Polgar and her board issued the invitation. All that was left to do was give her the good news and find someone to buy a plane ticket and donate the $500 for room and board for the 6-day intensive chess training and competition where girls learn to improve their game and then play for scholarships to Texas Tech University, plus prizes.

If anyone deserves a shot it is this girl who has known too many people interested in hurting, or renting her body, but few willing to invest in her mind. She has been a runaway and victim, never a winner.

Sadly, after a week Adisa called to tell me the girl could not be found. Everyone she knew was stumped and the Foster system was proving impenetrable. All was lost.

The weight of responsibility was crushing as I sat down to call Polgar and decline the invitation. Instead of dialing I sat at the computer and shook Google until, searching image files, a three-year-old missing child flyer from the San Francisco Police Department fell into my virtual lap. Adisa confirmed it was the right girl. She was known for running from foster homes, a walking lost and found. Not an uncommon occurrence in any system.

I called the number on the flyer and was transferred to Head Detective Joseph Carroll of the Missing Persons Unit. “I am going to make the strangest request you are going to get all week,” I said. He laughed.

After hearing all about this Cinderella story the hard-bitten city detective, who has seen more than his share of unhappy endings, came to a decision that changed the game, “I am going to find this girl. Let’s see if we can make something happen.”

Within 30-minutes he called and said, “I have a line on her.” Two days later I was talking to the head of Social Services who, after expressing much skepticism at the notion of a street-smart teen attending the nation’s most prestigious chess event for girls, agreed to allow her to attend. Multiple systems are in place to keep her safe, sound and mentored by women throughout the trip.

Cinderella can go to the ball, but…she needs a fairy Godparent to pay her way.

I believe God is a chess player and He didn’t run this whole gambit without a solid closing strategy. Problem is The Lord plays Blitz chess and the clock is ticking.

Someone reading this story right now is the one who is supposed to make the next move that makes this girl a winner. Maybe it’s a “simul,” the kind of game where one Grand Master simultaneously plays dozens of players at once. In that case we’re all in this game. We’re all invested in the outcome so let’s each invest a dollar in Dyhemia.

Lisa Suhay is a children’s author and volunteer with the Hip-Hop Chess Federation. 

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*A special Cinderella Fund has been set-up at The Susan Polgar Foundation: 6923 Indiana Ave., Suite 154, Lubbock, Tx. 79413. This is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.