Pascal Charbonneau and Irina Krush
In the sixth round of the 2007 U.S. Chess Championship, Irina Krush of Brooklyn defeated Bay Area resident and rising star Joshua Friedel. Krush, one of the players on my fantasy chess team, is profiled in my forthcoming book, King’s Gambit: a Son, a Father, and the World’s Most Dangerous Game.
An excerpt from King’s Gambit:
Irina’s life revolves around the game. “I am very chessy,” she told me. Irina is uncomfortable giving interviews—she’d rather be playing chess than talking about the game. But one morning at 3:00 A.M., when I was driving home from a tournament with her and Pascal, she was unusually philosophical. Of all the top players I know, she is the most idealistic about the power of chess to give meaning to life. “Chess is a gift that civilization handed us,” she told me. “I believe chess can bring me closer to the spiritual part of this world in a way that simple material stuff can’t.”
thepHtest 
May 22, 2007 at 2:08 am |
Where is excerpt about me, I demand an entire chapter in the book.
May 22, 2007 at 7:29 am |
Don’t worry, Greg. There is plenty about you in King’s Gambit. The book gets across your warm and fuzzy side. Like when I felt sorry for a very young opponent who looked so distressed at the prospect of losing. I was distracted by his pain and threw away a winning position in time trouble.
You were incredulous when I described to you what happened. “You did what?” you said. “You felt sorry for him when you were beating him? You’re crazy, Paul. You’re completely crazy. You should crush these kids and make them really cry.”
May 23, 2007 at 3:43 pm |
I believe “You should crush these kids and make them really cry” can adequatley replace “Helping kids grow one move at a time” as the inspirational by-line for Chess-in-the-Schools.
June 15, 2007 at 4:14 pm |
[…] Krush, a member of my fantasy chess team and a friend whose chess career I’ve followed closely for a few years, can rejoice at her strong performance (four wins, […]