Maurice Ashley, who became the first Black chess grandmaster in 1999, is using the game of chess to teach life lessons. Ashley fell in love with chess as a 14-year-old high school student after ...

Black chess champion teaching a new era of Kansas City students by: Loren Halifax. Posted: Feb 28, 2023 / 10:49 PM CST. Updated: Feb 28, 2023 / 10:49 PM CST. by: Loren Halifax.

Maurice Ashley, the first Black chess grandmaster found a worthy opponent, when he sat across from Cass Tech senior Charisse Woods for a blitz match.

A TV drama series based on the life of Maurice Ashley, the first Black Chess Grandmaster, is in the works from Nas & Power EP, Ordinary Angels producers. Skip to main content.

Also a decorated coach, he has lead chess teams such as the Dark Knights and Harlem’s Raging Rooks to national championships and was inducted in the 2016 class of the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.

Howard University’s chess club has been around since the early 1900s but hasn’t been active in recent years until a student decided to bring new life to the club in 2020.

There’s a rich history of Black chess players. Moody, for instance, learned chess from his uncles. “They were born from the 1940s to the 1980s, they've all been in a penitentiary.