Ashburn’s Tiffany Harris an ambassador for chess

ASHBURN — Tiffany Harris is trying to bring chess back to Turner County.

An organizational meeting is set for Sept. 23 from 3-5 p.m. at the Victoria Evans Memorial Library. The event is free. Everyone is invited, and chess boards will be provided.

“It is free; come play with us,” Harris said.

Her hope is to get chess players prepared for tournaments in Turner County. Tournament play will be sanctioned by the U.S. Chess Federation and will allow players to compete for state and national rankings.

Harris said she also hopes to get more people playing just for fun.

“I want to see how many people may be interested in a chess tournament,” she said. “I encourage children and adults to come to the event, beginners as well. Chess sets and clocks will be provided. They don’t have to worry about bringing theirs.”

Harris, who is learning to be a pilot as well, learned chess as a home-schooled middle school student. In her middle and high school days, she earned several state and national titles and was once ranked in the top 100 U.S. girls under age 21.

These days she is ranked around 1,500th nationally after taking a break from the game.

“I wish I had really focused on it when I was 18,” she said. “I took a break from playing professionally.”

Did it affect her game?

“I’m getting the hang of it again,” she said with a chuckle, noting she has returned to playing professionally these days.

Harris played in the Women’s U.S. Open in Las Vegas last July. Her performance?

“I tied for seventh place,” she said.

When she was school age, Harris helped bring the game to the school system. She also took chess into the juvenile justice system, teaching young people to play. She has previously worked with the after-school program in Turner County, teaching students how to play.

“I would love to get back into the school system and have a group of players ready to play,” she said. “Maybe we could get enough players to do a rated tournament in Turner County.”

Harris said her biggest accomplishment in chess so far has been teaching chess at a girl’s summer camp with Grand Master Susan Polgar. She said it was a big event and in part inspired her to bring the coming event to Turner County.

Chess is a game of planning and strategy. Successful players can plan several moves and countermoves ahead. Harris said the game reminds her a lot of life. Successful people can plan ahead and think about how an action now will affect the future.

“To be successful in life, my pieces have to be in the right place,” she said. “If I make this move, my opponent might do this. It helps me to think multiple moves ahead.”

Harris is a 2020 graduate of Georgia State University with degrees in health science and sociology. She is U.S. Chess Federation Tournament Director.

“I studied various social issues, including mental health, discrimination, gender, sexuality and religion,” she said.

The chess meeting is sponsored by Harris and Adam Inyang of Southwest Georgia Chess, based in Albany.

Chess was invented in India around the 8th century. When it reached Europe, the names of the pieces were changed to reflect items the Europeans would understand. It is one of the oldest and most widely played board games in the world.

Chess also has changed with 3-player boards and the multilevel Star Trek chess being recent creations.

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