"African continent GMs do exist; but, according to the system of racial classification, I am the first Black GM in history...it matters, and doesn't matter, all at the same time."

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“There's so many lessons I get from chess, it's incredible, but I think the biggest thing for me has always been is that losing is learning.”

“From Kings County, First Black Grandmaster”

“I see myself more as an ambassador of the game. And I hope to bring chess to a higher level in the United States. Making bigger tournaments, more interesting events. Making it a respectable profession for young people to be able to pursue in the future.”

“Maurice Ashley profile, The Chess Drum”

Resonant Thoughts

"You can play the piano with the white keys only or you can play it with only the black keys. But for harmony you must use the black and the white keys."

— Ernest Debrah

Politics1947–2016

#humor

"Donald has a degree on his office from Penn, an ivy league school in economics . He was given that degree, and I emphasize the verb "given" because he always said "Mexico is going to pay for the wall.…"

— David Cay Johnston

Economics1948

#mind

"In the history of bourgeois society, legislative reform served to strengthen progressively the rising class till the latter was sufficiently strong to seize political power, to suppress the existing j…"

— Rosa Luxemburg

Social Activism1871–1919

#power

"Christianity regarded all earthly existence as transient, while the Nazi thought in terms of rendering life eternal through a sort of biological Great Chain of Being. The individual was nothing, but t…"

— Michael Burleigh

Economics1955

#philosophy