The Mongolian School - preserving their culture, traditions and chess!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hello everyone,

This is a very nice feature we found on Mongolia. 

The Mongolian School was founded in 2007 because, like all immigrant communities, the first-generation Los Angeles Mongolians found that their children, born in the United States, were not learning the language and culture of their parents. The Mongolian School is doing its bit to help preserve the culture with the next generation of immigrants. There are a wide range of classes at the school for both children and adults. Students can learn the Mongolian language.

Maya - The chess teacher!

One of the school’s primary functions, it seems, is to teach chess. Maya is the chess teacher, and she tells me that chess is a national Mongolian pastime. Everyone in Mongolia knows how to play; she herself was taught by her father. Apparently she has learned well, because she has earned the rank of Woman FIDE Master from the World Chess Federation.


The room the writer sits in, he says, seems almost like a private chess sanctuary. Like the queen on a chessboard, Maya rules this space. Stacks of chess books lie on a table by the stairs; photos of students at chess competitions (holding trophies) have been placed on walls; a teaching chess set meant to hang vertically – the pieces are magnetic – hangs on another wall. Here, chess is not just an intellectual enterprise. It is a vital connection to a home across the ocean


You can read the full interesting story here.

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