Jeffrey Ashton

  I’ve been coaching chess for a while, and there’s one habit I’ve considered changing: when I give a student a good puzzle and they get stuck, I usually end up giving away the answer that same day. When I was younger, I told myself that someday, when I’m older and wiser, I would change this habit. Today, I decided to try being old and wise. While waiting for a child to be picked up from chess camp, I showed a student one of my favorite puzzles. He couldn’t solve it (no one can) and asked me for the answer. I printed the puzzle, added this caption, and put my name and the date on it: “This is the only time in your life seeing this puzzle for the first time.” Then I laminated it and gave it to the student. By the way, this is the first time I’ve laminated a chess puzzle and given it to a student. I’m not really into laminating, but I have a laminator and hundreds of laminating sheets… After the student left, out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT if the caption was okay. I kind of liked ...

I got a nice surprise yesterday—someone let me know that US Chess added a photo of me and my son, along with a short testimonial I wrote, to their official Mission and Vision page. It means a lot to me. That part of the website focuses on the values behind the game—what chess can teach us, and the kind of impact it can have beyond just wins and losses. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate those parts of the game more and more, especially as a parent and coach. If you’d like to take a look, here’s the link: https://new.uschess.org/mission-and-vision

Gemini did a deeper report, but I liked what ChatGPT has to say     https://chatgpt.com/share/684540b0-d78c-8001-8f79-990c88095ed6

As a tournament director, I'm required to do this once a year, and I wish organizations require chess coaches to do something like this.  https://new.uschess.org/safe-play-testimonials  

Out of curiosity, I asked Google Gemini Pro (Deep Research 2.5) to generate a biography of “chess player Jeffrey Ashton,” and I was pleasantly surprised by what it produced. The profile was thoughtful, well-written, and even brought up parts of my chess journey I had nearly forgotten. For example, I had no real memory of serving as president of the UTDallas chess team   What impressed me most was how the biography stayed grounded in facts while still presenting a genuinely positive view. It pulled from over 20 sources that were not written by me, along with two that were—this blog and a couple of ChessBase articles. Overall, it was a nice reminder of the path I’ve taken in the chess world. Here’s the biography!  https://chessprep.com/3YN2hCO

I sent a newsletter, and included a little story about an intense puzzle battle between my wife and brother-in-law. Below are the puzzles with answers. Here's the email. Answers are... Rh6 and Rc3.

We’ve had 810 tournaments at Panda Chess Academy at 9900 Westpark.  When we opened, as far as I know, we were the only brick and mortar “scholastic only” chess club in the U.S. or World (again, as far as I know, and I know an above average amount about chess stuff, but not all!).  This is a “fun fact” that I would be interested in proving wrong. I don’t like it when businesses exaggerate/lie, and having a reputation for being honest is important to me. Hosting 800 tournaments, coaching x amount of years, and being the first/only sounds nice, but I believe people care more about what a business/teacher is doing now, not what was done in the past.  I know there have been after school scholastic clubs, but I’ve never heard of a dedicated “sign a lease and buy your own furniture” brick and mortar scholastic chess club that only hosts tournaments and classes for K-12 and younger.  Please email me if I’m wrong so I can proudly admit that I’m wrong.