Her News Interviews Vicki Yang: “Never Resign!”

“I just want my role to inspire other people to just do whatever they want to do. It doesn’t have to be chess: it can be art, it could be any other sport that people say, “Oh, it’s only [for] guys.” Just anything they want to do, go for it and prove people wrong.”

BY CHLOE COHEN - THE CHAPIN SCHOOL - COACH & COLUMNIST

Photo courtesy of Neot Doron-Repa, was taken of the coaches during the Her Move Next 5 joint tournament with Chess-In-The-Schools. Coach Vicki Yang is in the center.

Vicki Yang (center in the above photo) is a chess player and Her Move Next coach. She has obtained the US Expert title for surpassing a rating of 2000 and earned the international chess title, Woman FIDE Master. A current student at Hunter College, Coach Vicki appeared in the 2015 short film Never Resign: The Brooklyn Queens of Chess (video linked at end of interview) as a student at I.S. 318. Her News met with Coach Vicki via Zoom to discuss her introduction to chess, her involvement in Never Resign, and her role as a Her Move Next coach.

How did you first get involved in chess?
It was I think in late fourth grade when my brother joined the chess club, and he really enjoyed it, and he told me how much fun it was. And back when I was a kid, I’m like, “I’m gonna beat you in everything, or at least one thing,” so I [asked] my aunt at the time, who’s my guardian, if I could join chess, and she actually said no. And I was really upset ’cause the reason she gave me was because I was a girl instead. So, I bothered her every day about it. I’m like, “Let me join the chess team!” And she keeps saying no until she got really annoyed at me. So, she told me to ask my mom because that’s where we draw the line: If my mom says yes, then she will just let me do what I want; if my mom says no, then that’s the end of the discussion. And my mom said yes, surprisingly, so I was able to join the chess team and do all that stuff from there. So, that’s how I started!

Who is one chess player whom you look up to?
Probably one of my coaches, I would say, because they’re the ones who really taught me, and I think I got my strategy or the way I play chess from them. So, I would say they are who I feel really inspired by.

If you could play any chess player in the world, who would it be and why?
I feel like all the people who I really want to play are my friends, and I can play them any time, so if I can play anyone, it would be one of my students ten years from now, just to see their growth. I think that would be really fun.

And I know you were in a film a few years ago, Never Resign: The Brooklyn Queens of Chess. What prompted the creation of that film?
I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I do think it had something to do with the fact that when I was in middle school, it was really the start of when we had a girl chess team. I know there were a few girls before me at 318, but when me and my other friends came onto the chess team, it was when there was really a good amount of girls on the chess team, and we were pretty decent. So, I think maybe that sparked the idea, but I’m not too sure.

What did the filming process look like?
It was very fun because I never really walk around with someone having a camera shooting at me, so that was a fun experience. But me and my friends who are in the video, we just do what we usually do. So, a lot of the scenes are us goofing around, which I thought was really authentic. That was nice that they included all of the things that we would usually do anyways.

What’s one message you hope viewers receive from the film?
Just have fun. I do remember having these games where I would lose and have seen my friends losing some games, so it’s really all about having fun and just learning something from it. As long as you do something that you like to do and you learn from it, I think that’s all that matters. And, of course, don’t give up, because you can’t learn anything if you give up. So, yeah, keep fighting.

In the film, I.S. 318’s Assistant Principal and chess coach, John Galvin, discussed an idiom that was frequently used by the I.S. 318 chess team, which is “Never resign.” Why is it important that chess players never resign? Is that a philosophy that you apply to your life outside of chess?
I said before that if you give up, you can’t really learn anything because that’s just the end of it. So, I definitely believe that you should never give up because then you’re stopping yourself from continuing something that could be fun, could be exciting. And, even if you fail, there’s something to learn from that experience. So, yeah, I definitely believe that never giving up is a really, really good motto or lesson that I try to follow––not just in chess, but even in school or other things.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of your chess career so far?
Meeting new people! I definitely think that most of my friends are from chess. Even people who I talk to today are from my elementary school or middle school, and we don’t only talk about chess, of course––there’s school, there’s other things that we do. But I think it’s really cool how chess really brought us together, and I was able to work as a chess coach right now because of chess. So, I think that is the biggest thing that I got from it: the new connections and the experiences I got.

Are there any goals that you hope to achieve through your work with Her Move Next?
I just want my role to inspire other people to just do whatever they want to do. It doesn’t have to be chess: it can be art, it could be any other sport that people say, “Oh, it’s only [for] guys.” Just anything they want to do, go for it and prove people wrong. [Show] that they can do something they put their heart into.

What role has Her Move Next played in your personal chess career?
I definitely met a lot of girls through Her Move Next, a lot of [whom] I still talk to today, so I definitely think Her Move Next is a great organization to bring a lot of girls together with a similar goal and keep learning the game and keep building that group of people who have similar interests as you.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
I definitely think that if you’re watching this, keep doing what you’re doing. And if you are interested in learning chess, go for it, because, why not, right?

Photo is courtesy of Neot Doron-Repa. Vicki Yang coaches the Yellow Team to victory in the Her Move Next 5 joint tournament with Chess-In-The-Schools. Coach Vicki Yang is in the top row and second from the left.