Her News Interviews Judit Sztaray, General Manager of Events & Youth Outreach at Mechanics’ Institute, USA's Oldest Chess Club
“Chess is so inclusive … It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, you are fat or thin, or you’re male or female, or you’re whatever, your abilities and whatever your circumstances are, chess is chess. You can sit down and play.”
BY CHLOE COHEN - THE CHAPIN SCHOOL - COACH & COLUMNIST
Judit Sztaray
Judit Sztaray is the General Manager of Events and Youth Outreach at Mechanics’ Institute Chess Room, a renowned chess club in San Francisco, California. Ms. Sztaray is an active member of the chess community, and she is often found directing tournaments and organizing chess events. Though she does not play competitively, her unyielding passion and love for the game are a testament to the fact that one need not be a “serious” player to impact the chess scene. Ms. Sztaray, who has a PhD in chemistry, has previously worked as a Laboratory Research Assistant at Duke University Medical Center and as an Institutional Research Assistant at University of the Pacific. After her successful guest appearance and Q&A session at Her League 3 this past May, HMN met with Ms. Sztaray via Zoom to learn more about her experiences and her extensive chess career.
All right, recording. So, just to get started, how did you first become involved in the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Room?
Mechanics’ Institute is the oldest chess club in the United States. It’s actually housed within an institute, which has a library. It’s a membership library, but it’s a very historic building, and we also have an events department. It’s the cultural center for San Francisco. Within the founding documents, there’s the chess club itself, so it’s the longest continuously operating chess club. When they had an opening, we discussed it, and, basically, I joined them––actually almost today it’s two years. Tomorrow will be my two-year anniversary with them. It’s funny.
Oh, congratulations! Are they celebrating at all? Doing anything to commemorate the occasion? They should get a cake!
Well, yeah, any excuse is good for a cake! Maybe I will tell them to: “Let’s celebrate.” It’s a really amazing place to be. We are just now going back to over-the-board [tournaments]. We started the Tuesday night marathons; yesterday was the second night for that. We also had a scholastic tournament back. It’s just back in the building, seeing those old tables with new technology, and with the kids, and with the adults, and some of the older players who couldn’t really join us online, it was really nice seeing them again, I’d say. Those old players, I really came to be fond of them.
That’s awesome! You said new technology; are they having new technology that’s being implemented at the Institute?
Yeah, actually, so Tuesday night marathons have been broadcasted for almost close to three years now. Originally, I think we had three or four, then we had ten DGT boards. The top eight boards were on the Open section, and the top boards in the lower two sections were broadcasted. And we also had a Twitch channel, or have a Twitch channel, and before the pandemic, that Twitch channel was used on Tuesdays to commentate on the games. And Paul Whitehead, FIDE master Paul Whitehead, basically stayed in the office––he had his little setup––and he was commenting on the game, and then when people finished, he invited them in as guests and they talked, interviewed, and then they left, and the next one came. It was a really fun adventure. The funny thing is that when the pandemic hit, we had to transition everything online in terms of the play, but the broadcasting, the Twitch, we already did that, so it wasn’t too many new things for us. It’s really cool to see that 150-years-old historic building. I mean, the sets, the history, and the DGT boards, and we have a display monitor that displays the boards. It’s really fun.
What’s it like going back to over-the-board tournaments after the pandemic [began]?
I directed my first over-the-board tournament since March [2020] back in October, and then since October, this was the next one. I had one May 22-23, where I was a guest TD, and then now at Mechanics’. I mean, everyone is rusty: the players and the tournament directors. I mean, I made errors [in] October––well, I haven’t made that many errors, but that’s the refresh, and having that clock in your hand, I said, “I used to know how to set this… how did I set this?” and then, after you run through and remind yourself, it comes back like a routine. But that first time, you do have to. One other example is players: They don’t know which side the clock goes. It’s always the right side of black’s, right? But I actually had to make that announcement for round two at the tournament. I said, “Okay, guys, I know that we know this, but let’s just–” because I didn’t want to move the clocks for them after the games started in the first round. It’s interesting to see the things that people might forget. And we have to be patient as well as help each other and just share the knowledge of “okay, these are the things that we should keep reminding ourselves and the players.” It will be a fun adventure for everyone to go on.
I know TDing is one way that someone can get involved in the chess world without playing the game itself, so are there any other ways of getting involved in the chess community and in the chess world that you’d recommend?
Well, I mean, playing is part [of it], right, because you have to keep the passion––even if you are not good at it, which I’m not, but I’m always up for a game. Even if I know, okay, 100 percent I’m going to lose, it’s always fun. So, if we are online, and Paul is waiting for him, well, I jump in because I like the game, even though I’m going to lose. The other thing is, yeah, tournament directing is a really good way, because you’re not only witnessing chess; you can play chess as an extra game, but also you understand the rules, and that helps players, helps everyone. The other way I give back or get involved is teaching. And whatever you guys are doing––coaching, giving back, gathering kids into a club––or players, not necessarily kids. So, wherever you are, try to start organizing your community and really just get them involved, either [through] casual play or coaching instruction or organizing tournaments, even if you are not necessarily comfortable directing. Because organizing is a lot of work, too.
And I read you organized Mechanics’ Institute’s virtual chess camp last summer. Can you tell me a bit about that project?
With every school, with everyone, we had to transition to online, right? It’s getting old news now, but I was really proud of our coaches. Basically, San Francisco stopped on March I think 15th, and by March 30th or so, our classes were going online and kids were excited to see each other on Zoom. Obviously, there are schools which were a little bit slower. There were schools which jumped on it because they had no problem. And then summer came, and we figured that online summer camps are good. Three hours: we found that that’s a gold, key hour. Any more, it’s starting to become really draining; any less, it’s not worth it to really log in, unless there’s a specific instruction time or core subject. It went fine, and we are doing this again this summer, so we’re going to offer a combination of online camps. This week is [in progress], and then we’ll have in person camps once a month, so next week is our first in person camp at Mechanics’. Let’s see how it goes, and then we can work from there. That’s our motto nowadays: Let’s see how it goes, and we can plan for more.
That sounds great! That sounds really exciting to have a camp environment again.
Yeah, and we are thankful to have online platforms like ChessKid, for example. ChessKid is a really safe platform, in my opinion, to play chess, kids playing against each other, but really safeguarding them from the internet and the bullying, the cyberbullying, and things like that. And, obviously, when they are older, they can start using chess.com, which is a much better platform in terms of chess, but obviously a lot more risk for the kids. You have to evaluate the pros and cons and what you want.
Definitely. So, you have a PhD––kind of switching gears––in chemistry, right?
Yes, that’s correct.
So, you went from chemistry to chess: same first three letters, but two distinct entities. What prompted your interest in chess?
The good old story. My daughter started playing chess. I did research in chemistry. My husband is a university professor. He was a researcher before––well, he still is a researcher. I was basically following him around––which is good; that’s what I signed up for when I married him––and when we came here to California, I couldn’t find a work that was within a reasonable commute. Basically, we decided I’m going to stay home. I had two other kids. Altogether we have three daughters, and when the second one was born, my oldest one was four and a half, and she started becoming interested in chess. And I said, “Wait for your dad; he really wants to teach you chess.” My husband was playing chess while on our honeymoon, right? So, we started teaching her, and she got a lot of personal attention, and she got good really fast––relatively good. She got into 1000, 1100 rated within a year or so. It was really good, and we discovered chess tournaments. At six and a half, she went to her first chess tournament, and we started going. And, as a single-income family with three kids at the time, it was hard. I started realizing, well, if I volunteer, I can actually get free entries. So, let’s volunteer, because I can send my daughter to chess tournaments without having to pay those relatively expensive [fees]. And then I started volunteering. I was actually working then full-time as a data scientist, but I ended up helping, volunteering, redesigning a whole website. And then after that, I got an offer to join that company and be the executive director. And I enjoyed building the organization, making sure the foundation is correct and good and interacting with the customers and developing new ways of how tournaments should be organized, growing the class, and things like that. That’s how we got involved, and chemistry seems so far away now.
Are you still involved in the chemistry world?
Yes and no. My husband is a chemist as well, so a lot of our friends are chemists, so a little bit. I did teach two times general chemistry at the university, and they really want me to teach chemistry in my daughter’s high school. She’s just graduating, and so it’s not awkward anymore that mom would teach. And so, I’m seriously considering just picking up one or two classes. And let’s see how it goes with teaching high schoolers!
That’s awesome!
We’ll see, but, thankfully, Mechanics’ offers a really flexible schedule, especially with a lot of weekend tournaments. I do have the ability to have my mornings starting a little bit later so I can teach. We’ll see; I still have to make sure it’s all good.
Her Move Next community members have a wide range of interests and passions, and that includes and goes beyond chess. How is chess useful in those areas and other hobbies and areas of life?
I think that chess teaches you to think through your plan––the what-ifs. [It teaches you to] think about consequences and follow through with your plan. So, [to] not give up, especially after first defeat. [You learn to think,] “Okay, let’s tweak our plan or let’s learn more or research that.” It also actually gives you, I feel, a little bit of the positive aspects of being a single person. Sort of like an individual sport, right? So, don’t care too much what others think. If you think you’re right, just go for it and try it. And you shouldn’t pay that much interest or that much attention to what others are thinking. How you look or how you talk, whatever, your performance should be the one [that matters]. Chess is so inclusive in terms of that, right? It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, you are fat or thin, or you’re male or female, or you’re whatever, your abilities and whatever your circumstances are, chess is chess. You can sit down and play. Especially if you’re not too competitive, it really doesn’t matter. I think that should teach you the life lessons that will carry you through. And just look around at the examples, right? I mean, how many successful investors are good in chess, right, because they can think ahead and plan ahead? It’s an interesting parallel, I feel.