Jesse Cohen, National Master Chess Champion, USA
- Jesse is a National Master Chess Champion in the USA.
- He has won several top awards around the world.
Podcast
Overview
Anyone who has played a chess game has felt the drive to win. The experience of sitting across the board from a fierce opponent as your clock ticks down and the game becomes more complex is as tense an experience as there is. Here is an episode with National Master Chess Champion, Jesse Cohen who talks all about chess.
00:34- About Jesse Cohen
- Jesse is a National Master Chess Champion in the USA.
- He has won several top awards around the world.
- He formed Summit School of Chess in 2012.
- He teaches over 100 students weekly throughout the Greater Denver and the Front Range areas.
00:44- What made you select chess as a sport?
- I tried many sports when I was growing up and was not the fastest or the strongest.
- It took me until the age of 12 before I finally realized that I could use my mind to be competitive, so that’s when I realized my talent.
01:49- How did you start playing chess?
- My grandfather introduced me at the age of nine.
- Even though he’s a Master at Bridge, he taught me chess.
02:27- Journey to become the National Master Chess Champion
- After I realized that I had a gift at chess, I just poured myself into it.
- I would be drawing chess diagrams in my notebooks.
- I’d be preparing for my next tournaments and all I could think about was chess.
- I started playing chess for about four hours a day.
- I got a local coach and started playing in tournaments and soon enough I became the middle school state champion, high school state champion, and the by 16, I was the National Champion.
05:37- How do you prepare yourself before a big match, both physically and mentally?
- Preparation- Chess has stayed the same for over 1500 years, but new ideas come around, and I have to keep up with them otherwise bad things happen.
- The other part is just looking at players that are stronger than me and really looking at their games and trying to understand what makes them different from me.
09:13- What goes into making a champion, and what goes into training a champion?
- Being a champion is several key qualities. And talent is a small portion. If you have a natural knack for it, that’s great, but you have to have an extreme amount of perseverance.
- Being able to fail a lot and still not be discouraged, but let that fuel you.
- To make a champion is definitely a bit different because I can help nurture a student’s passion, but I cannot give them that passion.
20:45- Three lessons
- Get your kids involved in competitions from an early age. They need to learn how to compete and how to deal with losing.
- Stress attitude and effort over immediate results.
- I see so many kids today that are doing like seven activities a week. They are becoming a very well-rounded individual, but as my coach used to say you can either be a jack of all trades or a master of some. You’ve got to pick one or two things and really focus on that and let go of the rest.
RESOURCES:
You can connect with Jesse Cohen- LinkedIn
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Profile
Jesse first learned chess from his grandfather at the age of nine. At the age of fourteen, he acquired a chess instructor, studied for hours on end every day, and became an accomplished tournament competitor.
Through his success in tournaments, he gained national, state, and scholastic recognition. Jesse has been featured in print, media and commended by the President of the Colorado State Senate for his chess excellence.
