Chris Torres is a nationally renowned scholastic chess coach working in the San Francisco Bay Area. His classes have attracted players of strengths ranging from rank beginners to world champions. A chess professional since 1998, Chris is widely recognized as one of the main driving forces behind the explosion in popularity and sudden rise in quality of scholastic chess in California. Currently, Chris Torres has the ranking of candidate master and serves as the President of the Torres Chess and Music Academy. Mr. Torres’ hobbies include playing classical guitar and getting his students to appear on the national top 100 chess rating lists.
If ever there was an official Hall of Fame for California chess coaches, Joe Lonsdale would be a first ballot inductee. Joe Lonsdale started the MSJE (Mission San Jose Elementary School, Fremont) chess team in 1990 when his oldest son was a third grader at MSJE. It didn’t take long for Joe’s chess team to rise to the top. In 1992 Coach Joe led MSJE to win its first grade level National Championship. They won the overall National Elementary School Championship in both 2009 and in 2013. At the 2012 Elementary School Nationals MSJE was the only team in the country to finish in the top four in every Elementary school championship section (K-1, K-3, K-5, & K-6). Joe Lonsdale’s goal in chess is to make MSJE the strongest scholastic chess program in the nation and the recent evidence of their success would suggest that he is succeeding.
The Torres Chess and Music Academy is pleased to have Eric Schiller as a coach for the 2013 Fremont Summer Chess Camp at Mission San Jose Elementary School. Eric Schiller Ph.D. is the author of over 100 chess books and the personal chess coach to many talented young players. When he is not playing in major chess tournaments, Eric is a sought after International Arbiter who has organized and directed an impressive list of chess tournaments and matches. Eric Schiller has stated that he looks forward to making the “best chess camp even better in 2013.”
Doug Torres has been a professor at Ohlone College since the Fall Semester of 1969. He established a classical guitar program for the college and has built it into one of the premier university level guitar programs in California. After retiring from a four decade career as an elementary school educator, Doug Torres joined the Torres Chess and Music Academy faculty and spends many afternoons teaching young children to appreciate chess and music.
To summarize Susan Polgar‘s chess accomplishments is nearly an impossible task. Susan was the winner of four Womens World Chess Championships, is a five time Olympic champion with over 10 medals earned, became the number one ranked woman in the world at the age of fifteen, became the first chess player ever to be a World Champion at Blitz, Rapid and Classical time controls. In addition, Susan Polgar was the first woman to be awarded a mens Grandmaster title in chess, win the U.S. Open Blitz Championship, be awarded the Grandmaster of the year honor, serve as the head coach of a mens division 1 NCAA team that won a National Collegiate Championship, serve as the head coach of a number one ranked mens division one collegiate team, serve as the Head Coach of Men’s Division 1 Teams from two different schools to win the Final Four National Collegiate Championship, serve as Head Coach of a Men’s Division I Team to win the National Collegiate Championship 3 straight years and be named coach of the year for a mens collegiate team. Further accomplishments of Susan Polgar are too numerous to list but even this small sample of work as both a world champion of chess and a world class chess teacher easily rank her as the best chess teacher in the United States.
in memoriam to one of the finest chess minds I have ever had the honor to work with.
Over the board, Emory Tate is widely regarded as one of the greatest attacking chess players of our time. Emory first received national recognition as the best chess player in the United States Air force and by winning the All-Armed Services tournament five different times, setting a record which may never be broken. After the Cold War ended in 92, Tate went into civilian life in Indiana. During these years, he became Indiana State champion a total of six different times and then Alabama State Chess Champion twice. Emory Tate currently holds the FIDE title of International Master which is only one step below the highest title of Grandmaster. However, Emory makes it a regular habit to defeat top grandmasters at the prestigious chess tournaments in which he often participates.
James Paquette has everything we look for in a great chess teacher and more. A former chess student of Chris Torres, James now teaches chess professionally while attending a prestigious local university to study law. James Paquette has several years of experience managing small children which he gained while achieving his black belt in Taekwondo. While an undergrad honor roll student, James was a star football player at the college level and uses his experience from the field to teach children the level of commitment necessary to become a champion. James Paquette relates to children of all backgrounds extremely well and is now one of the most popular coaches at the Torres Chess and Music Academy.
