PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Twelve-year-old Tessa Wong stares down at her chessboard with an intense and quiet focus. Chess has been a big part of the seventh-grader’s life — she’s played since she was 4 — but this game may be the toughest and most memorable yet.
Standing across Wong’s board is 23-year-old Evgeny Shtembuliak, a Ukrainian grandmaster ranked 191st in the world by the International Chess Federation who escaped his home country shortly after the Russian invasion. From March 26 to 27, he visited Palo Alto to help sharpen the chess skills of local kids.
During this particular game, the 12-year-old gets a good lesson in chess sportsmanship and strategy. A dozen or so moves into their game, the grandmaster checkmates Wong. She smiles quickly through her mask as her king falls down on the board alongside the other silver and gold pieces.
