Move Makers (Young Leaders Edition) - Shaun Tracey

Move Makers (Young Leaders Edition) by Shaun Tracey

Note - the Young Leaders Edition is aimed at younger readers and has been written for a younger-aged audience. 

Click here for a PDF extract from this title.

The story of how a national chess community was built from zero into a federation that delivers a Chess in Education Programme teaching nearly one thousand students weekly, and whose national women’s team won silver medals in their group on their debut at the 2024 Budapest Chess Olympiad.

In 2012, Shaun Tracey walked into a public library in the Cayman Islands and asked a simple question: “May I set up a few chessboards on Saturday mornings?” There was no federation. No clubs. No tournaments. No schools programme. Just a room, a handful of chess boards, and a decision to begin.

Little more than a decade later, that first move had grown into a FIDE-affiliated national federation, a Chess in Education programme reaching nearly a thousand children each week, international titles for Cayman Islands players, and a thriving national chess community in which teenagers are already teaching the next generation.

In 2024, at the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest, the Cayman Islands national women's team made their debut and included four junior players with an average age of twelve and a half. The team won silver medals in its group and raised their national flag on the podium. The Cayman Islands had arrived on the world stage.

But this is not really a book about chess. It is about how people build things that outlast them.

Drawing on the achievements of world champions, innovators, educators and institution-builders – including Garry Kasparov, Sir Demis Hassabis and Tunde Onakoya – as well as the story of building a national chess community from nothing, Move Makers distils sixteen disciplines for making better decisions, developing people and building things that last.

As knowledge becomes easier to obtain, judgement becomes the rarer skill. The ability to think clearly, earn trust and develop people has never mattered more.

Whether you are building a business, strengthening a community or transforming an organisation, lasting achievement begins in exactly the same way: with a first move.

The board is bigger than it looks. Make your move.

Meet the Move Makers

This book contains sixteen profiles and stories from chess, science, education and public life. 

The Titans – The world’s greatest competitors

♟ Garry Kasparov – The Relentless Competitor: Thirteenth World Champion and longest-reigning world number one, whose battles with supercomputers defined the man-versus-machine era.

♟ Viswanathan Anand and the Indian Chess Boom: India’s first grandmaster and five-time World Champion, whose success inspired a chess nation.

♟ Magnus Carlsen – The Sovereign Champion: World Champion in classical, rapid and blitz chess, who stepped away from defending his classical title at his peak and reshaped the modern game.

♟ Judit Polgár and the Polgár Sisters – Challenging Convention: Raised to test a theory, the sisters won Olympiad gold, while Judit reached the world’s elite as the strongest female player in history.

♟ Hou Yifan – The Scholar-Queen: Four-time Women’s World Champion who challenged convention, studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and became a university professor at twenty-six.

The Innovators – Applying strategic thinking beyond the chessboard

♟ Ralph Leftwich – The Intel Engineer: Semiconductor pioneer turned educator, bringing strategic thinking to children through Chess to Success.

♟ Sir Demis Hassabis – The Deepest Mind: AI pioneer whose work helped solve the decades-old protein-structure prediction challenge and earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

♟ Levy Rozman and the Streaming Stars – The Digital Reinvention: Creator of YouTube’s largest chess channel, who helped reinvent chess education and entertainment for the digital age.

The Ambassadors – Building institutions and expanding the game

♟ Dana Reizniece – The Minister of Chess: Woman Grandmaster who became Finance Minister, helped launch Latvia’s first satellite and now serves as Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board.

♟ Malcolm Pein – The Chess Architect: International Master whose Chess in Schools and Communities charity has introduced chess to more than a quarter of a million children.

♟ Nigel Short MBE – The Global Ambassador: Former World Championship challenger, now FIDE Director for Chess Development, who has helped establish fourteen national federations.

The Vanguard – Changing lives through education and community

♟ Jomo Pitterson – The Trailblazer: Jamaica’s first home-grown International Master, developing the next generation of Caribbean players.

♟ Daaim Shabazz – The Chess Drum: Journalist who has spent two decades documenting the achievements of Black chess masters.

♟ Tunde Onakoya – The Chess Crusader: Founder of Chess in Slums Africa, who took chess from Nigeria’s slums to a world record in Times Square and brought children to the United Nations.

♟ Anzel Laubscher – The Education Commissioner: Founder of Cayman’s Chess in Education programme and now a leader in FIDE’s Chess in Education work.

♟ Ryan Blackwood – The Generational Bridge: Revitalised Cayman’s Chess in Education programme and is helping to build one of the Caribbean’s strongest youth-development pathways.

ISBN: 9781911874065, Paperback, 160 pages, Wilbury Press