Success in St. Louis

St. Louis is the capital city of United States chess. The World Chess Hall of Fame and some of the most prestigious tournaments held on US soil are played in the city. Two of the top collegiate chess programs are headquartered in St. Louis. Yet, over my 14+ years as a chess player, I had never been to St. Louis to visit or play a tournament at the chess club.

Fortunately, I thought, my travels through the Midwest finally gave me the opportunity to visit. Yet, by the time I left, I did basically everything chess-related but go see the club.

I am currently working on an article for the Chess Life magazine about the world of college chess, so I have been setting up interviews with the coaches of the scholarship programs across the US. Since Webster University and St. Louis University both were located nearby, I scheduled times to meet with the coaches of the two schools. My former chess coach, Sam Shankland, was also in town for a tournament and I got to catch up with him over dinner. He treated me to some good Vietnamese food, saying that I had already paid him enough for lessons over the years J. I had planned on visiting the chess club on the last day, at least for a few minutes, but between lunch, a trip to the airport, and an inconveniently timed meeting, it just didn’t fit into the schedule.

Of course, the main purpose of our trip to St. Louis was for the meetings and not for my chess adventures. After Pittsburgh, St. Louis was definitely our most successful city. We had productive, positive meetings with many different Fortune 500 companies. In fact, the chief diversity officer of one of the companies that we met with was a Princeton alumnus. Over lunch at a nice restaurant and stories of his time at Princeton, we learned that he had done the exact same thing that we are doing this summer 20 years ago.

In another important meeting, after rescheduling multiple times, we arrived at the company’s headquarters 15 minutes early. Half an hour later, our host arrived to meet us and told us that he had actually been expecting a phone call. 10 minutes after that, the meeting was over, and we had to brave the pouring rain and devastating traffic to get home. While it was probably the most chaotic meeting of the summer, the conversation itself was crystal clear and he crisply indicated exactly what they wanted in order to form a partnership.

Many of the people that we met with recommended places to eat at. Combined with suggestions from one of my friends from WashU St. Louis, we were never in search of a place to eat. Imo’s Pizza had really good crispy thin crust pizza and toasted ravioli. Salt + Smoke had solid barbeque, but an even better apple pie.

Between the food, the chess, and the meeting success, I had a great time in St. Louis. Among the cities that we are visiting, I think St. Louis is among those that I am likely to visit again in the future. Hopefully, I get a chance to visit the club next time!