I'mpossible
ChessLife Strategies™ for Children & Young Adults
by
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Losing that bout made me feel like I was going backwards. And even though Anthony was much bigger and stronger than I was, it didn’t make the losing any easier. I looked towards the house and saw Mom watching through the closed window. Now I was truly embarrassed.
Mom looked at me and nodded as if to say, “Remember what I taught you.” But try as I might, I was just too overwhelmed to read her mind. Then she quietly mouthed something to me through the glass. I struggled to read her lips but I just couldn’t make out what she was saying. She repeated it twice before I was able to catch something like “neh neh” or “nah nah,” but neither of those made any sense. But by the third time she mouthed it to me, it hit me like a lightening bolt.
I remembered how years before, when I was only five, I begged my dad to take the training wheels off of my bicycle. He and Mom didn’t think that was a good idea, but I insisted that I was ready. So, off went the training wheels.
Dad held the bike up as I tried to balance myself. I started pedaling and he ran next to me to hold me aloft. Before long I felt like I was good to go. I didn’t think I needed any more training wheels and I certainly didn’t need Dad to hold me up.
“Let go, Dad! I don’t need your help!” I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think I hurt his feelings. After all, I was acting pretty cocky, especially for a five year old.
“Are you sure, son?” he asked, running beside me, half out of breath.
“I’m sure!”
“Okay, Ali.” Dad let me go.
I think I went another ten or twelve feet before the bicycle and I collided with the ground. Fortunately, I wasn’t hurt.
“You okay?” asked my exhausted but concerned dad.
“Yeah Dad, I’m okay,” I said, hiding my complete embarrassment.
“Well,” he said as he turned and headed for the house, “When you’re ready for me to put those training wheels back on your bike I’ll be in the garage.”
I sat there at the curb, sulking. I saw Mom looking at me through the window just like she’s doing now. But that time she decided to come outside. She came over to me and sat down beside me at the curb.
For more than ten minutes we sat there, saying not a word to one another. Finally, I asked Mom, “How long are you going to sit here?”
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About the Book
Twelve year old Ali is the smallest kid on his block. An avid reader and consummate chess player, Ali is labeled “nerd” and “Brainiac” by neighborhood toughs. He is ultimately compelled to take up boxing to survive amidst these bullies obsessed with the sport. While Ali will try to jab his way to success in their way of life, his true challenge is to accept himself and transform the neighborhood to his way of life… I’mpossible is the first in the ChessLife Strategies™ for Children & Young Adults book series which encourages children to apply the logic of the game of chess to real-life decision making. Like no other reasoning activity, chess offers instant punishment and instant reward. By experiencing the benefits and consequences of their decisions so immediately, children can learn personal responsibility and the need to strategize towards their goals. In ChessLife Strategies™ Kyseme Ali Ellington and Bobby Crawford offer a vehicle of authentic empowerment that speaks directly to youth in language they can relate and respond to… Michael Bernard Beckwith Founder, Agape International Spiritual Center Chess teaches you how to follow instructions, plan ahead and challenges one to think. I believe these books will be very, very helpful. Dr. Bill Cosby Ed.D.
About the Author
KYSEME ALI ELLINGTON, the “Duke of Chess,” has been igniting the fun in learning since 1996, having taught over 60,000 students and adults to live their best lives out-loud. He is the Architect and Co-Founder of Chess Tutors, a program more concerned with developing life-masters than chess-masters. Acknowledged Business Partner of the Year by the California State Senate, the State of California, the County of Los Angeles and Miller Toyota, Chess Tutors proves everyday what a wonderful learning tool chess can be.
Kyseme is also the Co-Founder of Educators Plus, a California certified supplemental educational service provider which provides English and math tutoring for at-risk youth within the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Happily married for 15 years, Kyseme and his lovely wife Neisha have two children, Hannah'Noel, 7, and Noah, 10. As Los Angeles County Sheriff Department Clergy they live and provide their services through-out the L.A. metropolitan area.
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BOBBY CRAWFORD, Director of Communications for Chess Tutors, is a playwright, screenwriter, lyricist and director of both stage and film. At age 22 Bobby’s play the Brass Medallion became the first original African American play and Bobby the youngest writer ever produced in the Eisenhower Theater of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C. He has won numerous awards for writing including the Amoco Oil Bronze Medallion, Owen Weenie Dodson Award, American College Theater Festival Award, Samuel Goldwyn Award as well as two Gilbert Hartke Awards for Best Direction & Best Production.
Bobby has written extensively for television including My Brother & Me (Nickelodeon), The New Odd Couple (ABC) and was story editor on 227 (NBC) where he wrote the premier episode. Bobby wrote the hit film A Rage In Harlem starring Danny Glover, Forest Whitaker, Robin Givens and Gregory Hines.