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Hi everyone,
Over the last 10+ years, I had to take a break from chess playing for two main reasons, one being my work, and the other being that having a young family makes it hard to play in tournaments, especially when you have an all-consuming job. I spent ten years at a hedge fund called Alpine Associates, had some great and not so great times (mostly great!), and voluntarily left, in large part to make more time for family and enjoy life. I then founded my own advisory firm in order to be able to take on clients. Little did I know that around the same time, I would be presented with a unique opportunity to leverage my chess and business skills as part of the PlayMagnus group of companies which includes chess24, Chessable, and PlayMagnus. My official title is as head of North America for chess24, and the goal in large part is to create more content for the North American market - in the form of hiring a team of interesting streamers and content creators, have fun live broadcasts especially during the largest tournaments like the Candidates and World Championships, create and promote video series, etc.
There is no question that from my earliest days at Chess N Math to today, I have loved chess. I've been playing blitz online all these years and following top games, but I just never had time to play. I finally have one event on the calendar for the summer and I'm hoping to add more.
It was a coincidence I did not fail to notice that many of the people at the company were longtime friends, from Lefong Hua to Laurent Fressinet, Dmitri Shneider and John Bartholomew at Chessable, etc. I had also had the opportunity to host many events with Magnus Carlsen in NY.
In any case, I have a lot more of my "story" to tell, which will happen in due time in some way (I'm still figuring that out!) however, I did want to bring up that I myself am doing a lot of events online, including today, and so is Lefong! The schedule is pretty amazing GM Fressinet is finishing up, GM Svidler follows, then GM Shankland at 3 PM, "Famous Legend" Kamsky at 4 PM, Alex Lenderman at 5 PM, yours truly at 6:30 PM, Lefong at 8 PM, GM Irina Krush at 9:30 PM to wrap up the day.
Note that watching all these is free (and you can watch on chess24.com, or on our youtube / twitch channels) - however, I would encourage you to sign up for premium which gives access to all our video series, analysis features etc. I created a discount code (15% off) for chesstalk users : CHESSTALK2020 - but you can also use Lefong's Bh6 - using one of these helps us keep track of how we're doing in some ways and saves you a few bucks!
I also try to be very interactive in the chats (I mostly follow the chess24 and twitch chats at the moment, but trying to follow more as I get more acquainted with everything) and so if you have any questions, tune in and hit me up.
I look forward to speaking with many of you!
Pascal
Over the last 10+ years, I had to take a break from chess playing for two main reasons, one being my work, and the other being that having a young family makes it hard to play in tournaments, especially when you have an all-consuming job. I spent ten years at a hedge fund called Alpine Associates, had some great and not so great times (mostly great!), and voluntarily left, in large part to make more time for family and enjoy life. I then founded my own advisory firm in order to be able to take on clients. Little did I know that around the same time, I would be presented with a unique opportunity to leverage my chess and business skills as part of the PlayMagnus group of companies which includes chess24, Chessable, and PlayMagnus. My official title is as head of North America for chess24, and the goal in large part is to create more content for the North American market - in the form of hiring a team of interesting streamers and content creators, have fun live broadcasts especially during the largest tournaments like the Candidates and World Championships, create and promote video series, etc.
There is no question that from my earliest days at Chess N Math to today, I have loved chess. I've been playing blitz online all these years and following top games, but I just never had time to play. I finally have one event on the calendar for the summer and I'm hoping to add more.
It was a coincidence I did not fail to notice that many of the people at the company were longtime friends, from Lefong Hua to Laurent Fressinet, Dmitri Shneider and John Bartholomew at Chessable, etc. I had also had the opportunity to host many events with Magnus Carlsen in NY.
In any case, I have a lot more of my "story" to tell, which will happen in due time in some way (I'm still figuring that out!) however, I did want to bring up that I myself am doing a lot of events online, including today, and so is Lefong! The schedule is pretty amazing GM Fressinet is finishing up, GM Svidler follows, then GM Shankland at 3 PM, "Famous Legend" Kamsky at 4 PM, Alex Lenderman at 5 PM, yours truly at 6:30 PM, Lefong at 8 PM, GM Irina Krush at 9:30 PM to wrap up the day.
Note that watching all these is free (and you can watch on chess24.com, or on our youtube / twitch channels) - however, I would encourage you to sign up for premium which gives access to all our video series, analysis features etc. I created a discount code (15% off) for chesstalk users : CHESSTALK2020 - but you can also use Lefong's Bh6 - using one of these helps us keep track of how we're doing in some ways and saves you a few bucks!
I also try to be very interactive in the chats (I mostly follow the chess24 and twitch chats at the moment, but trying to follow more as I get more acquainted with everything) and so if you have any questions, tune in and hit me up.
I look forward to speaking with many of you!
Pascal
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