The FIDE centennial is coming up this month. Even though it’s just a celebration of the founding of the international chess organization, it’s going to be a lot more suspenseful than the Republican National Convention, in which Republicans are going to nominate a convicted felon and known national security threat for president.
On July 20, 1924, the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) was founded in Lausanne, and has grown to be affiliated with more than two hundred smaller organizations around the world, including the United States Chess Federation (USCF).
On July 20 of this year, FIDE will attempt to set the Guinness world record for most chess games played in one day, starting at 00:00 in Lausanne’s time zone and ending at 23:59.
Maybe one of the persons playing a registered game that day will be Rochelle Ballantyne, who might eventually become the first African American woman recognized as a grandmaster by the USCF.
I first became aware of Rochelle Ballantyne watching the documentary Brooklyn Castle, which I thought, when I checked it out from the library, was a sports movie in the vein of When the Game Stands Tall.
The documentary shows Ballantyne as a preteen competing in the Intermediate School 318’s chess team, and then progressing with a grandmaster coach. I am certain I would have won a game against her back then. Now I’d be very lucky to force a draw.
Despite her talent for the game, she’s endured numerous indignities on the tournament circuit, such as being mistaken for a janitor. Clarice Phelps, who helped discover tennessine, can relate. Ballantyne doesn’t “look” like a chess prodigy, so racist people just assume she’s there to empty out the rubbish bins or whatever.
And the people doing the mistaking are probably people who would never be good enough to play Garry Kasparov, who was for more than a decade the world's highest rated player. Rochelle Ballantyne played Kasparov when she was a kid, and she held her own for almost fifty moves.
Of course Kasparov won, but Ballantyne put him on his toes. At the time, Dylan Loeb McClain writing for the New York Times pointed out that the first ten moves of the Kasparov-Ballantyne game were the same as a game played between two recognized grandmasters a couple of decades prior.
You can view an interactive transcript on ChessGames.com. I’ll start quoting the transcript with Kasparov’s first divergence from the earlier game.
11. Be3 exd4
12. Bxd4 Bc5
13. Bxc5 Nxc5
14. f3 O-O
At this point in the game, Kasparov hasn’t castled yet, even though he could castle queenside. Not sure whether to ascribe that to overconfidence on Kasparov’s part or the strategic calculation that kingside castling is best in all but a few unconventional openings.
Indeed Kasparov puts off kingside castling almost to the last minute, as Ballantyne makes preparations to beat Kasparov on his king’s home row.
15. Qf2 Qe7
16. Be2 b5
17. Na5 Rac8
18. a3 Rfd8
19. O-O
Okay, I retract what I wrote about my having been able to win against her back then. I think I would’ve castled much earlier than Kasparov and Ballantyne would’ve beat me.
Now I’ll skip ahead to 44. Qf6. I think Kasparov was hoping to play 45. Qf7+, or at least that’s what I would have played. But although Kasparov and Ballantyne were about evenly matched in material — his queen, rook, bishop and four pawns to her queen, rook, knight and five pawns — she recognized that moves like 44. … Qf1 would not even postpone the inevitable.
Ballantyne passed the New York State Bar last year and is now a litigation associate at Sidley Austin LLP. She was recently lead attorney on a case with a very young client, and she got a good outcome for him.
Recently, she posted on LinkedIn
I found out I’m on the cover of the June 2024 Chess Life Kids Magazine! I am continuously humbled by the role I play for young girls in the chess field. They get to see how far chess can take them but also from a visibility/representation standpoint Black girls get to also see someone with big hoops and an afro and a nameplate necklace and a colorful lipstick. Remnants of home I’ve taken with me as I’ve paved my way (both taking up and creating space) so Black girls behind me can find their home in chess spaces too.
Ballantyne is not a chess grandmaster yet, currently a candidate master. I think she will be in a couple of years.