Awarded by Chess Journalist of America
I am deeply honored and humbled to have been selected to receive the Chess Journalists of America’s Best Educational Lesson award.
It was especially meaningful to receive this award for A Night at the Opera. The very first time I showed this game to a class, I put a lot of effort into learning the full story of this incredible chess triumph. To my surprise, I still had a couple students ask questions that I did not know the answer to. As I learned to retell the story better, Morphy’s most famous chess triumph became a journey that is every bit as scientific as it is art, as mythic as it is historical. Over two decades later, I still feel a special connection to Morphy’s Opera House Game.
I would like to thank the Chess Journalists of America for this award. It is a a great honor to have this lesson recognized as a the Best Educational Chess Lesson by other chess journalists who have read or seen other renditions of this game.
I would also like to thank my thousands of students past and present. I have shown the Opera House Game to nearly every class I teach and my coverage of this classic has definitely evolved because of their incredible questions. So I would like to share this achievement with all of my students who helped shape my presentation of A Night at the Opera into the award winning lesson it is today.
Finally, I need to thank my wife for her role in editing my lesson. Without her superb video editing skills, my lesson on Morphy’s Opera House Game wouldn’t be available on YouTube.
Congratulations on your well-deserved