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.
