Meet Our Coaches

Mark learned chess from his older brother at the age of 13. This is quite old by today’s standards where there are Chess Masters younger than 12! His passion for chess increased during the Bobby Fischer era and he played and won many scholastic and open tournaments. Mark was the top board for his high school and college teams. He achieved a chess rating a few points below expert and was close to a ranking of postal master until he gave the game up to raise a family and pursue his career in General Management and Consulting.

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After a 30-year break from serious play and study,  Mark relocated from Boston to Florida in 2011. While he has retired from serious tournament play, his chess activities have focused on organizing tournaments and training sessions for young players.

 

In recent years, Mark has run chess  tournaments in Sarasota, Venice and Port Charlotte. He also ran a bimonthly chess meetup at the Gulf Gate library for many years, and a weekly youth chess club at a local YMCA. His coaching experience includes training sessions for more than 50 youth players.

 

​At the Manasota Chess Center, Mark has supported summer chess camps, as well as Just4Kids Connect, a weekly meetup on Sundays for youth players.  He is actively developing a new group instruction program for youth chess players, based on the Steps method.

At 12 years old, Mark learned to play chess from his older brother.  Over the years his interest in the game steadily grew. For Mark, there was no better game than chess. It was a contest of pure skill, with strategy, tactics and elegance. 

 

To improve at chess, Mark read books and regularly competed in tournaments. In high school, he played 1st board on his school’s chess team, and led them to the Virginia State Championship.  He also played in the National High School Championship, where he was privileged to meet Bobby Fischer.  During his college years, he played third board at the University of Virginia (UVa.) and represented the school in regional and national competitions.

 

Before retiring, Mark was an attorney within the U.S. government. Mark earned two degrees at UVa: Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctorate.

Colby learned how to play chess in second grade, but took a ten-year hiatus until he rediscovered his passion in college. He is currently a US Chess Class A player (1800+). In addition to his chess-playing accolades, he has over eight years of chess teaching experience, with three of those being the Lead Instructor of the Tallahassee Chess Camp. Colby also served as the President of the Florida State University Chess Club for one year, where he organized meetups and promoted chess on campus. He is widely recognized as an ambassador of the game at the collegiate level.

 

Additionally, Colby was the chief organizer for the greater Tallahassee chess community for over half a decade. Colby is currently active in the Tampa, St. Pete, and Sarasota chess scene and is excited to be a part of the Manasota Chess Center. He currently resides in Tampa with his wife.