Chess Club Showdown

One of our chemistry professors is an advisor to a local elementary school Chess Club. This is a pretty hard-core group of kindergarten through 3rd grade chess enthusiasts. Well, they recently challened astronoaut Greg Chamitoff (who is currently hanging out at the international space station) to a game of chess. He has answered their challenge with a YouTube video and made the next move.

Well, I couldn't leave it at that. This is World Space Week, and I am in charge of science outreach at my college - so I sponsored a live satellite feed between the space station and our college. The kids will be here in an hour to make the next move live and in real-time (well, technically, Chamitoff is in the "future"), and have a chance to ask Chamitoff some questions about living and working in space.

I couldn't be more proud of these kids, the chem professor. And I didn't do so bad myself. Because I have effectively connected my college to NASA on a strictly goodwill mission, which has resulted in local and national media coverage. And who doesn't need a feelgood story in these terrible times.