About the Book

What does it take to build something that lasts?

In 2012, Shaun Tracey walked into a public library in the Cayman Islands and asked a simple question: “May I set up a few chess boards on Saturday mornings?” There was no federation. No clubs. No tournaments. No schools programme. Just a room, a handful of chess boards, and a decision to begin.

Little more than a decade later, that first move had become a FIDE-affiliated national chess federation, a Chess in Education programme reaching nearly a thousand children each week, teenagers teaching the next generation, international titles, Olympiad teams, and a thriving national chess community.

But this is not really a book about chess. It is about how people build things that outlast them.

Drawing on the achievements of world champions, pioneering innovators, educators and institution-builders—including Garry Kasparov, Sir Demis Hassabis and Tunde Onakoya—as well as the story of building a national chess community from nothing, Move Makers reveals sixteen practical disciplines for making better decisions, developing people and building things that last.

As knowledge becomes easier to obtain, judgement becomes the rarer skill. The ability to think clearly, earn trust and develop people has never mattered more.

Whether you hope to build a business, strengthen a community, transform an organisation, or simply leave the world better than you found it, every lasting achievement begins in exactly the same way: with a first move.

The board is bigger than it looks. Make your move.

A taste of Move Makers

"Grand Cayman, 2017. A sponsors' lunch after the first-ever fundraising simul on the island. Nigel Short MBE – a former world championship challenger – is sitting across from Ian Wilkinson KC, President of the Jamaica Chess Federation and one of the Caribbean’s most distinguished lawyers. Halfway through the meal, they begin a game of blindfold chess. No board. No pieces. Just moves called aloud in clusters, punctuated by food, wine, and conversation.

Over the next several hours, the sponsors watched Nigel and Ian navigate thirty-five moves of a complete game, holding the entire position in memory.

Ian and I were both practising lawyers in the Caribbean who had arrived, independently, at the same conviction: that the discipline of the chessboard develops thinkers capable of more than chess. Nigel had arrived by another route – an elite grandmaster who built his career on those disciplines and now travelled the world helping new federations to form. Three different routes. One shared understanding, made visible over lunch.

What the sponsors had watched was not merely a feat of memory. It was a way of thinking laid bare: an entire position held in the mind, an opponent’s intentions read several moves ahead, a decision committed to under pressure with no board to lean on.

That last detail is the whole point. Nigel and Ian had no board in front of them – and neither, most of the time, do the rest of us."

Continue reading in the complimentary Introduction and Opening Chapter when you reserve your copy.

Meet the Move Makers 

Sixteen remarkable people. Sixteen different journeys. One practical framework for making better decisions and building things that last.

The Titans — The world's greatest competitors.

♟ Garry Kasparov — The Relentless Competitor: Thirteenth World Champion and longest-reigning world number one, whose battles with the supercomputers defined the man-versus-machine era.
♟ Viswanathan Anand & The Indian Chess Boom: India's first grandmaster and five-time World Champion, whose success inspired a chess nation.
♟ Magnus Carlsen — The Sovereign Champion: World champion across every format, who stepped away at his peak and reshaped modern chess.
♟ Judit Polgár & the Polgár Sisters — Challenging Convention: Raised to test a theory, the sisters won Olympiad gold, and Judit reached the world's elite as the strongest female player in history.
♟ Hou Yifan — The Scholar-Queen: Former World Champion who chose Oxford over defending her title and became a professor at twenty-six.

The Innovators — Applying strategic thinking beyond the chessboard.

♟ Ralph Leftwich — The Intel Engineer: Semiconductor pioneer turned educator, bringing strategic thinking to children through Chess to Success.
♟ Sir Demis Hassabis — The Deepest Mind: AI pioneer whose work helped solve a fifty-year scientific challenge and earned a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
♟ Levy Rozman & The Streaming Stars: Reinvented chess education for the digital age and became the world's most influential chess educator.

The Ambassadors — Building institutions and expanding the game.

♟ Dana Reizniece — The Minister of Chess: Woman Grandmaster who became Finance Minister, launched Latvia's first satellite and now serves as Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board.
♟ Malcolm Pein — The Chess Architect: International Master whose schools programme has introduced chess to more than a quarter of a million children.
♟ Nigel Short MBE — The Global Ambassador: Former World Championship challenger, now FIDE Director for Chess Development, who has helped establish fourteen national federations.

The Vanguard — Changing lives through education and community.

♟ Jomo Pitterson — The Trailblazer: Jamaica's first home-grown International Master, developing the next generation of Caribbean players.
♟ Daaim Shabazz — The Chess Drum: Journalist who has spent two decades documenting the achievements of Black chess masters.
♟ Tunde Onakoya — The Chess Crusader: Founder of Chess in Slums Africa, who took chess from Nigeria's slums to a world record in Times Square and children to the United Nations.
♟ Anzel Laubscher — The Education Commissioner: Founder of Cayman's Chess in Education programme and now a leader in FIDE's Chess in Education work.
♟ Ryan Blackwood — The Generational Bridge: Revitalised Cayman's Chess in Education programme and helping build one of the Caribbean's strongest youth development pathways.

 ...and one remarkable community whose story proves what can be built from zero when ordinary people decide to make the first move.

Editions

About the Author

Shaun Tracey is a litigation lawyer, Candidate Master, FIDE Instructor, and President & Co-Founder of the Cayman Islands Chess Federation.

Beginning with informal Saturday sessions in a public library in 2012, he helped build a national federation, a Chess in Education programme, and Olympiad teams representing the Cayman Islands.

Shaun earned his Candidate Master title in his forties and, in the 2026 King's Birthday Honours, was awarded the Certificate and Badge of Honour for services to Cayman Islands chess, schools and the wider community.

He is also a mediator and speaker whose work explores how people make better decisions and build lasting institutions.