Launching at the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Samarkand

during FIDE's Year of Chess in Education

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 chessboards 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 grown into a FIDE-affiliated national federation, a Chess in Education programme reaching nearly a thousand children each week, international titles for Cayman Islands players, and a thriving national chess community in which teenagers are already teaching the next generation.

In 2024, at the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest, the Cayman Islands national women's team made their debut and included four junior players with an average age of twelve and a half. The team won silver medals in its group and raised their national flag on the podium. The Cayman Islands had arrived on the world stage.

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, 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 distils sixteen 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 are building a business, strengthening a community or transforming an organisation, 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

From the Introduction:

"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."

Meet the Move Makers

Sixteen profiles and stories from chess, science, education and public life. One practical framework for building something that lasts.

The Titans – The world’s greatest competitors

♟ Garry Kasparov – The Relentless Competitor: Thirteenth World Champion and longest-reigning world number one, whose battles with supercomputers defined the man-versus-machine era.

♟ Viswanathan Anand and 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 in classical, rapid and blitz chess, who stepped away from defending his classical title at his peak and reshaped the modern game.

♟ Judit Polgár and the Polgár Sisters – Challenging Convention: Raised to test a theory, the sisters won Olympiad gold, while Judit reached the world’s elite as the strongest female player in history.

♟ Hou Yifan – The Scholar-Queen: Four-time Women’s World Champion who challenged convention, studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and became a university 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 the decades-old protein-structure prediction challenge and earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

♟ Levy Rozman and the Streaming Stars – The Digital Reinvention: Creator of YouTube’s largest chess channel, who helped reinvent chess education and entertainment for the digital age.

The Ambassadors – Building institutions and expanding the game

♟ Dana Reizniece – The Minister of Chess: Woman Grandmaster who became Finance Minister, helped launch Latvia’s first satellite and now serves as Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board.

♟ Malcolm Pein – The Chess Architect: International Master whose Chess in Schools and Communities charity 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 brought 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 is helping to 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.