Meet the ICA Board
ICA Executive Board
Stephen Plotnick (President) joined the chess community when his son started playing late 2015. He has assisted Quest Academy run by Yury Shulman where his son takes chess classes. Due to his passion he is now a TD having worked at the Chicago Open and the K-12 Greater Chicago Open at McCormick Place. He started his business life in the early 1980’s trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. After working for Merrill Lynch heading up their IT department for their business brokerage and valuation division in Chicago, Steve started is own consulting business in 1987. He has maintained a relationship with many large companies including a multi-billion dollar company in retail and wholesale environment for almost 30 years. This is the strength he hopes will be his best asset for serving the Illinois Chess Association.
Eric Ortega (Metro VP)
Amy Green (Downstate VP) has been active in the chess community for 16 years when her son joined the school chess team in Kindergarten. She has been active in the Bloomington/Normal Area Scholastic Chess Association for 13 years serving as President for the last 10 years. This has afforded her the opportunity to organize tournaments at both the local and state level. She partners with the local Parks and Recreation to ensure chess is offered as an activity to engage new players. In addition, she is active with both IESA and IHSA in their chess activities.
Emily Dawson (Treasurer)
Joshua Flores (Secretary) Picture this: Chicago Stockyards: railroads, steel factories, slaughter houses, warehouses. The younger branches of several Mexican families migrating into this Euro-centric neighborhood. A boy born with the gifts of pattern recognition, ADHD, spatial understanding, math abilities and a smart mouth to a marriage of two of these families. A crucible for young Josh Flores which burned and forged him into a strong-voice, determined, fighting, advocate for himself.
Puzzles satisfied a hunger for challenges and truth for the six-year-old, but the books had strange diagrams which escaped him. Figures on a checkerboard. A visit to a drug store, digging into his pocket for a quarter, and leaving with a small red and black box with the word CHESS. Another nickel and the same color scheme checkerboard was acquired. Now the problems could be solved. The box had rules!
Or so he thought.
Directors At Large
William Blackman grew up on the Southside of Chicago with 9 siblings. He learned to play chess at the old age of 13 during an after-school club held by the school. William continued to grow his love for chess at Morgan Park High School, where his math and physics teacher introduced him to chess tournaments and the study of the royal game/sport.
Over the next three decades, William would include his love of chess in everything he does from being the topic of academic studies in his MBA program, teaching philosophy, small chess, math and tutoring service, decision making, and many other parts of his life.
William firmly believes that chess saves lives and is worthy both recreational and academic time for students and adults alike. He is eager to serve the chess playing communities of Illinois.
Larry Cohen learned to play from father (Davis) and brother (Howard). First rated tournament in 1974 at Governors State University, which was mostly composed of Park Forest Chess Club (PFCC) players. Scored 1 point out of 5 games.
Directed first tournament even before being a tournament director. PFCC had about a half dozen players that were also Tournament Directors (TD), but none were available for the first round of the once-a-week tournament that was being held. I was asked to do the first round, and was told it was easy to do. I ended up directing the entire event, and that is how I was suckered into becoming a TD.
Eventually I started being a TD for events outside of the PFCC which included the US Amateur Team Midwest (now known as USAT-North), US Senior, US Amateur North, and the US All-Grade (K-12) held in Oak Brook Illinois. That led me into being a TD for scholastic events as well as adult events. That led me to being a TD for the Chicago Public Schools scholastic events as well as the Kasparov All-Girls national championships, both of which are organized and run by Renaissance Knights Chess Foundation. I have organized a number of national and non-national chess events in the Chicago area and in other states. That included in the 90s an Illinois Chess Tour event in Hammond, Indiana.
Danial Wilson
Older Members for Future Reference (hidden)
Ren Vincent Escalera was born and raised in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines. He is a graduate of Bachelor of Arts in International Studies. He worked as a General Manager in a travel agency and was a School Administrator for 7 years. He migrated to United States in 2012 and is currently residing at Oak Park, Illinois. He is an enthusiast of chess since high school which led him to be a club TD and initiated the King’s Wisdom Chess USCF affiliation. Ren Escalera, with the help of Robert Stoltz (VP Chess Vets) and Philip Linninger (OPRFHS Chess Head Coach), have been conducting weekly free rated tournament since June 2019 at Oak Park Public Library, wherein, the goal is to make the area accessible to chess enthusiasts of Oak Park and nearby villages. Ren is married to Maria and they have two children – Scott Matthew Escalera and Quinn Jericho Escalera. He is grateful to be assisting/participating Chess Vets and Burr Ridge Chess Clubs from time to time on their chess endeavors.
Michael Lenox is a physically disabled retired US Navy Chief Petty Officer. He credits chess with his rapid recovery from severe mental effects from a major stroke 11 years ago. He is the founder/president of several Chicago area chess clubs and the Illinois Chess Vets (ICV) nonprofit organization. ICV holds weekly US Chess (USCF) tournaments, has several VA hospitals recreational chess therapy programs, oversees several chess clubs, and conducts community outreach on the health benefits of chess. He is a 1200+ strength tournament chess player, USCF Local Tournament Director, USCF Certified Coach and USCF Special Needs and Circumstance board member. His veteran organization memberships include the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars. He currently lives in Burbank, Illinois with his wife of 19 years, Lia.
Rachel Schechter (Downstate VP) After a fortuitous meeting with Bobby Fischer in 1999, Rachel A Schechter, while teaching Lit at Ramapo College of NJ, started teaching chess. One square at a time, so to speak, from NJ to ME to CA then finally to Illinois where, for the past five years, she's advanced youngsters through chess in the Champaign-Urbana area, via classroom teaching, mentoring, and scholastic tournaments. A 2019 Delegate to the US Chess Open, Rachel utilizes chess enrichment "to build confidence, character and community". What can't we learn from the royal game?
Darren Erickson (Treasurer) learned to play chess in 8th grade (very, very many years ago) when a classmate taught him the basic rules. He first joined the United States Chess Federation in the late 1990s, but didn't really get involved in the organized chess community until he moved to Bloomington in 2005. Enjoying play as a superpatzer in the Twin Cities Chess Club and serving in Bloomington Normal Area Scholastic Chess, he is a USCF Senior Tournament Director. When not thinking about chess, he labors at working on a newly purchased home and is a voracious reader. He works as a Registered Nurse in Peoria.
Sean Hennessy (Secretary) is a passionate chess teacher. He offers private lessons online and in person, as well as group lessons through Chess Wizards. Sean also works as a Tournament Director for Renaissance Knights and runs the Riverside Chess Club. He is the recipient of Chess Journalists of America’s 2022 Best Online Interview Award, and enjoys watching GM Ben Finegold on YouTube.
Eva Harrison was born and raised in Germany and came to the U.S. in 1995 with a degree in translation from the University of Mainz-Germersheim. After working at the Chicago Waldorf School for three years, she switched to self-employment and now handles legal, financial and business translations out of her home in Beverly (Chicago). Eva is married to John and they have five children, including two sets of twins. Soon after her then third-grader David had joined the Keller Chess Club (Christopher later followed), Eva was invited by a friend to the South Suburban Chess Club in nearby Oak Lawn. While not a complete beginner, in May 2012, she joined her first chess club and played her first tournament chess challenging her sons to beat her rating. When her time allows, she also frequents other chess clubs in the area or plays table tennis. Eva is the co-captain of the Pawns, one of the teams in the West Division of the Chicago Industrial Chess League (CICL), and became a board member of the ICA in April 2017.
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