Panda Chess Academy reopening

February 4, 2024

Moved in equipment.

February 3, 2023

Got the keys.

 January 31, 2023

Signed the lease.


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New Biography!

Out of curiosity, I asked Google Gemini Pro (Deep Research 2.5) to generate a biography of “chess player Jeffrey Ashton,” and I was pleasantly surprised by what it produced. The profile was thoughtful, well-written, and even brought up parts of my chess journey I had nearly forgotten. For example, I had no real memory of serving as president of the UTDallas chess team   What impressed me most was how the biography stayed grounded in facts while still presenting a genuinely positive view. It pulled from over 20 sources that were not written by me, along with two that were—this blog and a couple of ChessBase articles. Overall, it was a nice reminder of the path I’ve taken in the chess world. Here’s the biography!  https://chessprep.com/3YN2hCO
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800 Tournaments! Original/Only Fact Check

We’ve had 810 tournaments at Panda Chess Academy at 9900 Westpark.  When we opened, as far as I know, we were the only brick and mortar “scholastic only” chess club in the U.S. or World (again, as far as I know, and I know an above average amount about chess stuff, but not all!).  This is a “fun fact” that I would be interested in proving wrong. I don’t like it when businesses exaggerate/lie, and having a reputation for being honest is important to me. Hosting 800 tournaments, coaching x amount of years, and being the first/only sounds nice, but I believe people care more about what a business/teacher is doing now, not what was done in the past.  I know there have been after school scholastic clubs, but I’ve never heard of a dedicated “sign a lease and buy your own furniture” brick and mortar scholastic chess club that only hosts tournaments and classes for K-12 and younger.  Please email me if I’m wrong so I can proudly admit that I’m wrong. 
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