Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speaking of not knowing things, I really didn't know that
I liked the game of chess. I know that's quite
a hard left turn, but I was talking about it
on the air a couple of weeks ago, and it
got an awesome email from my friends Corey and Dylan Cardiff,
who are joining us in the studio because we're going
to be talking about Fremont Chess Fest twenty twenty five.
(00:21):
First of all, guys, thanks so much for being on
our show today.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thanks for having us.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah, thanks Emery.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Okay, so thank you for coming in. Hopefully I can
get you out of here before it gets too nasty outside.
Chess is a game that is always super intimidating to me.
It was so intimidating, and this is a truly American
first world story. I watched The Queen's Gambit and I
was like, oh, this is awesome. I actually am like
way into this and I learned how to play chess
(00:49):
and really enjoy kind of the brain busting kind of
element to it and the competition element of it. You guys, though,
have been at this for a while. So I'll start
with you, Corey, take me through kind of before we
get to chess. Fest itself about your history with this
game and what you know kind of got you to
this point of all this organization.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, it started when our oldest was in first grade
and we realized he's not a sports kid, so we
wanted to do a chess club for him at his
elementary school. So we reached out to a group called
Imaginarium and they're based in Fremont and it was a
chess and drama organization and they helped us get started
with a chess club at our son's elementary school, which
(01:30):
is this is actually gonna be our eighth year at
that elementary school.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, So it's been a while. We just we've been
doing it, having fun with it, and then we got
started with chess Fest with that group in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
In what age group is chess Fest kind of.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Going for kindergarten through twelfth grade.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Okay, so anybody, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Any skill level. With our any of our events that
we have, we always divide the kids by their age
and their skill level. So if you were a beginner,
you're not going to be playing someone who's an expert.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
That's the one cool thing about chess is even online,
you know, you're gonna get matched up with somebody who's
relatively close to the way that you play. So, Dylan,
when you talk about the game of chess, you guys
chess players before you decided to get into this.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
So yeah, back in the day, I played a lot
of chess. Not much anymore. I play a lot of
third and fourth grader So I consider myself pretty good.
But no, when you start playing, but no, we just
love teaching it, you know. We started volunteering, like my
wife said, when our kid was real young. It was
(02:37):
the best opportunity that we ever did. The former owner
of Imaginarium, our nonprofit, decided to relocate and he came
to us and said, hey, would you guys be willing
to take over this nonprofit? And we kind of looked
at each other and we're like, we don't want this
saying to die in our community. So we took it
over and we've been running Fremont Chess Fest ever since.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So I got the flyer here and it's got all
this information. Fremont Chess Chess Fest happening on Saturday, April
the twenty sixth, and so there's still plenty of time
for people to sign up. We're joined right now by
Corey and Dylan Cardiff, who put this together every year.
I'm sure you know you talked about being eight years.
That kind of trans it goes across the pandemic, and
(03:24):
I'm sure that's when a lot of people like me
fell in love with it when the TV show came out.
But you know, i'm sure for in person chess playing
and especially events like this, it probably stunted some of
the growth that you guys were making. So how how
did that kind of affect what this event has been
and how you've been trying to rebound.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, Yeah, for twenty twenty and twenty twenty one, we
weren't able to do any of our events, but we
were able to keep our chess clubs going at the
elementary schools. We just followed all the guidelines. We had
really great principles to help keep that going for the students.
And so then we're for last Chess Fest or the
first one after was in twenty twenty two, and we
just got it out there to as many people as
(04:02):
we could, all flyers for our students, and that year
we had about seventy kids attend. And last year was
our third year doing it and we had ninety so
we're building it back up.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
It's awesome. So, Dylan, when we talk about the.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Education prospect of like teaching chess, and this is the
thing that kept me from doing it, because you either
kind of understand it when you're young like that, or
you don't. You know, you're just like sitting there just like, Okay,
So I can move these pieces and I know where
I can move.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Them, but I don't really know why I'm moving them there.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And for some reason, as an adult, you know, when
I got into it, I was like, oh, of course
it makes total sense. Right, Trying to teach a game
like this to a first grader or a third grader
or even you know, maybe a seventh grader could be
a little bit of a challenge. So what part of
this educational aspect of it has been rewarding for you
guys as you taught people as young as you know,
five six years old how to play this very very
(04:54):
fun game.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
We support our local elementary schools up in the Fremont
are Right now, we have six chess clubs going and
we support kids from second grade all the way through
middle school, and then we have a chess club at
our local library, the Keen Moore Memorial Library up there
in Fremont, and we get a lot of homeschool kids there.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
But it's just amazing.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Every time you start teaching this to a young person,
they pick it up so quickly, and after you know
a couple of years doing it, they turn around and
they say, you know, my parents don't know how to
do it, and I'm like, okay, now this is your challenge.
You get to teach them how to play chess and
they just love that part of it.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So Corey and Dylan Cardiff joining us here and Fremont
Chess Fest on Saturday, April twenty sixth. Like you mentioned,
could be a beginner or somebody that's just a novice
and wants to play and could only have a few
games under their belt and just kind of want to
be around other kids and have an opportunity to play.
How's the easiest way that people can sign up?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
They can reach us on our website. We are Fremont
Chessfest dot com, on Facebook at Fremont Chess Fest and
our email is Imagine Fremont at gmail dot com and
you could just send us a message you're certainly welcome
to find our flyer online and it has all the
information on there. And if you just reach out to
us and want to register your kids and then show
up and pay a day of that's completely fine.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And I did a bags tournament once where it was
so packed, there were so many people there and it
was you played one game and if you lost, Yepiah.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
This is not a rated tournament.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That's the great thing about our nonprofit. All we want
to do is teach kids and have great experiences for him,
So this is not a rated tournament. However, we do
do six to eight man round robin, so everybody's going
to get a bunch of matches under their belt for
five dollars registration fee. Everybody gets a free backpack.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
One of our key partners is Omaha Oriental Trading Company
and they provide us through donations, tons of awesome prizes,
so every kid gets prizes.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
At the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
We also get a free lunch thanks to one of
our partners with Casey's Pizza, so everybody gets a pizza
lunch that participates, and then we have a free giant
raffle at the end of the day for like ten
to twelve people, so about ten percent of the kids
participating get a chance to get a large chess board.
We have awesome like Mario Brothers chess sets, Wow, Minecraft
(07:18):
chess sets, so the kids always love that.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
So I'm looking at this and I'm saying that's quite
a good investment there if you're willing to make some time.
So again, keep it Saturday, April twenty sixth open and
this is going to be taking place in Fremont obviously,
and that's at the middle school. Yes, okay, so Fremont
Middle School and you can find more information, like Dylan
and Corey said on Fremont Chessfest dot com.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Awesome stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I hope you guys are able to, you know, get
as many people you know interested and get them out there.
And it's just an incredibly great game to teach people.
It makes them think. But there's also such great camaraderie
and just there's a lot of fun with the social
aspect of So thank you so much for coming in
and sharing this and sharing this with the kids of
(08:03):
our community in the Omaha area.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yup, thank you.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Hope the kids for Mama can make the quick drive
up two seventy five We're right off the highway.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
There, so perfect. Yeah. Check it out.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It's Fremont Chessfest dot com for more information. Big thanks
to Dylan and Corey there
Speaking of not knowing things, I really didn't know that
I liked the game of chess. I know that's quite
a hard left turn, but I was talking about it
on the air a couple of weeks ago, and it
got an awesome email from my friends Corey and Dylan Cardiff,
who are joining us in the studio because we're going
to be talking about Fremont Chess Fest twenty twenty five.
(00:21):
First of all, guys, thanks so much for being on
our show today.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thanks for having us.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah, thanks Emery.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Okay, so thank you for coming in. Hopefully I can
get you out of here before it gets too nasty outside.
Chess is a game that is always super intimidating to me.
It was so intimidating, and this is a truly American
first world story. I watched The Queen's Gambit and I
was like, oh, this is awesome. I actually am like
way into this and I learned how to play chess
(00:49):
and really enjoy kind of the brain busting kind of
element to it and the competition element of it. You guys, though,
have been at this for a while. So I'll start
with you, Corey, take me through kind of before we
get to chess. Fest itself about your history with this
game and what you know kind of got you to
this point of all this organization.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, it started when our oldest was in first grade
and we realized he's not a sports kid, so we
wanted to do a chess club for him at his
elementary school. So we reached out to a group called
Imaginarium and they're based in Fremont and it was a
chess and drama organization and they helped us get started
with a chess club at our son's elementary school, which
(01:30):
is this is actually gonna be our eighth year at
that elementary school.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, So it's been a while. We just we've been
doing it, having fun with it, and then we got
started with chess Fest with that group in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
In what age group is chess Fest kind of.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Going for kindergarten through twelfth grade.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Okay, so anybody, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Any skill level. With our any of our events that
we have, we always divide the kids by their age
and their skill level. So if you were a beginner,
you're not going to be playing someone who's an expert.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
That's the one cool thing about chess is even online,
you know, you're gonna get matched up with somebody who's
relatively close to the way that you play. So, Dylan,
when you talk about the game of chess, you guys
chess players before you decided to get into this.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
So yeah, back in the day, I played a lot
of chess. Not much anymore. I play a lot of
third and fourth grader So I consider myself pretty good.
But no, when you start playing, but no, we just
love teaching it, you know. We started volunteering, like my
wife said, when our kid was real young. It was
(02:37):
the best opportunity that we ever did. The former owner
of Imaginarium, our nonprofit, decided to relocate and he came
to us and said, hey, would you guys be willing
to take over this nonprofit? And we kind of looked
at each other and we're like, we don't want this
saying to die in our community. So we took it
over and we've been running Fremont Chess Fest ever since.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So I got the flyer here and it's got all
this information. Fremont Chess Chess Fest happening on Saturday, April
the twenty sixth, and so there's still plenty of time
for people to sign up. We're joined right now by
Corey and Dylan Cardiff, who put this together every year.
I'm sure you know you talked about being eight years.
That kind of trans it goes across the pandemic, and
(03:24):
I'm sure that's when a lot of people like me
fell in love with it when the TV show came out.
But you know, i'm sure for in person chess playing
and especially events like this, it probably stunted some of
the growth that you guys were making. So how how
did that kind of affect what this event has been
and how you've been trying to rebound.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well, Yeah, for twenty twenty and twenty twenty one, we
weren't able to do any of our events, but we
were able to keep our chess clubs going at the
elementary schools. We just followed all the guidelines. We had
really great principles to help keep that going for the students.
And so then we're for last Chess Fest or the
first one after was in twenty twenty two, and we
just got it out there to as many people as
(04:02):
we could, all flyers for our students, and that year
we had about seventy kids attend. And last year was
our third year doing it and we had ninety so
we're building it back up.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
It's awesome. So, Dylan, when we talk about the.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Education prospect of like teaching chess, and this is the
thing that kept me from doing it, because you either
kind of understand it when you're young like that, or
you don't. You know, you're just like sitting there just like, Okay,
So I can move these pieces and I know where
I can move.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Them, but I don't really know why I'm moving them there.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And for some reason, as an adult, you know, when
I got into it, I was like, oh, of course
it makes total sense. Right, Trying to teach a game
like this to a first grader or a third grader
or even you know, maybe a seventh grader could be
a little bit of a challenge. So what part of
this educational aspect of it has been rewarding for you
guys as you taught people as young as you know,
five six years old how to play this very very
(04:54):
fun game.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
We support our local elementary schools up in the Fremont
are Right now, we have six chess clubs going and
we support kids from second grade all the way through
middle school, and then we have a chess club at
our local library, the Keen Moore Memorial Library up there
in Fremont, and we get a lot of homeschool kids there.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
But it's just amazing.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Every time you start teaching this to a young person,
they pick it up so quickly, and after you know
a couple of years doing it, they turn around and
they say, you know, my parents don't know how to
do it, and I'm like, okay, now this is your challenge.
You get to teach them how to play chess and
they just love that part of it.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So Corey and Dylan Cardiff joining us here and Fremont
Chess Fest on Saturday, April twenty sixth. Like you mentioned,
could be a beginner or somebody that's just a novice
and wants to play and could only have a few
games under their belt and just kind of want to
be around other kids and have an opportunity to play.
How's the easiest way that people can sign up?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
They can reach us on our website. We are Fremont
Chessfest dot com, on Facebook at Fremont Chess Fest and
our email is Imagine Fremont at gmail dot com and
you could just send us a message you're certainly welcome
to find our flyer online and it has all the
information on there. And if you just reach out to
us and want to register your kids and then show
up and pay a day of that's completely fine.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And I did a bags tournament once where it was
so packed, there were so many people there and it
was you played one game and if you lost, Yepiah.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
This is not a rated tournament.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That's the great thing about our nonprofit. All we want
to do is teach kids and have great experiences for him,
So this is not a rated tournament. However, we do
do six to eight man round robin, so everybody's going
to get a bunch of matches under their belt for
five dollars registration fee. Everybody gets a free backpack.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
One of our key partners is Omaha Oriental Trading Company
and they provide us through donations, tons of awesome prizes,
so every kid gets prizes.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
At the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
We also get a free lunch thanks to one of
our partners with Casey's Pizza, so everybody gets a pizza
lunch that participates, and then we have a free giant
raffle at the end of the day for like ten
to twelve people, so about ten percent of the kids
participating get a chance to get a large chess board.
We have awesome like Mario Brothers chess sets, Wow, Minecraft
(07:18):
chess sets, so the kids always love that.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
So I'm looking at this and I'm saying that's quite
a good investment there if you're willing to make some time.
So again, keep it Saturday, April twenty sixth open and
this is going to be taking place in Fremont obviously,
and that's at the middle school. Yes, okay, so Fremont
Middle School and you can find more information, like Dylan
and Corey said on Fremont Chessfest dot com.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Awesome stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I hope you guys are able to, you know, get
as many people you know interested and get them out there.
And it's just an incredibly great game to teach people.
It makes them think. But there's also such great camaraderie
and just there's a lot of fun with the social
aspect of So thank you so much for coming in
and sharing this and sharing this with the kids of
(08:03):
our community in the Omaha area.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yup, thank you.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Hope the kids for Mama can make the quick drive
up two seventy five We're right off the highway.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
There, so perfect. Yeah. Check it out.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It's Fremont Chessfest dot com for more information. Big thanks
to Dylan and Corey there
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