Chess Moves 2 Speakers

Grandmaster Susan Polgar's recent and upcoming activities.

FIDE Master Paul Truong

• Captain and Manager of the 2004 US Women‘s Olympiad Silver Medalist Team
• 11-time National Champion

Paul was born on June 2, 1965 in Saigon, Vietnam. He learned to play chess at the age of 5 from his father. Right from the beginning, Paul was considered a Chess and Chinese Chess Prodigy and one of the most promising juniors in Asia back in the 70‘s.

Unfortunately, due to the war and political situation in Vietnam at that time, Paul was forced to dramatically limit his playing and training schedule under the Communist regime. He and his father escaped from Vietnam as boat people on April 30, 1979. They finally arrived in the US on December 1, 1979 after an incredibly difficult and tragic ordeal.

In spite of all the limitations and challenges throughout his early years, Paul managed to win a total of 11 National Chess Championships including 5 overall National Championship of Vietnam and the US Open Blitz Championship. He also won many other prestigious titles. However, at the age of 17, Paul decided to give up full time competitive chess to pursue a college education, followed by a very successful business career in International Business and Marketing.

After a 15 year successful business career, Paul decided to come back to the chess world but this time to help promote the game for women and children. He is the Chairperson of the USCF Susan Polgar Committee as well as the Vice President of the Susan Polgar Foundation. Paul is the co-organizer of the Clash of the Titans — Battle of two World Champions as well as the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls. He is also one of the founders of the historic 2004 US Women‘s Olympiad program.

He co-author 3 books with his long time friend World Champion Susan Polgar: “Teach Yourself Chess in 24 Hours (Macmillan)”, “World Champion’s Guide to Chess (Random House)”, and “Breaking Through: How the Polgar Sisters Changed the Game of Chess (Everyman Chess)”. Their fourth book will be published by Random House in the fall of 2005. In addition, Paul and Susan just released a series of 5 professionally created instructional “Winning Chess” DVDs. Paul is also an award-winning chess columnist with articles and columns in Chess Life, School Mates, ChessCafe.com, ChessBase.com, New In Chess, Chess Horizons, World Chess Network, www.ChessHall.org, Georgia Chess and Empire Chess, etc.

Paul’s tremendous experience in high-level business and marketing, combine with his incredible chess knowledge, keen ability to manage, motivate and unite people made him the perfect choice as Captain and Manager of the 2004 US Women’s Olympiad Team. Under his leadership, the US Women’s Team captured the first ever medals (one team Silver, two individual Gold medals and one individual Silver medal) in the 2004 Olympiad in Calvia, Spain. Paul is also the Business Manager and Chess Coach of Women’s World Champion Susan Polgar.