Queen City gambit: How Charlotte became a chess powerhouse
Plus: CLT airplane cleaners say they are going on strike today; Airport ranked #1 in growth; Sycamore Brewing's risqué holiday beer cans; LaMelo drives Mystery Machine; Healthcare podcast
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Charlotte has captured the U.S. chess scene, thanks to the Charlotte Chess Center; the educational hub will host the U.S. Masters chess tournament for the fourth time over Thanksgiving weekend
James Canty of Michigan, who is considered one of the top chess players in the world, will compete in the U.S. Masters tournament in Charlotte Nov. 27 through Dec. 1. (Photo courtesy of Charlotte Chess Center)
by Lindsey Banks
Over the past decade, Charlotte has made a name for itself on the national chess stage, even earning the “Chess City of the Year” award in 2018 from the national chess federation, U.S. Chess.
Charlotte took home another chess award in 2019 — “Chess Club of the Year” — given to the Charlotte Chess Center, an educational chess hub founded in 2014 that hosts camps, classes, tournaments, school programs and lectures for thousands of local chess players of all ages and skill levels.
And this week, Charlotte’s standing in the chess universe becomes even more solid, as the Queen City plays host for the fourth time to the U.S. Masters and N.C. Open tournaments at the Westin hotel in uptown.
Charlotte’s rise to chess prominence can be largely attributed to the Charlotte Chess Center and its founder and executive director, Peter Giannatos.
Charlotte Chess Center is organizing the tournaments from Wednesday through Sunday, so as many people gather around the dinner table for Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing, about 275 master chess players will face off across U.S. Masters chess boards. The N.C. Open will feature about 400 additional chess players of all skill levels.
A collective $41,000 in prize money will be awarded, and there’s a potential for players to score points to qualify them for the World Championship.
The tournament has attracted a high caliber of players to Charlotte, making it one of the strongest tournaments in the U.S. in a decade, Giannatos said. Among the grandmasters will be Fabiano Caruana, the No. 1 player in the U.S. and the No. 2 chess player in the world.
“Just even the chance of playing somebody at that caliber, but also just being in the same playing halls, it’s just a very cool experience for chess players,” Giannatos said.
Giannatos’ passion for growing the city’s chess scene through the Charlotte Chess Center has made it the gold standard for chess organizations across the country.
Journey to the crown: In 2001, when Giannatos was 10 years old, his family moved to Charlotte from Pennsylvania. His chess journey began at James Martin Middle School in north Charlotte, where his math teacher led a chess club. An outside chess instructor would visit the school every other week to help prepare students for tournaments.
“The rest is history,” said Giannatos, who earned the FIDE Master title in 2017, one of the top levels in chess.
He graduated from Vance High School (now named Julius L. Chambers High School) and joined the chess club there. In 2007, Giannatos and a few of his friends started the Queen City Chess Association, a local club that hosted weekly games at the Asian Herald Library.
When it came time to attend college, Giannatos chose to stay close to home at UNC Charlotte, where he attended the Belk College of Business.
“I stayed local because of my involvement in the chess community already,” Giannatos said.
Throughout college, he continued to run the Queen City Chess Association, work with youth chess programs and teach private lessons. But in 2014, before graduating college, the future of the association was uncertain.
“I just thought to myself, I’ll either have to make something of this or I’ll have to step away,” Giannatos said. “But I understood that if I stepped away from it, there wouldn’t be anyone to take up what we were doing.”
So he launched the Charlotte Chess Center, a member organization offering educational programming and tournaments for players of all ages and skill levels. He raised $30,000 in seed money to open a physical location, which was a key chess club component for Giannatos.
As a child, he noticed chess “lacked serious organization and professionalism,” he said. There were few dedicated chess facilities in the U.S. aside from some in major cities or nonprofits with donated buildings.
Most clubs and tournaments were run by volunteers, often in older libraries or modest venues, he said.
“It didn’t bother me that much. I just wanted to play,” he said. “But I could see, as I got older, why that would be a deterrent for parents who wanted to get their kids involved.”
The center’s facility has attracted more players, Giannatos said.
“Having an adequate venue and kind of uplifting the standards a little bit enabled us to actually gain quite a bit of traction,” he said.
Today, the center has two locations. The main campus is located in south Charlotte off I-485 and Pineville-Matthews Road and the second site, which opened in September 2023, is in north Charlotte off I-485 and Benfield Road. The center has grown to 45 employees, 15 of whom work full-time, and about 1,500 total members. They also partner with around 50 schools in the Charlotte area to lead youth chess clubs.
It’s never too late to learn chess: While the center focuses heavily on youth programming, it’s also broadening its outreach to adults. Following the pandemic and Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” series in 2020, which follows the fictional tale of a young woman’s rise to chess mastery, Giannatos noticed more adults became interested in playing chess.
Over the past year, the Charlotte Chess Center has increased its social chess events for adults, partnering with local breweries like the Trolley Barn and Olde Mecklenburg Brewery to host free chess games for adults. The meetups draw about 100 participants, said Philip Armstrong, the center’s marketing director.
“Every table is full, so we realize we’ve hit on something,” Armstrong said. “This is kind of popping up around the U.S. — social events.”
In 2022, after retiring from his corporate marketing job, Armstrong sought ways to give back to the community. Remembering his college chess days, he searched online and found the Charlotte Chess Center. He started as a school chess coach before becoming the center’s marketing director a year later.
The Charlotte Chess Center welcomes people of all ages and skill levels, striving to teach beyond the basics.
“That’s the beauty of chess. Yeah, you’re gonna make mistakes. You’re gonna make a lot of mistakes, and you’re going to lose often,” Armstrong said. “And yet, out of each one of those losses, you learn, and the next time, you’re a little smarter.”
Lindsey Banks is a staff reporter for The Ledger: lindsey@cltledger.com
♟️ For those interested in joining the Charlotte Chess Center, check out the center’s website to learn more about classes and membership. Armstrong also recommends following the center on social media to learn more about the social meet-ups.
♟️ If you’re interested in checking out the competition this weekend, the competition hall for the U.S. Masters and N.C. Open at the Westin is not open to spectators, but the Westin will have a separate viewing room featuring a live video feed and grandmaster commentary of the games. The tournament will also be broadcast live.
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Related Ledger article:
“Chess is capturing new attention” (Feb. 8, 2021)
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CLT airport named fastest-growing in the country
◼️ Airport leaders say this year will ‘absolutely’ be an improvement from last year’s holiday crush
◼️ Airplane cleaners say they’re going on strike today
Charlotte Douglas International Airport, named last week as the fastest-growing U.S. airport, now faces a Thanksgiving holiday test. It didn’t quite measure up last year.
During this year’s Thanksgiving travel period — between Thursday, Nov. 21, and Monday, Dec. 2 — the airport expects that a record 1.02 million passengers will depart from Charlotte, up 7% from last year. Local passengers, who originate and conclude travel in Charlotte — and stress the airport’s vehicle traffic capacity — will rise 9% from last year.
The Charlotte airport ranked as the fastest growing airport in the country in the first half of 2024, with 19.5% growth, according to the Airport and Toll Road Traffic Monitor released Friday by Fitch Ratings, a credit rating agency.
The agency said that passenger growth nationally in the first six months of 2024 was 6.5% compared with the same period as 2023. It said airports with the strongest growth were Charlotte Douglas International Airport (up 19.5%) and Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, Fla. (up 19.4%)
“CLT’s growth can be attributed to its strategic location and its increasing importance to American Airlines, which operates its second largest hub at CLT. Fitch expects the growth to continue as the airport expands its capacity to meet the rising demand,” Fitch said.
Fitch’s formula for computing growth compares current traffic levels as a percentage of 2019 traffic levels, in an effort to “allow tracking of the sector's recovery to pre-pandemic levels.” The airport’s own statistics show a 15.5% traffic gain from the first half of 2023 to the first half of 2024.
In any case, the full-year 2024 passenger count at CLT is expected to surpass the record 53.4 million achieved in 2023. Through October, traffic was up about 12%.
As for Thanksgiving travel, “Absolutely this year will be different than last year,” Airport Chief Operating Officer Jerome Woodward told reporters on Thursday.
Last year, on Nov. 26, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, airport traffic slowed to a crawl. The airport acknowledged in a tweet that day that it was taking as much as an hour to drive the one mile from Wilkinson Boulevard to the terminal. Photos on social media showed people walking to the terminal, their suitcases in tow, in order to beat the traffic.
Last Thanksgiving, on several peak days, the line of cars at the airport stretched to Wilkinson Boulevard, delaying passengers from reaching the terminal. Airport officials say it will be different this year. (Ledger file photo)
This year, the Transportation Security Administration expects that 43,500 people will pass through its security checkpoints on Sunday, Dec. 1, which would become the fourth-busiest travel day at the airport.
Woodward cited three key measures that should relieve vehicle traffic congestion on Sunday and throughout the holiday period:
New lanes: Three new inner traffic lanes have opened on the airport’s upper traffic flow level. The lanes, which opened Nov. 13, are reserved for shuttle buses that take passengers to and from parking facilities. “That will be hugely impactful,” Woodward said, as the buses are removed from the lanes used by cars.
New pedestrian options: Pedestrian skybridges, which connect the hourly parking deck with the terminal lobby, opened in July. Their use will reduce the frequency with which auto traffic must be halted to enable pedestrians to cross the street.
More personnel: The airport has upgraded its ability to respond to traffic congestion by adding police on the roads, by being prepared to be proactive rather than reactive and by adding skycaps to provide passenger curbside service. Additionally, recalling the days when former airport director Jerry Orr, the architect of CLT’s success, would direct traffic, Woodward said current airport officials including him will be on the scene on the heaviest traffic days. The busiest days are expected to be Wednesday (Nov. 27), Sunday (Dec. 1) and Monday (Dec. 2).
—Ted Reed
Workers who clean airplanes say they’re walking off the job today to protest working conditions and wages
Workers at two American Airlines subcontractors who clean planes say they are walking off the job today to press for higher wages and better working conditions.
In a statement emailed to the media early Monday morning, representatives of employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services said they planned to hold “an unfair labor practice strike” beginning at 5 a.m. today. A statement late last week said workers were voting on whether to authorize a 24-hour strike during the holiday travel season.
It’s unclear how disruptive a one-day strike of cabin cleaners might be. An American spokeswoman and a workers’ representative didn’t immediately return requests for more information by The Ledger this morning. One airport worker said last week: “If we stop working, the airport is going to stop. The planes can’t go.” An ABM representative told the Associated Press that the company was “taking steps to minimize any potential service disruption.”
As of 7 a.m., Charlotte’s airport was showing no delays or cancellations, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
The statement by the workers said most earn between $12.50 and $19 an hour, which it called insufficient to pay for basic housing costs and utilities in the Charlotte area. —Tony Mecia
Attention-grabbing cans: Sycamore is back at it with suggestive holiday beer labels
If it’s almost time for Thanksgiving, then it’s almost time for Christmas.
And if it’s almost time for Christmas, then it’s time for Charlotte’s largest brewery, Sycamore Brewing, to release its risqué label designs for its Christmas Cookie Winter Ale.
Some people consider Sycamore’s annual tradition to be hilarious and others consider it to be juvenile and inappropriate, but either way, it’s back: The company released the design last week on its social media channels, and it depicts snowmen rolling snowballs and sledding in a frozen landscape that resembles parts of the male and female anatomy:
Sycamore leaned into the double entendres in an extensive Instagram post, saying the beer is “full-bodied,” “as nutty as a sack of chestnuts” and is “guaranteed to leave you feeling warm and tingly ALL over.”
Sycamore, whose beer is sold in its South End taproom as well as at retailers and restaurants, is Charlotte’s largest brewery by production. It has been selling limited edition winter ale with risqué cans for the last several years — most famously in 2019, when a tip to the N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission about that year’s can featuring frisky reindeer images led to a visit by Alcohol Law Enforcement. The unapproved design led to a $1,000 fine.
Since then, the annual label designs have included gingerbread men in bondage and snowflake-shaped sex toys. Last year’s design, featuring Christmas ornaments with long legs and high heels posing in provocative positions with folding chairs and lingerie, was deemed “tame” by some social media users, The Ledger reported at the time. The ABC Commission approved at least some of those designs, and there have been no further fines.
It’s unclear if the ABC Commission approved this year’s design. Sycamore has also branched into merch, featuring the designs on wrapping paper and on long-sleeve T-shirts that read: “Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animals.” —Tony Mecia
Related Ledger articles:
“Is Sycamore going too prude on Christmas beer cans this year?” (Nov. 29, 2023)
“ABC files: Reporter’s email launched ALE investigation into reindeer-sex beer can” (🔒, June 10, 2020)
“Sycamore Brewing: You can’t spell ‘Christmas’ without the ‘S’ and ‘M’” (Nov. 16, 2020)
LaMelo Ball pulled up to a Hornets game last week in a Hummer painted like the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine
The Associated Press explains:
The Hornets point guard turned some heads on Thursday night when he pulled up to the Spectrum Center for the team’s game against the Detroit Pistons in a brightly colored Hummer that replicated Scooby-Doo’s “The Mystery Machine” — only a whole lot more expensive than the one Shaggy and Velma drove in the children’s cartoon.
Ball, a big dog lover, was promoting the release of his Scooby-Doo x Puma MB.04s, which drop on Nov. 27.
(We looked it up, and those are shoes.) —Tony Mecia
🎧 New on The Charlotte Ledger podcast: Tryon Medical CEO Dale Owen describes building an independent medical practice
Dr. Dale Owen and nearly 90 physicians left Atrium Health in 2018 to form Tryon Medical Partners basically out of thin air, driven by a vision of patient-centered care without the bureaucracy of large health systems.
Now, six years later, Tryon Medical serves nearly 200,000 patients in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area.
In a recent episode of The Charlotte Ledger Podcast, Owen talked with The Ledger’s Tony Mecia about topics including:
why healthcare is so complicated
what he has learned in building an independent medical practice
whether his views on large healthcare systems have shifted since starting his own healthcare company
what he wants patients to know about the effect of the recent sale of a stake in Tryon’s business operations to private-equity firm
We invite you to give it a listen!
You might be interested in these Charlotte events: Talk by Nucor CEO, Women in business celebration
Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:
DEC. 4: “World Affairs Council of Charlotte CEO Series with Leon Topalian,” 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown. Join us for an insightful presentation with Leon Topalian, the Chair, President, and CEO of Nucor Corporation, one of the largest steel producers in the United States. He will share his extensive knowledge and experience in the steel industry, providing a unique perspective on leadership, innovation, and sustainability in manufacturing. $30-$50.
DEC. 11: “Power in Celebration: Sparkle & Shine,” 5-7 p.m., Connery on Providence, 4520 Shady Stream Way. An unforgettable evening dedicated to celebrating the resilience of Women in Business. Immerse yourself in the elegance of live piano music and raise a glass of champagne to toast a remarkable year. Savor delightful light bites, take your chances with exciting raffle prizes and enjoy meaningful connections with a vibrant community of like-minded professionals. It’s a celebration of the incredible women who inspire, lead, and make a difference every day. Free.
➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.
Correction
A summary of a news item in our Nov. 20 newsletter mischaracterized a ruling by the N.C. Court of Appeals on a lawsuit involving Myers Park Presbyterian Church. While the court allowed the case to proceed against a Wilmington church, our summary should have noted that a trial court judge had previously dismissed Myers Park Presbyterian and regional church leadership from the case. Our apologies.
In brief:
Helicopter crash lawsuit: The wife of the pilot killed in the 2022 helicopter crash near I-77 in Charlotte is suing the helicopter’s manufacturer, saying it failed to correct unstable nuts and bolts that were blamed for the wreck. The crash killed WBTV helicopter pilot Chip Tayag and meteorologist Jason Meyer.
Law firm comes to town: National law firm Akerman LLP is opening a Charlotte office, which will be led by Ackerman partners Josh DeBottis and John McCaffrey, according to a press release. They were previously with Moore & Van Allen. (Biz Journal, subscriber-only)
Nutcracker interview: CLT Today interviews the Snow King and Queen from this year’s Charlotte Ballet performance of the Nutcracker. (CLT Today)
New Rooster’s: Rooster’s Wood-fired Kitchen is opening its fourth location today, at The Bowl at Ballantyne, according to a press release.
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Business manager: Brie Chrisman