We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nick Perez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nick below.
Hi Nick, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you identified some of your key partners/vendors and how you made those relationships work?
My journey to becoming the Executive Director of the Orlando Regional Chess Alliance (ORCA) started very organically. Two years ago, I started my own chess club called the Orlando Chess Association. We still meet every Wednesday night at the West Osceola Library in Celebration from 5:30 to 8:30 and are open to all. But when I began, that was my only ambition. Just host a humble little chess club so that friends, young and old, could enjoy the game together.
Then an old friend, Fernando Gutierrez, reached out to me. He runs the chess club at Valencia College, Winter Park Campus. I had directed some tournaments for him before and he wanted to collaborate on a new series of tournaments hosted by Valencia. This turned into ValenciaMania, which is a monthly series of free chess tournaments, open to all, that takes place at the Winter Park Campus.
From there, he noticed that the University Club of Winter Park had a fantastic hall that would be perfect for hosting a chess tournament. This is where the team really started to come together. We named this tournament the First Annual Orlando Chess Open and it was a massive success thanks to the efforts of many, many incredible volunteers. From this success, six of us came together and decided we wanted to set up the infrastructure to continue this momentum.
Eliza Eggert, of the Seminole County Chess Club, spearheaded these efforts. Her remarkable strength and work ethic have led us to being established as an official non-profit organization. And now as the President of ORCA, she is leading us with kindness and grace.
Joseph Criscuolo is a board member and Vice President. He is passionate about building big chess events and his encyclopedia-like knowledge of the chess rulebook is second to none.
Fernando is also on the board and is guided by his core value of giving more and more people the opportunity to play the Royal Game.
Sammy Lou leads by example. If an email needs to be sent, he sends it. If a resource needs to be acquired, he acquires it. He’s our remarkable Director of Scholastic Affairs and happens to be one of the best scholastic players in the Orlando area.
This Core Five worked incredibly hard for several months to get ORCA up and running. We’ve also been joined by Brooke Hatch and Tori Sonza. And we’re all excited to continue building the Orlando chess community. But this all started with Fernando asking a small club President to come run a monthly tournament at Valencia.
I am often reminded of the Conan O’Brien quote, “If you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.” In this case, the amazing thing is that talented like-minded people wanted to join the team to create something bigger than all of us. And we’re excited to be doing just that.
Nick, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
ORCA’s first big event is the Orlando Magic Chess Championship, which will take place on March 2, 2025 at the Orlando Magic’s Kia Center. Basketball and chess fans alike are invited to the big event. It will take place in the beautiful Hourglass Room overlooking Downtown Orlando on a Sunday afternoon just a few hours before the Magic host the Toronto Raptors in an Eastern Conference rivalry game.
The day will begin at 10:00 a.m. with a chess tournament with both kids and adult sections and will proceed through the late afternoon and will conclude with an awards ceremony where we will give away a plethora of amazing prizes provided by our generous sponsors. This includes, but is not limited to, exclusive event T-shirts printed by Wheelzy, free memberships to Chessbook, a free chess lesson with Grandmaster Aryam Abreu Delgado, free Chess.com memberships, a free chess lesson with Life Master Theo Slade, a free entry from the US Chess Federation to the SuperNationals scholastic tournament, a free entry to the Florida State Scholastic Championship from the Florida Chess Association, a Chessable course from National Master Bryan Tillis, exclusive Orlando Magic merchandise, trophies, and cash prizes based on entries.
After the tournament, all the players will come together to cheer on the home team as we watch the Magic take on the Raptors to finish off an incredible day of fun, prizes, and getting to know your fellow chess players. Head to OrlandoMagicChess.com for more information and updates. There you can find the links to buy tickets to the event and register for the tournament itself. We secured an incredible group rate of $19 for each ticket to the Magic game. ALL PLAYERS AND SPECTATORS OF THE CHESS TOURNAMENT MUST PURCHASE A MAGIC TICKET TO ENTER THE BUILDING. Once you’ve bought tickets for yourself and anyone accompanying you, registration can be completed at chessregister.com.
And as the Tournament Director for the event, anyone may contact me with questions at nick@orcachess.com.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I taught myself to play chess as a teenager using the book Chess for Dummies. Those who came of age in the 90s like me will remember that the For Dummies series was often the best way to teach yourself a new skill before the age of YouTube. In fact, I still recommend this book to beginners as it does a great job of breaking down the fundamentals and teaching them in an easily digestible way. But one lesson I gleaned from the book that I took way too seriously was this: There is an important practice in chess, where if you are losing with absolutely no hope of winning, you shake your opponent’s hand, tip your king over (optional), and resign. This is to avoid wasting your opponent’s time, forcing them to play out a position all the way to checkmate that is 100% sure to arrive there anyway.
HOWEVER, this does not necessarily apply to the lower levels of chess. For beginners, both players in a game will make mistakes constantly. The game never really is over until checkmate occurs. As you move up the ranks, you will begin to encounter people that you can be sure know how to finish off a game. But even then, the situation of the game can matter. If a player has a big lead over the board but is running low on time on their chess clock, they could still make a game-changing blunder. In other positions, it’s possible for a player that is behind in material to force a draw via perpetual check or stalemate.
The lesson here is that if you still feel there is any fight for you in a position, play it out and see what happens. You’ll know in your gut when the right time is to resign. My mistake when I was younger was putting too much focus on asking myself “Should I resign now?” Instead that mental energy should have been asking “How can I fight my way back into this game?” And when the game ends, win or lose, you look your opponent in the eye, shake their hand, and say, “Good game.” If they still feel at that point that you took too long to resign, that’s their problem.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Inclusivity is very important to me. And part of that means inviting people to the table whether or not they have chess leadership experience. A lot of times, people are nervous about joining chess clubs and volunteering because they’ve never done it before. I try to make sure that those people feel especially welcome. Everyone has to have their first time doing something. But as long as you have a good attitude and are willing to do the work, I want you to be a part of our team and I’m willing to teach you what you need to know. Attitude is WAY more important than experience.
And be generous with praise. Always let your people know you appreciate them. If you have to criticize, try to do a compliment sandwich, so you’re also praising the effort. And when things go wrong, as the leader, take the blame upon yourself. When things go right, give the credit to your team. They’re the ones that got you there.
Be kind. Be humble. Create something people want to be a part of. And most importantly, HAVE FUN!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.orcachess.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orcachessorlando/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OrcaChess
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/orca-chess/
- Other: www.OrlandoMagicChess.com
https://www.meetup.com/chesscom-group-orlando
https://linktr.ee/orcachess
Image Credits
Lilibeth Manuel, and Christine Perez