Hi All,

I hope you are keeping up with the international chess scene. Please see this late breaking news:

https://www.chess.com/news/view/fide-candidates-resumes-antarctica

I hope you are all well and still have a sense of humor.

I am reaching out to our Chinese-American friends and colleagues to let you know we support you as important members of our community. In recent days, our country’s leaders and others have labelled you, our friends, as the problem with the COVID-19 pandemic using racial, bigoted terms [President Trump backed off of his Chinese virus statement today]. We want you to know that folks in the Rochester Chess community support you. We are very fortunate at many levels for you being part of our community.

I am asking individuals in the Rochester Chess community to support Asian-Americans. You can do this in at least 2 ways. 1) You can reassure Asian-Americans directly that you are happy for them to be part of our community and 2) If as a bystander you witness a biased action against an Asian-American (or anyone for that matter), please say something to support the individual who is being attacked. It is complicit to not react. Send a message to everyone that you disagree with the attacker.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/chinese-coronavirus-racist-attacks.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

This is a challenging time for the world but we must be vigilant to support one another and democratic values.