|
| curtains |
| Chess Coach / Video Producer |
Personal Statistics |
So what’s chess got to do with poker? Greg “Curtains” Shahade could tell you. He’s an International Master, winner of the 1999 Samford Fellowship (meaning, he got paid more than you to play chess for two years), and has a national rank he prefers not to brag about. It’s higher than yours, though.
Greg left school after two years to live the dream. It helped that his dad was four-time Pennsylvania State Champion, but he says his parents didn’t push him. He just played at home and next thing he knew, he was a fourth grader “beating up on all the seventh and eighth graders” in his school’s chess club – not a bad feeling. He was hooked, and never stopped.
There are obstacles, of course. Greg is the first to acknowledge that: “Time, talent, focus, money, ego... Chess is hard and without the dream... it’s slightly harder for people to stay focused for very long periods of their life,” he says.
None of those seem to have stopped him, though. In addition to his success as a professional chess player, Curtains runs various organizations, like the United States Chess League and the United States Chess School. He’s got other plans in the works, too, but you’ll have to wait like everyone else to hear about those.
So, what was that correlation between chess and poker? Well, Greg does both, so he might be able to tell you. What’s more, he believes his success in one feeds his success in the other. “I look at a lot of chess games in terms of EV,” he says. “And think about all kinds of poker terms while playing. I only care about winning and nothing else. I don’t care how my moves look as long as I win in the end. I don’t care if it’s on the clock, or if it’s because I set some silly desperate trap. I think poker has given me this kind of extreme results-focused mentality.”
With all this success, what’s next for Greg? More of the same, he assures us. “Playing poker two hours a day, traveling a lot, starting some fun projects... no reason to do anything else unless poker disappears from the Earth.”
There you have it. Curtains is onboard to teach people that chess is fun, and to demonstrate how a pro chess player thinks. As he says, “One can learn a lot by seeing what a stronger chess player’s first instinct is in a position, even if that instinct turns out to be wrong!”
Broaden your horizons and check out Curtains’ chess videos! Coaching
I coach chess and poker. For either chess or poker my rates are $200 per hour. My poker specialties are tournament play, sit and gos, shortstacking and psychology. (ie bankroll management, tilt, life balance etc.)
|
Name |
Greg Shahade |
| Age |
33 |
| Location |
United States |
| Game |
Chess |
| Type |
Heads Up |
| Stakes |
I play chess! |
| Poker Site |
Internet Chess Club |
| Coaching Information |
| Availability |
Open
Chess and Poker |
| Stakes |
Any |
| Coaching Rate |
$200 Per Hour |
| Contact |
Send Message |
| Recent Poker Training Videos |
|
|
|
|
|
