FM Peter Giannatos,is the Founder and Executive Director of the Charlotte Chess Club and Scholastic Center (CCCSA), which is an award-winning chess club based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in 2007, Peter has taken the club from a small group meeting in a local library to a thriving organization with a large scholastic program, indispensable international tournaments, and a rapidly growing Twitch presence. In our conversation, Peter shares a lot of his hard-won wisdom about how to help build a vibrant local chess community, and he also discusses the difficulty that the club has faced recently due to the pandemic. Given the exploding popularity of chess, Peter is optimistic that any “brick and mortar” chess organization which can survive the lockdown period will come out of the Covid period better than ever.  Lastly, Peter is a  very accomplished chess player (2390 USCF peak rating) and improver in his own right, so he concludes the interview with some chess improvement tips and a few great book recommendations. Many of the details and timestamps related to the topics we discussed can be found below.  Mentioned: Grant Oen, FM Mike Klein, GM Daniel Naroditsky, Bradley Juopperi, Ursula Smith Mentioned: CBS Sunday Morning chess story featuring GM Maurice Ashley and WFM Alexandra Botez: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/online-chess-makes-its-biggest-move/, Silver Knights Chess Academy, Kids Chess, Chess Achieves, Raleigh Chess Academy  https://www.chessable.com/lifetime-repertoires-sam-shanklands-1-d4-part-2/course/53465/  Mentioned: FM Yuriy Krykun, GM Michael Brown, IM Kassa Korley, Grant Oen. DGT Smart Boards, GM Pragganandha, GM Aman Hambleton, IM John Bartholomew, FM Gauri Shankar, IM Brandon Jacobsen Mentioned: Castle Chess Camp, Episode 191 with GM Daniel Naroditsky- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-191-gm-daniel-naroditsky/id1185023674?i=1000489096841Charlotte Chess Center Twitch Channel- https://www.twitch.tv/charlottechesscenter, GM Wesley So, GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, GM Jan-Krzysctof Duda, GM Vladimir Fedoseev, GM Rauf Mamedov, GM Salem Saleh, GM David Bronstein  Mentioned: chessgames.com, Douglas Griffin’s twitter page, The Art of Sacrifice in Chess, GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Magnus Carlsen, Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, GM Alexander Shabalov, GM Vassily Smylov, GM Tigran Petrosian, GM Mikhail Botvinnik, GM Vladimir Kramnik, Simple Chess, NM Matthew Noble, Perfect Your Chess (Out of Print but Available on Kindle!),  Here are all of the ways to keep up with the CCCSA:Email Peter here: peter.giannatos@charlottechesscenter.orgCharlotte Chess Center and Scholastic Academy- https://www.charlottechesscenter.org/Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/charlottechesscenter/Twitch- https://www.twitch.tv/charlottechesscenterYouTube- https://www.youtube.com/user/charlottechesscenterIf you would like to help support Perpetual Chess, you can do so here:https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/donate    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices