Chess Without Borders is proud to have Gourmet Cook Zein Bertacchi as the Head Volunteer leading the fund raising through serving food on Feb 25th 2012 at the 4th Annual Hough Street Chess Tournament. Through her passion for cooking she pioneered the concept of raising funds through selling food at chess tournaments. As a founder of the chess program when Rishi Sethi was struggling for creating an interest in chess in 2001 he asked Barrington community member Zein Bertacchi to volunteer. She seized the opportunity to express her passion by serving an Italian meal to 100 chess players and visitors who challenged a Grandmaster from the Czech Republic in a Simultaneous Chess Tournament in 2001. The food supplies were donated by Whole Foods Market in Palatine. After the success of the evening Zein inspired the community to continue raising funds through food sales and today as a result of her creativity and with the help of hundreds of students the chess community has donated over $67,000 to various local and international charities.
Another impact of this collaboration between chess and cooking was the introduction of more ideas for students helping to raise funds through the arts. Chess Without Borders students have explored baking, photography, documentary production, writing, travel, music and public speaking! Through networking with the needy schools and businesses students have developed many leadership projects such as donating books and establishing chess clubs in needy areas and educating themselves about local and international non-profits. We are grateful to our volunteers who spark ideas and then actively carry them through with our students.
Picture of Zein Bertacchi with the Brown children raising funds for a chess center in Sudan.
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