ThinkMove Chess Academy provides the best education for children, teaching the fundamentals of chess and imbuing a love for the game to children across the nation. In order to do this, we must employ the help of the best instructors we can. Below are our highly qualified and experienced instructors.
David Grimaud
Founder
ThinkMove founder, David Grimaud, learned chess at the age of nine when his father, an air force officer, taught David and his younger brother to play the game as an alternative to cards and checkers. Incensed that his brother began beating him regularly, David bought a Fred Reinfeld chess book at the local mall and studied it from cover to cover. David soon become the family champ, and president of his high school chess club where he also played on the top board for the school.
Despite being an active tournament player during the Bobby Fischer Boom period of U.S. Chess, David would set aside the game for twenty years to go to college, start a career, and raise a family. How did he get back into chess?
“One day my thirteen year old son found my chess set and clock in the file cabinet, and asked me what it was. Excited to find something my son and I could do together that did not involve video games, we set off to attend a chess camp run by the late Dr. IM Danny Kopec. Once again, I was hooked.”
David graduated from Louisiana State University in 1983 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He briefly worked as a design engineer in Dallas, Texas, but left the electronics industry when his father asked him to join the family business. Today, David is CEO of that business which has developed and oversees about one hundred Precision Tune Auto Care centers providing automotive repair and maintenance services in thirteen states.
David has also been an officer for over ten years in the South Carolina Chess Association, has served as the state delegate to the annual U.S. Chess Delegates Meeting, and serves the Scholastic, Senior, and Executive Board Nomination Committees for U.S. Chess.
Jazmine Waiters
Program Coordinator
How did you get started playing chess?
- I watched my father play chess for hours without end and study the game. I became curious as to why.
What do you enjoy most about working with Think Move Chess Academy?
- The strategy, perseverance and the required respect for myself and my opponents while playing the game of chess is so inspiring to me. Think Move Chess Academy has empowered me with the ability to pass on that confidence. Watching others connect, learn and grow in this way is an amazing gift to my heart.
Fun Fact/What you do outside of Think Move Chess Academy?
- I love gardening and sharing produce and house plants with my friends and family.
- Jazmine
