WASHINGTON — Zahir Muhammad is a nationally ranked chess player who volunteers teaching chess at local schools and camps.
He’s also Howard University’s chess coach.
And now with social distancing, the DeMatha Catholic High School Senior is keeping busy by offering discounted chess classes online at Full Circle Chess.
"I was taught that if I can be so good at something but not improve the community in which I reside in, then I’m not really doing anything with the gift that I have," Muhammad said.
Once the pandemic started, he moved his lessons online. With his résumé, he could charge $40 or $50 an hour, but he knows the struggles families are facing.
"My mother has four children, so I am the oldest of four, and so whenever she wanted to pay for something it was always four of them. It was a whole lot," he said. "I wanted to offer a service, and so that’s why I made the price is $6 per half hour and $10 an hour for children, and then for adults it’s $11 per half hour and $20 per hour."
Here's how it works.
Zahir uses a physical and virtual chess board to teach lessons, and he says he’s doing his best and adapting to this new normal.
"When you’re one on one, you can feel the energy better. You can interact. You can touch the chess pieces. You can place it across the board from somebody. You can use more materials to reach them," Muhammad said. "When you’re not face-to-face, when you’re over a computer screen, you have to do more to reach their mind."
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