December 05, 2024
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“He was crushing me, but every moment felt like I was living the dream.”
Employees Face Off Against Chess Grandmaster
It’s not often that one has the opportunity to face off against a current or former world champion.
But that’s exactly what happened for 17 chess-playing members of the Citadel NXT Engineering Network who competed against Garry Kasparov, the chess grandmaster and former world champion.
Kasparov participated in a fireside chat at the NXT offsite and then played six simultaneous chess matches against employees, as colleagues looked on, waiting their turn to face the champ.
While Kasparov’s record was unblemished, employees came away with great memories from an outstanding experience.
For Henry from EQR, battling the grandmaster elicited a reaction perfectly befitting Citadel’s culture of continuous learning: “If you always compete against the most excellent version of yourself, you’ll never run out of opponents.”
I never thought that I would ever play against a grandmaster, let alone the number one player in the world.
I enjoyed my game against him. I went in with a winning mindset, but I had a bad game.
Growing up obviously, I think, everyone’s probably heard about Garry and so to have the opportunity to play against him, it was really interesting, even if futile.
Designed for high-performing software engineers with two to five years of professional experience, the Citadel NXT Engineering Network provides a unique opportunity through structured learning, mentorship, networking and engagement with senior leaders.
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