Evan Rabin was born and raised in New York.
After working in Corporate America, doing enterprise sales at Oracle and Rapid 7, he formed Premier Chess in September 2017. Premier Chess currently runs programs in 58 schools and companies including the law firm Kramer Levin. He is a US Chess National Master. We caught up with Evan to discuss his newest endeavor, a world of chess that is available virtually. Check it out below!
The Knockturnal: How old were you when you started playing chess?
Evan Rabin: 7
The Knockturnal: What inspired you to start playing?
Evan Rabin: My brother and dad taught me how to play at home.
The Knockturnal: Who was your first teacher?
Evan Rabin: Women’s International Master Shernaz Kennedy.
The Knockturnal: At what point did you realize that you could make this a career / go professional?
Evan Rabin: I taught chess off and on since I was 12 but I started running Premier Chess full-time in July 2017.
The Knockturnal: How does one become a grandmaster?
Evan Rabin: To be a grandmaster, the world’s highest title, one needs to get a 2500 FIDE (international rating) and get 3 norms (2550 performance ratings) in major tournaments. I am a national master, the nation’s highest title, which means I am rated 2200 and in the top 1.6 percent of rated chess players.
The Knockturnal: What is your proudest achievement in chess? Favorite tournament?
Evan Rabin: My proudest chess achievement is being the captain of the first-place team in the 2007 United States Amateur Team East. My team “Beavis and Butvinnik” was featured on the May 2007 cover of Chess Life after the win.
The Knockturnal: What inspired you to start Premier Chess?
Evan Rabin: After doing enterprise sales at Oracle for 3 year and Rapid 7 for one, I decided to try selling my biggest passion chess, so we can start teaching business and life lessons through the game.
The Knockturnal: What age groups do you teach?
Evan Rabin: We teach students aged 3-100+.
The Knockturnal: Can you share how you have adapted your business to the pandemic? What programs / software do you use to teach chess virtually?
Evan Rabin: We run lots of corporate classes and school programs virtually. We did a virtual summer break camp, are currently doing a fall virtual call series, and are soon to do a virtual winter break camp: https://premierchess.com/virtualwinterbreakcamp. We use Zoom and lichess.org.
The Knockturnal: Where can people register?
The Knockturnal: What are your favorite chess movies? Shows?
Evan Rabin: I love Searching for Bobby Fischer, Queen of Katwe, and of course Queen’s Gambit. See this blog post for more recommendations: https://premierchess.com/chess-culture/chess-movie-and-documentary-recommendations
The Knockturnal: Tell us more about your podcast/newsletter!
Evan Rabin: We have had a wide array of business and chess professionals on our podcast: soundcloud.com/premierchess. Check out some great episodes, including ones with Bruce Pandolfini, Advisor to Queen’s Gambit, Ivan Misner, Founder of Business Networking International, and Mike Klein, Chief Chess Officer at Chess Kid. To keep up with our newsletter, blog, etc., subscribe to our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dxKJzX
