Reports

WestMichiganChess.com:  So, first, myChessAddiction.Com.  Tell us about your store.  How’d you come up with the idea? And that name, certainly an attention getter!?  What’s your most popular selling item?  What tournament will you guys be at next?

Matthew Trujillo:  Our website was developed by David Lee of Lee Media Services.  He really did a great job of listening to what we were trying to accomplish and the type of look and feel we wanted our users to have.  Hats off to Mr. Lee. All of our shirts are original designs that were developed from scratch.  My wife Diane has a background in Art and Design, but she has no interest in chess!  I have no interest in Art and Design, but I love chess.  I don't play in a lot of tournaments throughout the course of the year, but the ones I do play in are usually some of the bigger tournaments.  When I went to these tournaments there were typically vendors there selling boards, books, and chess pieces but very rarely did I see a vendor selling shirts.  So I approached my wife with the idea for her to design some shirts, and much to my surprise she went along with it!  The idea was to bring shirts and try to sell them when I played in tournaments, but ultimately we want to drive people to the website. 
 
We approached the naming of our company based on the type of products we were going to be designing.  I wanted to produce a variety of different shirts that would appeal to people from all different age ranges and walks of life.  However, the one thing that I wanted to be consistent with was the "edgy" feel.  Even our collared polo t shirts have a little bit of "edginess" to them.  If you look at the logo on the breast of the polo shirts, it's a black king with swords crossing through him, and blood dripping down the base.  I loved this logo when my wife originally showed me the design.  The first thing I thought of when I saw it was "I bleed chess" or "chess runs in my blood".  

Since we knew the type of products we were producing the next logical step was to come up with the name.  My wife (Diane) and I both agreed that the name should be consistent with the edgy look and designs. Diane always claims I'm a chess addict, and I always claim I'm not an addict--it's simply just a passion of mine.  That's still an unsettled argument in our household, but she did eventually win the argument that the word addiction is a lot edgier then the word passion.  I have to admit that www.mychesspassion.com doesn't sound nearly as catchy! As a side note we originally did want to name the company just Chess Addiction, but some squatter has the domain name already registered and won't release it unless we pay him a boat load of money. 

Our best seller is actually our grey graphic design t shirt, but the shirt I'm the most proud of is the black shirt with the red crest in the center.  This is the shirt that GM Rogelio Antonio wears, and we are very proud to be a sponsor of his. 
 
The next tournament we will be at will be the Bottom Half Class Championships in Grand Rapids, Michigan June 25-26.  I'll be playing in the U1900 section.  
 
 
WestMichiganChess.com:  Congratulations on being a new father!  Will you want your son to play chess?  (And if so,) to be a grandmaster?
 
Matthew Trujillo:  I would love it if my son took an interest in the game, and wanted to reach that level of play.  That would certainly make me a very proud daddy.  
 
WestMichiganChess.com:    One of the things that you’re doing which I think is super-cool is the matches between Brighton (?) and other clubs.  Do you play face to face or over the Internet?  What’s working well?  What would you like to change?  How do you see the future of club matches in Michigan?

 
Matthew Trujillo:  I'm really excited about what Lon Rutkokske and I have been able to get going thus far.  I'm not sure where Lon sees this going, but my vision is to get a state wide league going that culminates in an end of the year, MCA-sponsored tournament of champions event!  Right now all of our matches have been face to face.  We play at All The Kings' Men in Warren which is a pretty good in between spot for both of our clubs.  In the future I think we should explore some Internet options if the league begins to grow and we have clubs all over the state trying to compete with each other.
 

WestMichiganChess.com:    You’re on the Michigan Chess Board.  What do you see as the unique contribution that you can make (better than anyone else) to our Michigan Chess community?

Matthew Trujillo:  Well I'm pretty sure I'm the youngest member of the board of directors so I feel I can bring some different perspective to the table. Also I'm really ambitious about where I see chess growing in 5-10 years not just in our state but nationwide.  For the first time since Bobby Fischer we have a serious contender for the world championship in the form of Hikaru Nakamura.  Anyone who was alive during the Fischer years knows how chess boomed once he won the crown.  Even if Nakamura never wins it, just the fact that he could participate in the candidates matches could be the spark we need to ignite the flame again.  I want to put Michigan Chess in a position to take full advantage of the public's renewed interest in the game.  I think the way to do that is to get sponsorships into the game from businesses and not-for-profit organizations.  I like to draw a lot of comparisons between chess and texas hold 'em poker.  If you go back 15-20 years there was very little to no interest in texas hold 'em. Fast forward to today and it's all the rage.  My theory is that it was the large cash prizes that drew people out of the woodwork as well as the thrill of the game.  In our tournaments as they stand today, you lose money even if you place 2nd or 3rd.  Maybe you win 50 bucks, but it costs you 40 to enter, 150 to stay at the hotel, and another 60 bucks to drive there!  The people that are playing today are playing for the love of the game, and definitely not the little scraps of money to be earned.  If we can find a way to partner with the business community and give them brand recognition and good press in exchange for liquid cash it's a win win all around. 
 
A good example of where this is currently being done is the Livingston County Diversity Chess Tournament that I help organize every year.  The LDC is a not-for-profit organization that tries to bring different social issues into the public eye.  They approached me several years ago about potentially running a chess tournament for them to bring awareness to the issue of ageism.  Chess is one of the few games where age really doesn't play that big of a role.  It’s a game of ideas, and your rating determines who you play, not your age.  The LDC generously donated $1,000 dollars to the general prize fund the first year we ran the tournament.  This allowed me to keep the entry fee low ($20), and still pay out very lucrative prizes to the participants.  I really think that this model is the key to success for all of our major tournaments. 
 

WestMichiganChess.com:  You guys fielded a Team at the U.S. Amateur North in Chicago.  What was most memorable for you?  Will you go back next year?

Matthew Trujillo with his fellow Brighton Chess Club members Eugene McClure, Scott Marvel, and Eric Wright
  Photo Credit:  Joe Meyer

Matthew Trujillo:  The U.S. Amateur North was a fun tournament.  I played our first board, and I was playing against some very tough competition. So unfortunately my results were poor with only 1 win and 3 losses (our team decided not to play in the last round due to a very heavy snow storm that was moving into the area).   My most memorable game was my round two loss against Petros Karagianis.  I was up a piece in the middle game, but completely botched up the end game and ended up getting mated.  It was a very wild game that got the heart beating fast!  I would definitely go again next year, but the only thing I would do differently would be to line up a higher rated player than myself to play first board!