Harold Steen
The Detroit City Chess Club’s Hall of Fame Award is named after long-time Coach Harold Steen who coached several years at Detroit Bates Academy. He traveled the country taking children to chess tournaments while instilling the principles of chess to his students. He was the coach’s coach. He could also be scene patiently teaching lessons to children on Friday nights and all-day Saturday’s at the Detroit Institute of Arts with the DCCC group. Because of his contributions to the chess community we wanted to honor his legacy. This award pays homage to individuals who made an impact on the Detroit chess scene. Coach Harold Steen passed away on September 24, 2008.
John Brooks
John Brooks was inducted into the Detroit City Chess Club’s Harold Steen Hall of Fame in 2014. Mr. Brooks has been a long-time staple in the Detroit Chess scene since the 1960’s with the Black Knights. Master Brooks has been the top player in Detroit for decades and has given a lot of chess wisdom to the younger generation of Detroit chess players. He’s given several simuls to children of Detroit City Chess Club and well as lectures. He was featured in the popular Detroit chess documentary by Pierre Ashby and Derek Wilder called “Why We Play” which talks about how Detroit chess players have stood the test of time by playing the age-old game. Master Brooks is still teaching the game of chess to the youngsters of Detroit who continue his legacy of greatness.
Karen Clingman
Longtime Detroit educator Karen Clingman was in inducted into the Detroit City Chess Club’s Harold Steen Hall of Fame in 2015. Ms. Clingman has been a fixture in scholastic chess for almost 20 years. Through her love of lifelong learning and its potential, Clingman inspires young minds to embrace their quest for knowledge. As the Assistant Principal of the former Detroit Duffield Elementary & Middle School (Now Bunche Academy), Ms. Clingman supported the Detroit Duffield Chess Team. She made it easy for the chess coaches to do their diligence by having fundraisers for the team and paying for the entire team to have lunch during their tournaments. She also traveled with the Duffield chess teams to various local, state and national competitions.
Even in retirement, she continues to support the Detroit City Chess Club tournaments (for 10 years running) and is the Director of the popular Saturday in the D programs at DCP at Northwestern.
Coach Glenn R. Smith
Coach Glenn R. Smith (known to most as Coach Smith) was inducted into the Detroit City Chess Club’s Harold Steen Hall of Fame in 2019. The late Coach Smith coached students for over 30 years at various schools and school districts in metro Detroit. His most notable coaching stints were at Detroit Duffield Elementary & Middle, University Prep Academy and Washington-Parks Academy where he helped produce National Champions. Coach Smith’s work ethic was second to none according to all that worked with him. He worked day and night to produce champions both on and off the board. Coach Smith not only was concerned about producing great chess players, but he was equally concerned about the well-being of his players, often going into his pockets to help students who needed assistance with food or shelter. One of Coach Smith’s former students, Renaissance High School Senior (Class of 2021) Naiyah Stinson said “I started playing chess as early as Kindergarten and it was the perfect way to express the intelligence I felt on the inside. As a young girl, I did not understand the valuable lessons chess would teach me about life. Chess has taught me to balance, the power in thinking from the end, accepting defeat, leadership, and critical thinking”. Coach Smith passed away on July 12, 2019, at the age of 72. He is dearly missed by his former students, coaching colleagues, and all that met him.
Dr. Ed Mandell
Longtime business owner of All The Kings Men Dr. Ed Mandell was inducted into the Detroit City Chess Club’s Harold Steen Hall of Fame in 2019. Dr. Mandell was a stellar pillar in the chess community. Dr. Mandell organized hundreds of tournaments throughout metro Detroit. He never turned away a kid who didn’t have funds to play in his tournaments, often reaching into his pockets to pay for it. Dr. Mandell hosted many of the state’s largest tournaments like the Motor City Open and the Harold Steen Memorial classic (Whom this Hall of Fame Award is named after) which brought in some of the best chess players in the country. At the 2019 All-City awards longtime Coach Bryan Wilson said of Dr. Mandell “he was so compassionate that he allowed me to continue to play in my first tournament with my newborn son in my hand”. Dr. Mandell has given thousands of people both kids and adults their first opportunity to chess.
Malcolm Lewis
Veteran educator, mentor, and chess coach Malcolm Lewis is inducted into the Detroit City Chess Club’s Harold Steen Hall of Fame in 2020. Over the years, coach Lewis has coached at several area schools like A.L. Holmes, Paul Roberson, Barber, Mae Jamieson, McCullough, Burroughs, Cody High, Northwestern High School. Coach Lewis has taken students all over the United States playing chess. He has taken students to Atlanta, GA; Nashville,TN; Louisville, KY; Chicago, IL; Columbus, OH, and St. Louis; MO just to name a few. He has also coached chess at the Judge Greg Mathis CommunityCenter for years. Coach Lewis was relentless in searching for funds to take his students to national competitions by having a no excuse attitude. He would always say “My students worked hard all year long and it is up to me to find a way to get them there”. Detroit Chrysler Elementary Principal (and former AP at A.L. Holmes from (1997-2002) Wendy Shirley said, “My fondest memories of Coach Lewis was at Lunchtime every day at A.L Holmes playing chess with as many students as he could handle”. Many of his students have made the All-City Chess Team over the years. Two of his last graduating seniors at DCP at Northwestern received scholarships to Wayne State University and Olive Harvey College in Chicago. Coach Lewis’s legacy will carry for generations to come. Coach Lewis passed away on August 10, 2020, at the age of 66. He is dearly missed by his family, former students, coaching colleagues and all that met him.
Robert Taliaferro
Longtime Chess Coach Robert Taliaferro was inducted into the Detroit City Chess Club’s Harold Steen Hall of Fame award in 2021. Coach Taliferro was born and raised in Detroit, MI. He learned chess from his older brother Lucien at the age of 8. Coach Taliaferro coached his own high school team at Detroit Cooley High School. Coach Taliaferro has coached all over the city of Detroit from elementary schools to high schools. Coach T (as he’s often called) has taught at the following schools for the last few decades Paul Robeson Academy, Durfee Middle School, Winterhalter, Neinas, Webster Middle School, Stewart Elementary, Burton International, Murphy Middle School, Gompers, DEPSA, University Prep Academy, Central High School, Cooley High School and most recently Renaissance High School. Coach Taliaferro has taken students all over the United States, taking them to Orlando, FL; Minneapolis, MN; Pittsburg, PA and Nashville, TN just to name a few. One of those students Renaissance High School Graduate Kenneth Rogers said “I remember Coach Taliaferro always being patient with me and my teammates. He unselfishly shared his personal experiences in chess and he consistently had a calm, helpful, and relaxed approach to working with us all. I will always remember Coach Taliaferro as one of my favorite people during my high school years at Renaissance.” Coach Kevin Fite said that “Coach Taliaferro is one of the most dedicated coaching colleagues he has ever worked with and coached against. He spends lots of time with his students both during the week and many times on weekends and it shows up in his players’ chess games. He is most deserving of this honor”. On a side note about Coach Taliaferro, Many of you may not know that over a decade ago, Coach T was known for his cooking at the City Chess tournaments that were held at Central High many moons ago when he uses to cook red hots sausages, hot chocolate and had all the goodies to purchase during tournaments.
Alan Kaufman
Alan Kaufman learned how to play chess in 1956 learned to play by watching others play. By the time he was in Junior High, he joined his school’s team (Post Junior High) in 1960. In 1962, he joined Mumford High Schools chess team. The next year, he was competing in United States Chess Federation. In about 1963, or so, Mr. Kaufman began competing in rated tournaments, including the Motor City Open. Also, in 1963, he was a founding member of the Chessmen, a metro Detroit scholastic chess club.
Mr. Kaufman competed in the Metro-wide High School Chess League while on Southfield High Schools team. That same year, he competed in the Detroit Metro League. In 1965, he competed in United States Chess Open in San Juan Puerto Rico. After graduating from Southfield High School in 1965, he attended the University of Michigan and received his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he enrolled in law school at the U of M and received his law degree in 1974.
In 2011, he founded the Michigan Chess Festival LLC and organized the first Fall Festival at the Hyatt Regency Dearborn. Several GMs and other “titled” players competed. GM Gregory Kaidanov competed in Michigan for the first time since he won the 1992 US Open at the Dearborn Hyatt Regency.
Over the years, GMs, IMs, WGMs, WIMs, FMs from USA, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Russia, Israel, Turkmenistan, Turkey, India, China have either competed in Michigan Chess Festival LLC events, or visited the state on his invitation, or both. (The list of countries is probably incomplete.)
By 2013, the Michigan Chess Festival LLC was supporting or co-sponsoring tournaments in Metro Detroit that were organized by All the Kings Men. Mainly this involved the Harold Steen Memorial and the Motor City Open.
During the years, Mr. Kaufman served on the Board of directors and as Vice President of Michigan Chess Association. Over a period of several years, he brought prominent chess players to Detroit and Michigan. Some of them have retained close connections to our community and our chess-players.
Mr. Kaufman has been instrumental in connecting Detroit City Chess Club with many chess relationships with major Grandmasters over the years. He has always been a friend to DCCC family.
James "Jimmy" Settles
James “Jimmy” Settles Jr., a life-long Detroit resident who started working at a Ford iron foundry in 1968 and worked his way up to vice president of UAW-Ford over a 50-year career. Settles began working at Ford’s Dearborn Iron Foundry in 1968 as a graduate of the city’s Northwestern High School. At the urging of co-workers, he ran for a UAW leadership position in 1970 and rose through the union’s ranks over the years, ultimately being elected vice president in 2006 and re-elected twice. He had served on the union’s International Executive Board since June 2002, when he was elected director of UAW Region 1A.
Over the years, Mr. Settles has helped build new ballparks, provide athletic, musical, and mentoring opportunities to young people, assisted families of wounded military veterans, supported homeless people and of course he helped build a strong chess community by sponsoring students to National competitions, local tournaments and hosting the best chess camps in the country in the UAW National Program Center.
Mr. Settles has been a fighter for worker rights and civil rights, including in support of schoolchildren in Detroit. Community projects Settles helped lead include and certainly not limited to a $1.8 million makeover of a baseball field in Detroit’s Woodbridge neighborhood (on the west side of the Lodge Freeway, south of Forest Avenue). The ballpark’s improvements, including new pitching and batting cages, bleachers, and scoreboard spearheaded by the UAW and Ford Motor Co., was renamed William Clay Ford Field. He was responsible for building improvements at Detroit College Prep at Northwestern High School, including renovation of the gym and pool. He spearheaded the “Boxes of Love” program through UAW-Ford to provide hundreds of boxes of food for families in need during the holiday season.
Settles is a life member of the NAACP and serves on its national board of directors. Over the years he has served on the boards of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the Wayne County Airport Authority, Detroit/Wayne County Stadium Authority, the Trade Union Leadership Council, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Henry Ford Community College Employment and Training Development Center, the Detroit Public Schools Compact Association, and the North Rosedale Park Civic Association
Glen Barnett
Coach Glen Barnett has worked 34 years at the Detroit Medical Center. He has spent 26 years coaching chess at Cass Tech. He has coached multiple city, state, & national championships while at Cass Tech. Coach Barnett has coached 16 city championships in a row while at Cass Tech. He has also coached at Golightly middle school for 5 years, and 2 years at Detroit Service-Learning Academy. Coach Barnett has also coached classes at the Sherwood Forest library in Detroit. He also had a chess club at the Northwest Activity Center for 5 years and 2 years at the Redford Public library. Coach Barnett continues to play chess with many of his friends and former students at the Mandell Chess Club and the Detroit City Chess Club. He also enjoys teaching his grandkids the great game of chess.