If you're interested in being rich and famous, send in your photo wearing/holding some of our spiffy ChessNinja.com swag. That way you'll have some cool stuff and I'll have a list of people who may someday be rich and famous.
But seriously folks, the shop has had orders from the USA, Brazil, Portugal, and Germany, so we're taking over the world at last, bwah hah hah! I'll set up a gallery of all the handsome and beautiful people proud to say to the world that losing sucks.
(I get laughs whenever I wear my logo sweatshirt here in NY. But that may be because I also wear a floppy jester hat.)
Just so you know there isn't a mind-control substance embedded in the logo that I will activate from afar like the Manchurian webmaster, here's a photo of my very own nephew, Roman, previously hyped here when he was far tinier. Now he's an adorable, massive, and brilliant eight-month-old, and by far the most fashionably attired tot around.
As for his chess training, he's already through the Seirawan series for beginners and is well on his way to chewing, sucking, and gumming his way through Dvoretsky. He's just getting his first tooth in now, so his training is really set to take off.
Hey, Mig
Your nephew is adorable! I am sure he will be a fine chess player one day.
Mig, if he isn't playing at at least 2200 level chess yet, it's all over for him. Time for him to retire from chess and let the next generation move up. Maybe it's not too late for him to take up golf...
you should make the .com tiny, so unless you get really really close it just looks like CHESS NINJA. i think that would increase interest in the shirts. who the hell wants a bigass dot com on their shirt compounding the geekness of already having the word Chess on it.
Because it's promotion for the site and the newsletters. I don't make any money selling the merchandise or I'd replace the entire thing with a picture of Pamela Anderson or something.
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be chessplayers
Don't let them play gambits and push them old pawns
Let them be waiters that serve tea and scones...
sorry
If you want to avoid looking like a geek, it's probably best to avoid ChessNinja shirts altogether. :)
Hey, speak for yourself! Chessplayer as anything negative is long dead unless you're a jock/redneck. And some nerdy aura is a good thing these days thanks to Bill Gates and the dot-com. Geeks are smart, have good jobs, and can fix your computer and put up your website.
Plus, I'm nearly two meters tall and weigh 100+kg (6'4", 230lb). Maybe I should put "want to make something of it?" on my Ninja shirt.
I'm not sure what social circles you move in, but there's still certainly a bias against chess players, as I've discovered from time to time when I've brought it up. It's not universal or especially intense, but it's there.
Incidentally, there's a difference between geek and nerd. The former has some "cool factor"; the latter implies mostly poor social graces and awkwardness, and does not. Chess is associated, in the minds of many, with the latter.
Let us know what your social circles are so we learn something. I've never received a negative reaction, at least not since the usual jocks walking by the chess club at college.