24 Jul 2023
[#20] 5 QUESTION SERIES INTERVIEW with Lena Miladinovic, CEO Outpost & WIM, IA, FI
Today we are going to speak with our friend Lena Miladinovic from Serbia. She is a Woman International Master in chess, an international arbiter, and a FIDE instructor, coach, and CEO of Outpost Chess. The Outpost Chess is a new global platform that connects event organizers, chess clubs, players, arbiters, trainers, and offers a comprehensive hub for tournament organizers where they can find an end to end solution for running their events under one roof. And she won a startup of the year.
This is Derek from Opening Master, the biggest human quality chess database with 9. 6 million official chess games, sharing the chess wisdom, education, and great stories around the world. Opening Master is a proud supporter and partner of Outpost Chess.
Opening Master - Lena, your journey in chess has been truly fascinating from being a successful player to becoming an inspiring trainer, arbiter, and now a visionary businesswoman with Outpost Chess. Can you take us back to a specific moment or experience that ignited your passion for chess and made you realize that it would be an integral part of your purpose in life?
Lena - Hello Derek, nice to meet you. Well, the first question is, it's not easy to answer it all. So, when did I find out that chess is going to be an integral part of my life?
To be honest, I have no idea because I started to play chess when I was five. Um, and then I started winning trophies and everything. It was so interesting. And after that, I started being a trainer and started teaching little kids, which was so interesting. And I wanted to know more. And then I started, you know, passing tests for arbiters and I become intern international arbiter.
So it was so interesting. And I have no idea when was that moment, but I always knew that I. Don't want to be focused only on one thing. I want to meet everything So once I meet every single angle in chess, I started thinking of okay Let's meet the business angle and let's fix the things that chess needs to be fixed like bad connection bad Communication bad representation of us as a players.
I'm having a trouble to find a club. I'm having a trouble to find a tournament Let's, you know, gather everything together at Outpost Chess and that was like my vision and my idea. Let's help chess people monetize out of their skills. Let's help players find a club. Let's help arbiters find some tournament.
Let's help trainers and students find each other and eventually let's help tournament organizers to organize their tournaments on easy, easy, smooth Way because of them we are playing in tournaments and that's what is important. So, uh, that was the aim of, uh, Outpost chess in my whole career. And your dedication to chess and its community is evident in your role as a FIDE certified instructor Teaching and inspiring young minds.
Opening Master - Is there a particular student or moment in your teaching career that deeply touched your heart and reaffirmed the importance of passing on your knowledge and love for the game?
Lena - When it comes to me being a chess trainer, that came just after me being a professional player. And I found out that I wanted to contribute my knowledge and my experience and to teach mostly kids.
Uh, when you ask me who is my favorite, uh, students, I'm going to say kids, but chess is for everybody for adults, both. So, uh, from zero to 100 years, whoever is interested actually to learn about chess, you can reach out and find a fine trainer. Maybe Outpostchess is the best platform to find somebody to teach you to play chess.
More questions and answers in the podcast series.
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