Newly elected Madison mayor to depart US Chess role (Madison Record)

[eppur_se_muova]

By JOHN HARTMANN US Chess Press
Published 6:05 am Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Ranae Bartlett was named US Chess Executive Director in 2024

MADISON – It is said that no one can serve two masters. And so US Chess Executive Director Ranae Bartlett is trading Caïssa* for the people of Madison, Alabama.

After serving on the Madison Board of Education (2011-2020) and City Council (2020-current), Bartlett won the Aug. 26 mayoral election with more than 56% of the vote. She will be inaugurated Nov. 3.

Bartlett was named US Chess director of operations in Sept. 2023, and became our executive director in March 2024. She departs US Chess on Oct. 21, but as mayor she’ll keep her hand in the chess world.

Newly elected to the Alabama Chess Hall of Fame, Bartlett will help run a chess class at a Madison elementary school beginning in January, and she plans to continue to host and direct the Alabama All-Girls Championship.
***
a little more: https://www.themadisonrecord.com/2025/09/10/newly-elected-madison-mayor-depart-us-chess-role/


*Caïssa originated earlier in time, in a poem published in a book called Scacchia Ludus in 1527 by Hieronymus Vida, which describes in Latin a chess game between the gods Apollo and Mercury in the presence of other gods. Caïssa, the legendary mythological creature, is now known as the Goddess of Chess, and was later notoriously described in a poem called Caïssa written in 1763 by English poet and philologist Sir William Jones.
https://chessctr.org/discover/caissa-goddess-of-chess/



Posted partly because "Alabama Chess Hall of Fame" is not a phrase you expect to hear every day. The matrix may be red, but there are plenty of blue inclusions.

[GigiLeigh]

1. Madison

Is my next door neighbor. I didn't know about this. Very interesting.