Sari Caine on Healing Through Chess, Owning Her Story, & Returning to Her Center
About the Episode
In this deeply personal episode, we sit down with Sari Caine - chess champion, educator, playwright, former performer, and upcoming memoirist. Sari opens up about her journey through trauma, teaching, identity, and art - all viewed through the lens of chess. From classrooms in New York City to new beginnings in the woods, Sari shares how the game saved her life, shaped her soul, and helped her discover who she really is when she stops performing and starts being.
Key Takeways
A Life Shaped by Strategy: Sari realized during the conversation that she approaches nearly everything - career, challenges, relationships - strategically. It’s a trained mindset from years of chess that she hadn’t consciously recognized until reflecting through her memoir-writing process.
Teaching as Lifeline: In her adolescence, Sari was navigating abuse and addiction. Teaching chess gave her structure, purpose, and hope. It saved her life - both metaphorically and literally - by giving her a reason to show up and stay connected to the best parts of herself.
Empowering Through the Board: Sari’s chess curriculum went far beyond tactics. In special needs classrooms, she collaborated with therapists and educators to make chess a tool for social-emotional learning, confidence-building, and tailored developmental growth.
The Double-Edged Gift of Chess: Chess taught Sari to always look for solutions. While that can lead to resilience and creativity, it also made it hard to know when to stop fighting. Recognizing the line between persistence and peace has been a lifelong lesson.
Reckoning with the Past: The pandemic forced Sari to stop and examine why she felt like a fraud. Despite early championship wins, she had quit competing young and felt she’d been chasing former glory. Letting go of performance-based identity became a turning point.
Opening the Door to Her Truth: For Sari, success had always been a mask - playwriting, acting, chess. But The Queen’s Gambit cracked something open. It gave her the courage to write her own story and stop hiding behind curated roles.
Choosing a New Life: After losing her mother and navigating her husband’s disability, Sari left New York. She created a new chapter in the woods - a quieter, deeper life focused on family and creativity. It’s the most authentic joy she’s ever known.
Unleashing Her Inner Queen: Sari defines it as coming home to her truest self - instinctual, courageous, vulnerable, and deeply rooted in worth. It’s not about control or attention. It’s about clarity, peace, and offering what’s real from a place of wholeness.
