Welcome to the CCL Chess School!

chess lessons, for players of all strengths and ages

THE CCL CHESS SCHOOL
Private Chess Lessons … with group activities
… for students of all ages and strengths
Alan Casden – CEO – (614) 561-2718
Facebook = https://www.facebook.com/cclchess

Jason Wang is the Barber Co-champion

CCL student, Jason Wang, came in a 2-way tie for 1st place at the 2019 Barber tournament.  This tournament is where the Middle School champions of every state come together to determine the champion of champions.  It is a very strong event.  Jason has always impressed me with his incredible fighting spirit.  This tournament was no exception.  After losing his first round game, he won his remaining 5 games to finish tied for 1st.  His last round game as well as other information on the tournament is posted at https://new.uschess.org/news/invitational-winners-2019-orlando/.  Jason’s current rating is 2391.  No other CCL student has earned this high a rating at this young an age.  Way to go, Jason!

Chris Shen breaks 2400, setting CCL history

updated 7/29
This past weekend, Chris played in the New York International at the historic Marshall Chess Club in Manhattan.   In this 9-round FIDE rated tournament, Chris played well, scoring 6 out 9 without a single round loss and his FIDE performance rating was above 2450, giving him a chance to clinch an IM norm.  However, he needed to play against one more player from a foreign country, according to FIDE policy.  But, his US chess rating crossed over 2400 and reached a new peak of 2410, the first CCL player to cross 2400 and currently the highest rated player in Ohio!   The previous high was held by Walker Griggs at 2398.  Chris is getting primed for perhaps the biggest tournament of his life, to compete in the US Junior Championship (Invitational).  Right now Chris is in Ecuador,  competing in the Pan American Youth U-18.
John Hughes who has been in semi-retirement while going to college came back participating in the same tournament.  John also had a strong result, bringing his rating up to 2314, five points short of his all-time high.  John is now working in information technology (computers) at Blackstone and living in The East Village of NYC.
It is great to see these strong results, but what brings the biggest smile to my face is hearing that CCL players met in a distant international tournament and were supportive of each other.  Chris was happy to meet the Hughes family in family in New York.
7/29 updated
Chris is on an incredible roll right now.  First he wins the US Junior Open, then he has an IM level performance at the New York International and now he just finished clear second in the U-18 section at the Pan American Youth Championship in Guayaquil, Ecuador.  US Chess will have a detailed report later about this tournament.

CCL old picture test

All of the pictures below are at least 5 years old and are players who are now rated around 1700 or above.  You can click on a picture to see a larger version of it.  This was going to be a contest but not until after I implemented it did I find out that if you move your cursor over the picture, the filename (student's name) is displayed.  So enjoy the pictures and see if you can guess who they are before moving your cursor over them.

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Chris Shen wins US Junior Open while Elton Cao wins U-15

Chris Shen
Elton Cao

With great pride, the CCL Chess School is glad to announce that Chis Shen came in clear first place in the US Junior Open while Elton Cao came in clear 1st place in the U-15 section.  This year’s US Junior Open tournament attracted over 200 players under 21 to compete in four different age categories.

Chris gets the honor to compete in the 2020 US Junior Closed.  The winner of the US Junior gets as spot in the US Championship.  Hopefully we will soon have CCL graduates in both the US Womans (Maggie Feng) and US Open Championships.  He is now going to Philadelphia for the World Open. Chris will have three tournaments in July and won’t be home until August.