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
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Older News

John wins North American Youth U-16 Championship
On the heels of National Junior High School Championship, John Hughes wins his age group in the North American Youth. John will be eligible to defend his U-16 championship next year as well. Now onto the World Youth in November where John will be representing CCL and our country along with CCL lady Maggie Feng.

CCL adds a branch in Cincinnati, operated by FM Hans Multhopp
CCL is expanding to provide the very best in chess instruction to more of Ohio. FIDE and Life USCF Master Hans Multhopp is leading our Cincinnati division.

CCL adds another IM and a WGM to its staff!
In our goal to always be improving, we have added IM Atanas Kizov and WGM Jovana Vojinovic to our staff. Please go to the coaches page to see more details on these high end coaches.

2011 Gem City Open
Walker was the sole 1st place winner of the top section of the Gem City Open, earning his National Master title along the way. Luke came in tied for 1st in the U-1700 section.

CCL ends the school year leading the rest of the state
CCL ended the school year with the top 3 three K-6 students in the State of Ohio and 6 of the top 8. We even have a 1st grader (Chris) in the top 15. Before we started CCL, if you had a rating in the 1500’s, you may have been the top K-6 player in the state, but now it is in the 1700’s and next year it will be in the 1800’s or higher. We are also breaking though in the K-12 (2 of top 5) and in the girls (4 of top 13). All results are at http://ohioscholasticchess.org/players.html .

So, where can you usually go to find one of these players… The Mulligan Chess Club on a Saturday morning, that is where.

Walker returns to money winning ways
Walker returned to him money winning ways by earning $2,875 by tieing for 1st in the U-2100 section at the Chicago Open.

John wins National Jr. High School Championship
John won his 3rd national championship. This time he finished in sole 1st place in the National Jr. High School Championship. His score of 6.5/7 was not matched by anyone. The beauty of his play was his sharp miniature wins in the last two rounds, one against a master. John will be representing the U.S. in the World Youth Championship, this November, in Brazil.

The Columbus Academy Team came, which is composed of all CCL members, came in 2nd place. Congratulations to team members: John, Rahul, Garrett, Abhi, and Sam.

Crowning Touch wins International League
The Crowning Touch won the U-1200 4545 league for two leagues in a row!!!! Congrats to team members: Garrett, Jacob, Arvi, Jason, and Stanley.

Walker finishes tied for first in the State HS Championship while Abhi and Maggie share 1st in State K-8 Champion
In the Ohio HS Championship, Walker came in a 5-way tie for 1st place (5-1). Although Walker is the Ohio HS co-champion, he came in 2nd place on tie-breaks. Michael Vilenchuk will represent Ohio at the Denker tournament. If Michael decides not play, then the honor will drop down to Walker.

In the Ohio Middle School Championship, Abhi and Maggie came in a 2 way tie for first with 5.5 -.5 . While this 5th and 4th grader are the Ohio middle school co-champions, Abhi won the invitation to represent Ohio at the Barber tournament, which he plans on attending.

Maggie wins the Ohio All-Girls Championship
Maggie was the sole winner the 2011 Ohio All-Girls Championship. With this win come an invitation to the Polgar All-Girls camp/tournament which Maggie plans on attending.

Anagh wins Ohio Elementary School Championship
CCL continues to show its stuff at the Ohio Elementary Championships today, despite some players not making the trip. In the K-6 Championship, Anagh is cochampion, along with previous CCL member Annorjan with 4.5 points. Anagh’s championship finish in this tournament comes just 1 week after finishing clear 2nd in the K-12 section of the Queen City Classic. He is so hot, don’t dear touch him. Coming in tied for 4th place was Sam and Vikram finished in 6th place. In the K-3 Championship, the State Champion, with a perfect 5-0 score was Luke. A huge favorite before the tournament started, Luke did not disappoint. Finishing tied for 2nd place was Joe and in 4th place was Arvi. Joe played Luke in the last round when they were both 4-0.

Rahul wins Queen City and CCL totally dominates
The Queen City Classic which may need to be renamed the CCL Classic. We have repeatedly been the top performers at this event but this year our complete monopolization of this event was pretty incredible. Especially when you consider that over 700 players competed, in what is the biggest annual scholastic chess event in the Midwest. It just shows to me what a high standard that you are all placing on yourself, not just to become better than your peers but to push to be the very best that you can be. From a coach’s perspective, seeing this is the greatest reward that I could ever obtain for my efforts. Rahul won the tournament with a perfect 5-0 score, following Walker’s achievement from the year before. I wonder which of you will step up next year!!! Rahul played dynamic chess and topped it off with a miniature massacre in the final round. We also easily won the 1st place team trophy with Anagh coming in clear 2nd place with 4.5 points. We also took 3rd place (Noah K), 4th place (Abhi) and 6th place (Luke). They all had 4-1 scores. When you look at those results, you would have to think that it is impossible for a team to do any better than that. Well guess again. Most of the CCL players who didn’t play in the K-12 open, played in the K-3 open. Joe swept the field with a perfect 5-0 score, and followed in Luke’s footsteps from last year. Three players finished in 2nd – 4th places with 4.5 points: Matthew, Chris, Joshua and Jason. Also finishing in the top ten with 4- 1 scores were Joshua (5th), Stanley (7th), Austin(8th), and Arvi(10th). That is the top 5 places and 8 of the top 10. Naturally, we won the team trophy. And as you can expect from results like this, many of the CCL players’ only setbacks were to other CCL players. There were actually 5 players with perfect scores going into the last round (all CCL players!).

Coach Goran (again) dominates in major Ohio tournaments : Matthew wins U-1250
Coach Goran makes it 4 for 4 in major Ohio tournaments, this time winning the 2011 Cardinal Open, Coach Alan ties for 2nd. Clearly this is no one around this part of the country that can compete with Coach Goran. Congrats to Matthew for winning the U1250 and taking home $400 for his efforts.

The Coaches

  • alancasden2
    National Master Alan Casden
    -- CEO --
  • International Master Atanas Kizov -- CCL Head Coach --
  • GM VLATKO BOGDANOVSKI
    Grand Master Vlatko Bogdanovski
  • Zoran
    International Master Zoran Arsovic
  • FM_Sasa_Jevtic
    FIDE Master Sasa Jevtic
  • NM Vladimir Kizov
    National Master Vladimir Kizov
    Head of Pre-CCL
  • Jelena
    Woman FIDE Master Jelena Arsovic

The Best in Chess Instruction

How can we say that?
- read our blogs, our results speak for themselves

Why are we so successful?
- we use the top chess coaches from around the world
- we develop a chess community
- we use a team approach with experts in both chess and psychology
- over 1900 free chess book library
- we always put the student first

Who are our customers?
- we started in Ohio but now reach out to all of North America, currently with students in 20 states and 8 countries
- we address the needs of students of all ages and strengths (a CCL and Pre-CCL program)

Let us help you to live up to your potential.

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Recent Posts

  • Minghao Gu becomes the 34th CCL Graduate February 6, 2023
  • Jason Wang wins the North American Open January 3, 2023
  • 2022 National Grade Level Championships December 31, 2022
  • For real? December 6, 2022
  • 2022 Ohio Grade Level Championships November 15, 2022
  • Michael Lin becomes the 33rd CCL Graduate September 14, 2022
  • Sneha becomes a TD while she, Jack, and Joshua each win a quad. August 14, 2022
  • Rohan Padhye wins Joe Yun Memorial and becomes a Chess Master July 20, 2022
  • CCL at the National Elementary School Championship May 20, 2022
  • Jason Wang wins Ohio HS Championship while Rohan Padhye takes MS Championship May 9, 2022
  • Where are they now? February 4, 2022
  • CCL wins Ohio Grade Levels in grades 6, 8, 9, 10 November 8, 2021
  • Three New CCL Graduates September 11, 2021
  • CCL Chess Camp 9/11-12/2021 July 4, 2021
  • CCL takes top 4 spots in the Ohio High School Championship April 24, 2021
  • CCL Youth wins Ohio Championships April 3, 2021
  • The sleeping giant awakens April 3, 2021
  • Dae San Kim with the 2020 CCL Chess Championship August 22, 2020
  • 2020 CCL Chess Championship August 12, 2020
  • US vs Canada Online Youth Chess Match August 4, 2020
  • CCL USCF rated online chess tournaments June 9, 2020
  • 2020 Queen City Classic March 3, 2020
  • Some Holiday Results December 28, 2019
  • CCL wins most of the grades at the 2019 Ohio Grade Level Championships November 11, 2019
  • CCL tops the charts October 15, 2019
  • CCL Chess Camp 11/2-3/2019 September 16, 2019
  • Elton Cao is the State of Ohio Chess Champion September 3, 2019
  • Jason Wang is the Barber Co-champion August 9, 2019
  • 2019 Columbus Chess League August 8, 2019
  • Chris Shen breaks 2400, setting CCL history July 20, 2019

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