Congratulations to our latest and 26th CCL graduate, Aryan Balyan. Aryan became our 26th graduate by having a couple of strong performance at a couple of recent tornados.

I’ve been playing chess for about 4 years now.. I made an incredible jump from 1100 to 1800. I was stuck at 1900 for about a year.

After hitting 2000, I felt more relief than excitement. I owe most of my success to Coach Goran, Coach Vlatko and Coach Alan.  They have played a key role in my time playing chess. Outside from school and apart from chess,  I enjoy playing sports such as basketball, participating in school math olympiad teams, and hanging with friends.  If I’m not doing anything productive,  I’m usually on my phone or gaming.  Although it may seem I spend a lot of time apart from chess, I spend a majority of the time following chess.

What Aryan has reported above happens often to serious chess players.  They hit a long period where their rating does not increase, especially after a previous large increase in their rating.  At this point CCL either loses the student or they stick it out and head to very high levels of chess.  Please do not give up on yourself too quickly.  The return on your investment of hard work will always pay off, there are just going to be delays and bumps in the road.  I am positive that we will see this in Aryan as we have in many others.  Aryan is a huge talent and I expect exceptional performances in his future.

See a game that Aryan recently played to earn his CCL graduation by CLICKING HERE. This Who’s Who chess list has been growing with great talent which is clearly characterized by a high value on perseverance, hard work, and passion. What is a CCL graduate?  It is an honorary degree that we give to any CCL player who has worked their way through the ranks while in CCL and has made a USCF experts rating (>= 2000).  This group is becoming a who’s who of the top young talent around. It is little surprise that the top 13 rated scholastic chess players in Ohio are all CCL graduates!!! Being a CCL  graduate entitles them to lifetime membership in CCL, based on good behavior, without the requirement of taking lessons.  They are allowed to receive email spam from me for the rest of their lives!! Who will be next?

CCL graduates are (in order of obtainment):

• John Hughes
• Walker Griggs
• Maggie Feng
• Rahul Ramaswamy
• Annorjan Naguleswaran
• Luke Xie
• Chris Shen
• Noah Keating-Adams
• Sam Massick
• Anagh Kulkarni
• Vikram Srivastava
• Aristo Liu
• Abhi Ramaswamy
• Jason Wang
• Ricky Wang
• Vincent Baker
• Forest Chen
• Neo Zhu
• Alex Kolay
• Xavier Paganini
• Justin Storn
• Stanley Cao
• Elton Cao
• Jasen Lai
• Shourjya Ghosh
• Aryan Balyan

A weekend with IM Atanas Kizov – A CCL Chess Camp

• • Date:  Saturday/Sunday   November 4-5, 2017

    

  • Time:    9:00 – 5:00

  • Where:
    The home of Dr. Carrie Casden
    736 Watterton Drive
    Westerville, Ohio

    Open only to CCL members and members of a Mulligan Chess Club.
    Lectures, game reviews, camp review book, tournament, and many prizes.
    Draw or beat Atanas in a 5-1 game or Alan in a 5-2 game and win a $1 coin, tournament trophies, free chess lessons, books, etc.
    All chess equipment and snacks will be provided but bring your own lunch.
    For more details, or questions call Alan (614) 561-2718 or email acasden@insight.rr.com

    40% discounts to 2nd/3rd person from the same family, participants coming from outside of Ohio, retired individuals, or members of the Mulligan Chess Club.
    100% refunded if you cannot make it to the camp, no questions asked.

    Update:  This camp is only open to the 1st 24 signups!

  •  

    IM Atanas Kizov will be teaching these 6 topics!:

    • Controlling the Open File
    • Isolated Pawn Endgames – 4 Things to Keep in Mind
    • Opening a File
    • Positional Sacrifice – Sacrifice of Minor Pieces
    • Positional Sacrifice – Pawn Sacrifice
    • Simplifications and Transposing to the Endgame

• Cost of the camp
  • If paid by Sunday  10/22
    • two days – $179
    • one day – $99
    • free to a parents of a student in 2nd grade or below
  • if paid after Sunday  10/22
    • two days – $199
    • one day – $109
    • free to a parents of a student in 2nd grade or below

To signup, CLICK HERE!

Congratulations to our latest and 25th CCL graduate, Shourjya Ghosh.

• Shourjya became our 25th graduate by having a strong performance at a recent Ohio  Chess Congress, finishing tied for 1st in the U-2100 section, gaining 70 points and bringing his rating up to 2004.
  
• I’ve been playing chess since 2012, but I’ve known how to play since the age of 5. I rose from 400 to about 1700 pretty quickly, so finally achieving 2000 has been a big relief since it’s long overdue. I owe a large part of my success to CCL and all the coaches I’ve been lucky to work with, like Coach Atanas and especially Coach Goran. Outside of school and apart from chess, I enjoy playing tennis and basketball, participating in school clubs, playing viola, and watching the Cavs and the Indians. My favorite school subjects are math and biology. If I’m not doing anything productive, I’m either sleeping or I’m glued to my phone. 
• See a game that Shourjya played at his last tournament to earn this honor by CLICKING HERE.
• This Who’s Who chess list has been growing with great talent which is clearly characterized by a high value on perseverance, hard work, and passion.What is a CCL graduate?  It is an honorary degree that we give to any CCL player who has worked their way through the ranks while in CCL and has made a USCF experts rating (>= 2000).   This group is becoming a who’s who of the top young talent around. It is little surprise that the top 13 rated scholastic chess players in Ohio are all CCL graduates!!! Being a CCL  graduate entitles them to lifetime membership in CCL, based on good behavior, without the requirement of taking lessons.  They are allowed to receive email spam from me for the rest of their lives!!
• Who will be next?

CCL graduates are (in order of obtainment):

• John Hughes
• Walker Griggs
• Maggie Feng
• Rahul Ramaswamy
• Annorjan Naguleswaran
• Luke Xie
• Chris Shen
• Noah Keating-Adams
• Sam Massick
• Anagh Kulkarni
• Vikram Srivastava
• Aristo Liu
• Abhi Ramaswamy
• Jason Wang
• Ricky Wang
• Vincent Baker
• Forest Chen
• Neo Zhu
• Alex Kolay
• Xavier Paganini
• Justin Storn
• Stanley Cao
• Elton Cao
• Jasen Lai
• Shourjya Ghosh

Christopher Shen won the Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions in Norfolk, VA.  This year, the Barber Tournament included 48 players, each representing his or her home state of the United States by winning home state’s middle school championship.  After 6 rounds of competition, both top seeds Justin Wang (2330) from Texas and Christopher Shen (2303) from Ohio tied for the first place when Christopher won on tie breaks (see their individual game by CLICKING HERE).  The victory gives Christopher not only the title of National “Champion of Champions” but also $5000 college scholarship donated by the event organizer, Mr. Dewain Barber.  Additionally, the win of Barber tournament qualifies Christopher to play 2018 US Cadet Championship, a 10-top player of U16 round robin competition in the states.

Before this tournament, Christopher and Jason Wang from CCL were selected to participate a week long chess training camp in Bulgaria with the sponsorship from Foundation of Veselin Topalov and Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, USA.  The camp was directed by a Bulgarian GM and former World Champion, GM Veselin Topalov gave simul games to six chess top juniors from the USA.

Finally, Christopher has been invited to play this year’s US Cadet Championship in Manchester, NH in the middle of August.  Christopher is a substitute of this year while he will be direct seed of next year’s edition also.

Each year, the Denker, Barber, and NGTOC tournaments take place at the same time and place of US Open.  Other CCL members who participated were Meghana Bhanuprasad, Kevin Xu, Vikram Srivastava, and Forest Chen. Meghana played in the National Girls Tournament of Champions and finished in 7th place, defeating Annie Wang (WIM, 2296 USCF rated) in second round.  In the Denker, Forest finished in 15th place and Vikram finished in 24th place.  In the Barber Kevin Xu finished in 21st place.  A strong showing by all of our CCL participants.

One of the biggest accomplishments that many chess players hope to achieve is to become a USCF Chess Master. Recently one more CCL member climbed to the top of this huge mountain, which takes an exceptional amount of hard work and commitment. CCL is very proud of:

Sam Massick

Sam drove his rating over 2200 and became a National Master by tying for 2nd place in the U-2200 section of the Chicago Class Championships.

His parents report:
Sam is a rising sophomore who has been playing chess since he was seven years old.  Reaching the master level was a primary goal of his and Coach Goran.  Goran was his primary coach for years and provided great support and encouragement.  Sam is very thankful to Coach Alan and Coach Atanas, who have helped him with his game over the past year.

The following were active members of CCL from the early parts of their chess development through getting their Master’s title.  This amazing group  includes: Walker Griggs, John Hughes, Maggie Feng, Chris Shen, Luke Xie, Noah Keating-Adams, Annorjan Naguleswaran,  Aristo Liu, Vincent Baker, Forest Chen, Jason Wang, and Sam Massick.