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The CCL Chess School

Chess, Community and Learning

 

Chess lessons and more, for players of all strengths and ages.

CCL sets a new record with 8 – 10 players qualifying for the 2014 World Youth Championships

May 17, 2014

Who qualified

o  Emma                 U-8  G

o  Jason                  U-8  O

o  Chris                   U-10 O

o  Lainie                  U-10 G

o  Luke                    U-12 O

o  Meghana             U-12 G

o  Emily                   U-12 G

o  Maggie                U-14 G

o  We are still awaiting to hear about our sister and brother from Wales, Aishwarya and Karanvir

Filed Under: News

A big weekend for the girls

April 17, 2014

20140412_165429In the Ohio All-Girls Championship, 4 CCL girls (Stella, Emma, Victoria, Sneha) where on the top 2 boards going into the last round.  When the dust settled Stella and Emma finished on top as co-champions with 4-1 scores, while Victoria finished in a tie for 3rd place with Abby (Abhirami).  Abby was our big point gainer at +57.  Tie-breaks, along with the 1st place trophy, $100 scholarship, and invitation to the National Girls Championship went to Stella.  I am pretty certain that Emma is the youngest All-Girls champion in the history of Ohio.  Don’t let the young age of these girls fool you, this is a K-12 event.  The CCL girls have now fully arrived as the dominate force in girls chess in Ohio.

Maggie and Lainie tried their luck at the Cinciphotonnati Open and the National All Girls (Chicago) respectively, being held the same weekend.  Maggie performed well in the Open section of the Cincinnati Open while Lainie came in 8th place in the U-10 division at the National All-Girls.

 

Filed Under: News

CCL does well at the Queen City Classic

March 28, 2014

  • CCL does well at Queen City Classic, winning the team championship in top section, where many of our students ‘played up’ into.  We also won the team championship in 4-6 and took 2nd place in both 7-9 and K-3.
  • The winner in the open section is a master from W.V. (Advait Patel) who is the same age as Luke and a friend of Luke.  Both of them were the lone 4-0 scores going into the last round but Advait got the better of Luke and won the tournament.  Both of the boys are planning to return next year to again fight for the championship.  Actually Luke plans on playing in the Queen City Classic for until he graduates.
    • As you all know by now, Luke is one of my heroes.  While everyone else is worrying about their ratings, Luke plays in whatever tournament he wants to play in.  Yes, he is concerned about his rating but he does not put that before the enjoyment and value of the experience that he will gain.  As a benefit of this he keeps gaining more and more valuable experiences and in the long run he is becoming a stronger player which is reflected in his rating.  He is not letting the short sightedness of ‘protecting his rating’ get in his way of enjoying his chess.  And in the long run, he is coming out the winner.
  • Listed are the top 10 and 3.5 CCL finishers in each section.
    • K-12 Open – 1st place team
    • K-12
      • 2 Luke Xie
      • 3 Vikram Srivastava
      • 4 Vincent Baker
      • 5 Sujan Rachuri
      • 8 Arvind Sai Prasad
      • 9 Jason Wang
      • 10 Tim Goldenberg
      • 11 Divyesh Balamurali
    • 7-9 Open – 2nd place team
      • 7-9
      • 4 Jacob Eismann
      • 6 Victor Lim
    • 4-6 Open – 1st place team
    • 4-6
      • 2 Om Borkar
      • 3 Ethan Ferkins
      • 4 Justin Huang
      • 5 Soham Joshi
      • 7 Yutong (Elton) Cao
      • 9 Alvin Anand
    • K-3 Open – 2nd place team
      • 4 Kellan Ren
      • 9 Emma Cheng
    • Blindfold Exhibition with Jason
  • Jason
    • This is an interesting story.  Usually on Friday night, one of their events would be Gregory Kaidanov and Irena Krush playing a blindfold game.   This year they put a twist on the game with each blindfold player being paired up with a random 1600+ player.  They played in a turn, like double-player in ping-pong (not tennis).  Jason was picked up because of his 1600+ rating. GM Ashley was surprised about his rating/height and wanted the parents to verify.  There is a video of this game at http://youtu.be/7xchVa2TH-w

Filed Under: News

CCL wins MOTCF again!

March 19, 2014

 IMG_3139

For the 2nd year in a row, CCL wins the Midwest Open Team Chess Festival.  This year’s team (CCL has Alekhine’s gun!) was composed of:

Board 1 – Maggie Feng – 7th grade

Board 2 – Luke Xie – 6th grade

Board 3 – Noah Keating Adams – the old man, a college freshman

Board 4 – Chris Shen – 4th grade

An incredible group of very young strong chess players.  Maggie and Luke were also members of last year’s MOTCF winning CCL team. This tournament brings out the strongest adult chess teams throughout Ohio.   In the last round, they demolished the top seeded team in the tournament 3.5 – 0.5.   To see our young CCL players win this event as they have done at most of the major adult tournaments (ie. last 3 State of Ohio championships, Cardinal Open, FIDE Invitationals, etc.) it is clear that a changing of the guards has taken place.  I have been playing chess in Ohio for the past 45 years, and there would only be the isolated scholastic player who would sometimes compete with the top adults of our state.  Never has there been this type of dominance by such incredibly young chess players, over the seasoned adult masters of Ohio.  I keep thinking that each occurrence is an isolated phenomena but the long trail of successes has shown that this is a real transformation of the base of chess power in Ohio.  It is amazing to be part of this piece of magic.

CCL proudly sent 7 teams to MOTCF.  This is a very strong tournament but many of you were up for the challenge, including my team that had 2nd graders on boards 2, 3, and 4.

photo

Our money winners were:

Team prizes:
Open Section – The team of “CCL Has Alekhine’s Gun” (Maggie, Luke, Noah and Chris)  got 4.5 points to won clear first.
U1600 – Two CCL teams (CCL4 – Sujan, Cody, Joe and Kunal and CCL6 – Anagh, Arvind, Dakshin, Justin and Aditya) got 2.0 points to be part of a 4-way tie for top U-1600 team

Board prizes:
Board 1 – Coach Alan – clear first at 4.5 points.
Board 2 – Luke and Blake were part of a three way tie at 4.5
Board 3 – Leo Zamansky got 4.0 points for a 1st place finish. He was from Coach Hans’ team – Mulligan Chess Club – Cincinnati
Board 4 – Chris got a perfect 5.0 score and clear first.

I am very proud of all of you but especially proud of Joe Kleban.   Joe was playing Abhi in the last round.  It was a very tough battle but at the end of the game, Abhi had an easily won position and lost on time.  However, it was Joe’s clock and he forgot to set the 5 second delay.  Abhi just noticed this as he ran out of time.  If the 5-second delay was on, Abhi would have easily won the game.  The TD made the decision that since Abhi make his claim about there being no delay after his time had expired that Joe is granted the win.  Although this is the correct legal decision, it is probably not the correct ethical decision.  This is what Joe felt, even though the TD had awarded the win to Joe.  Joe then offered Abhi a draw, feeling that it was the ethically correct thing to do.  When something like this happens, I cannot but beam with respect for our young players.  By far, the most amazing move played by anyone at the 2014 MOTCF.

[royal cats=3]

Filed Under: News

ChessPiano was a very entertaining and successful event

March 11, 2014

IMG_3069ChessPiano, like ChessMath, is CCL’s attempt to provide free prodigious development activities to our students, other than chess.  CCL believes in putting the kids first and this is another attempt to help develop the more complete person.

This session was run by CCL member Harvey Friedman.  Harvey is not only one of the top scholars of our time but he is also very talented at the piano.  His piano skills are largely self-taught.  In this session, the interested CCL students played a slow piece to the group and then Harvey worked with them on ways to improve the creative and dynamic nature of the piece. Here are Harvey’s notes on his piano background.

I took piano lessons from age 7 till just before 16, when I went to MIT – where I got my math Ph.D. just before 19. I worked little on the piano before college, and much less after college, until about age 30 when I acquired my present piano. I made slow moderate progress nearly entirely on my own for about 30 years until age 60. Around that age, I got much more serious, as I found it remarkably easy to readily improve in many aspects of performance. This has continued through this day, at age 65.

[royal cats=2]

Filed Under: News

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Introduction to Our Community Chess Instructional Program

Welcome to CCL, a community-driven chess instructional initiative designed to bring timeless chess to learners of all ages and skill levels. Whether you’re a beginner taking your first steps on the board or an experienced player seeking to sharpen your strategies, our program offers something for everyone.

Chess is more than just a game—it fosters critical thinking, patience, and problem-solving skills. Our program is built around the belief that chess can unite people, challenge minds, and create opportunities for personal growth and community connection. To supplement the chess side of individual enrichment, we recently opened a prodigious activities wing to CCL, managed by renowned mathematician and prodigy Dr. Harvey Friedman.

Why Join Us?

Our program is driven by a passionate community of chess lovers dedicated to creating an inclusive, supportive, and educational environment. For details on how the community fosters the program, please go to the menu option The Community. By participating, you’ll have the opportunity to:

  • Learn at your own pace with flexible instruction formats.
  • Join a vibrant chess community and make new friends who share your interests.
  • Enhance your cognitive skills, such as strategic thinking and decision-making.
  • Compete in local tournaments and represent our community.
  • Work with renowned mathematician and prodigy Dr. Harvey Friedman in other prodigious activities.

Let’s make chess an engaging and enriching part of our community. Join us today and start your chess journey! Together, we can grow our community and inspire a love for this incredible game.

The Coaches

  • alancasden2
    National Master Alan Casden
  • International Master Atanas Kizov -- CCL Head Coach --
  • Walker
    Life Master Walker Griggs
  • GM VLATKO BOGDANOVSKI
    Grand Master Vlatko Bogdanovski
  • Zoran
    International Master Zoran Arsovic
  • NM Vladimir Kizov
    National Master Vladimir Kizov
    Head of Pre-CCL
  • Jacob Eismann
    Jacob Eismann

The Rest of the Team

  • Jeff
    Jeff Shen
    Business Manager
  • Adai
    Adai Adaikappan
    Community Laison
  • Courtenay
    Courtenay James
    Organizer
  • Shiv
    Shivkumar Kurulekar
    IT System Admin
  • Jagdish Patel
    Jagdish Patel
    Newsletter Editor
  • Harvey
    Dr. Harvey Friedman - Head of Prodigious Activites

Recent Posts

  • CCL Chess Students Shine on the Podium at SuperNationals VIII in Orlando, FL May 12, 2025
  • NEWSLETTER OF THE MOTCF April 15, 2025
  • CCL March Chess Camps February 25, 2025
  • Siddarth Kunapuli becomes the 37th CCL Graduate February 2, 2025
  • Making our 2025 MOTCF Teams January 23, 2025
  • Welcome Jacob ! January 21, 2025
  • Jeff Shen is taking over the lead role at CCL December 26, 2024
  • Simul Stuff December 23, 2024
  • CCL Alumni/Student Chess GetTogether December 13, 2024
  • 2024 State Grade Levels November 27, 2024
  • Life Master Walker Griggs is giving lessons! October 29, 2024
  • Chess Math is here! October 27, 2024
  • An Evening with Atanas October 23, 2024
  • March CCL Chess Camps October 17, 2024
  • Maxwell again! Good Gosh September 16, 2024
  • Louis Zhang becomes the 36th CCL Graduate July 30, 2024
  • Major Changes in CCL June 6, 2024
  • Catch Up Time May 17, 2024
  • Cole Braun wins Ohio Middle School Championship February 27, 2024
  • CCL Chess Camp 4/20-21/2024 February 17, 2024
  • Rohan Padhye win Cardinal Open while CCL finishes very strong January 19, 2024
  • Mehmet is a National Champion December 19, 2023
  • CCL wins most of the grades at the Ohio Grade Levels November 25, 2023
  • Justin Storn wins State Championship while CCL soars September 5, 2023
  • Matt Wang becomes the 35th CCL Graduate May 23, 2023
  • 2023 MOTCF March 29, 2023
  • 2023 Queen City Classic March 29, 2023
  • Kevin Xu February 25, 2023
  • Minghao Gu becomes the 34th CCL Graduate February 6, 2023
  • Jason Wang wins the North American Open January 3, 2023

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