chess lessons and more, for players of all strengths and ages

• Whatitbelike was the last of 18 teams standing in the U-1400 section of the International 4545 League!
• Congratulations to team members:
  • Emily
  • Vincent
  • Cody
  • Daniel
  • Jacob
• They did not lose a single match, throughout the whole season.  They won their division with 3 match wins and 3 match draws and 0 match loses and then went on to win both of their playoff matches.
• Each player will receive a free 2 month extension to their ICC account as a prize.

In stealth like fashion, at least from my perspective, Chris obtained his USCF expert’s rating, making him the 7^th CCL graduate.  Chris is our youngest graduate to date, earning his CCL degree before the beginning of 4^th grade classes.  He now joins the ranks of our other very accomplished CCL graduates.

CCL graduates are:

John Hughes

Walker Griggs

Maggie Feng

Rahul Ramaswamy

Annorjan Naguleswaran

Luke Xie

Chris Shen

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).   It entitles them to lifetime membership in CCL, based on good behavior, without the requirements of taking lessons.  They are allowed to receive email spam from me for the rest of their lives!!  Although graduates are no longer required to take lessons while in CCL, all of our previous graduates are still active students in CCL.  A big congrats goes on to Chris, the current U-8 World Youth Championship bronze medal winner.

Just like in 2012, 5 CCL players have qualified to play in the upcoming 2013 World Youth Chess Championships.  It is quite an honor to for a chess organization to ever have 1 player qualify but with 5 per year, and expecting even more for next year, this is incredible.  You have raised the bar so amazingly high.  Our returning qualifiers from last year include Maggie (who is about to leave for the Pan American Championships in Brazil), Chris (Bronze medal winner from last year’s World Youth Championship), and Luke (who is about to leave for the Barber Invitational).  New to this year’s invitees are Annorjan whose USCF rating has skyrocketed to 2087.  Our 5^th person, John, is not official yet but is expected to soon receive an invitation to play on the Irish team.  John is currently completing a very successful chess tour of his home of heritage, Ireland.  In our game section I have posted his last round win over FIDE rated 2330, David Fitzsimons, from the Ireland Championship.  In addition to scoring very well in the Ireland Championship, John swept the field their Amateur Championship, showing once more that CCL players are trained to compete successfully in the international arena.

Below is a picture taken before the start of the 2013 Ireland Championship.

Open section

Walker finished in a tie for 1^st place and won $400

Anagh won $25 for the upset prize (399)

Premiere section

Austin and Matthew came in tied for both 2^nd place and top U-1600, winning $400 each.

Reserve section

Jason won $267  tied for U-1400  class prize

Lainie won $300 (U-1200 2^nd place)

The members of the 25 club for last weekend were:

Lainie                   +142      1248

Austin                   +120      1675

Matthew             +98        1701

Lucas                    +95        1222

Kevin                    +94        1250

Jason                    +76        1344

Ganesh                 +69        1602

Nayan                  +67        1062

Arjun                     +33        1760

Although making the 25 club is a litmus test, I am going to make an exception this time because there were so many close calls:

Sam 24, Anagh 23, Sujan 23, Vikram 20

We have received many requests for entry into CCL by players who have shown potential but have not quite reached our criteria for entry.  As a result, we decided to develop a Pre-CCL program, a training program designed by the CCL coaching staff, to meet this need.  By teaming up with other coaches/programs, we are providing a route for a smooth transition into CCL.  The Pre-CCL coaches/programs are trained to help assure that the critical skills needed for CCL enrollment are developed, making for the students successful entry into CCL.  Entry into CCL from a Pre-CCL program is given priority over a requested entry from a non-Pre-CCL program.

Some of the benefits of Pre-CCL include:

• Full access to the CCL library.  With well over 1800 unique chess titles, our library is one of the bigger ones in the country.  You can assess the library by going to http://www.librarything.com/catalog/alancas.   There is a search the library field where you can search for specific topics, titles, or authors.  The books are loaned on a free basis for two months.  However, once is book has been out for 3 months, we start charging $2 per book per month as an overdue charge.
• Sometimes we rent a room to stay in at a tournament, if your other group does not have a gathering point at that tournament and we do, you are welcome to join us.
• We  would be glad to recommend appropriate books, software, and other learning materials to anyone who desires it.  Working on chess on your own is the key to becoming a strong chess player.  The ‘CCL secret’ is that there is no secret, just the willingness to study chess, either by reading or videos.
• Sometimes we have special activities, which you may be invited to.
• Receiving CCL communications.
• Eligibility for CCL chess camps.
• Full communication with the all of the CCL staff of any chess questions that you may have.