chess lessons, for players of all strengths and ages

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.

Going into the 2013 Ohio Elementary School Championship, I thought that CCL might have been at risk.  None of our top 7 CCL K-6 players had entered the tournament, with the top 2 seeds being non CCL players.  I signaled the SOS and that masked man with his silver bullets, Dukie, came to the rescue.  As it turned out Dukie could have stayed home eating fries with Tonto as the other CCLers quickly removed all threat of competition.

The number two seed (1745) lost to Vincent and gave up a draw to Arvi K.  While the number 3 seed lost to Jeremy while drawing Ethan and Sophie.  CCL ended up winning 10 of the 11 individual trophies and all 3 team trophies (teams where most of the players are CCL players).  It doesn’t get much cleaner than that.

I knew that the flowers were going to smell sweet when I went into the playing hall before the last round and only saw CCL players on both sides of the top 5 boards.

Clear first play with a perfect 5-0 was my hero of the day, Luke.

Clear 2^nd place with 4.5 was the quickly improving Ethan

Finishing with 4-1 were: Matthew, Vincent (with just a loss to Luke), Sujan (with just a loss to Luke), and Stella.

Finishing with 3.5 – 1.5 were: Joe, Arvi, Jeremy, and Kunal

Cody Y won the K-3 section with 4.5 points.  Emma came in 4^th with 4 points and Doc came in 7^th with 3.5 points.

We only had one player in the U-700.  It was that low rated player that I just let into CCL and told you he is pretty good and may shock you all in a couple of years.  Well, let my words start to ring clearly as Alan came in clear second place and gained 185 rating points.