Now 6 Confirmed Locations for the Chess in the Library Program!

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  • Now 6 Confirmed Locations for the Chess in the Library Program!

    For all of you who has been following our progress, we have HUGE news for you! First things first, the Chess in the Library program has suddenly jumped from 3 libraries to 6 confirmed libraries!:D They are (in order of starting date): Brookbanks, Pleasant View, Maria A. Shchuka, Deer Park, Northern District and Fairview. The program at Deer Park library will be starting on the same date as Maria A. Shchuka library, which is Nov 7th, 2009. Michael's blog has more interesting information regarding the Deer Park library. Check it out! The other two libraries, Northern District and Fairview, will be starting next January. Please visit our website www.chessinthelibrary.com to see the exact starting dates and addresses for all the new libraries.

    Second, I would like to announce that we have received another donation toward our program. My team and I all really appreciate it. This donation isn't a large amount, but it represents support and trust, which are far more important. Seeing more and more people using their actions to show us that they care about the program is one of our biggest motivations in making this program bigger and better. You can read the full report regarding this donation at my blog.

    Last but not least, we might add a new feature to our program. For a long time now, my team and I (especially Michael) have been discussing about a new aspect for our program - teaching. Every week when we go to the libraries to organize the program, we see a couple kids making illegal moves and agreeing on checkmates that are clearly not checkmates. We explain to them the rules every time but it then starts to get repetitive. The same issue would come up more than a few times because due to the lack of time, we only briefly explain the concepts and the kids simply cannot remember it. Thus, giving some lectures once every week or two for the first half an hour would be very effective to their chess improvements. We want to help them improve as much as possible. Of course, this isn't something that you can think of one day and start doing the next day. Our biggest challenge is, how are we going to teach the kids? We can't teach using a standard board, we need a demo board at each library.

    Adding this new feature to our program not only will increase the amount of our participants, it will also increase the average chess level. As much as my team and I want to teach the kids, we simply cannot do so at the moment due to the lack of demo boards. Let us know what you think of this idea! If you like the idea of this new feature and wants to support it by making a donation (a demo board, money, anything!), please contact me at yuanling_1@yahoo.com. Your donation will be greatly appreciated by the kids (mainly them) and us!! :)

  • #2
    Re: Now 6 Confirmed Locations for the Chess in the Library Program!

    Well done, Yuanling.

    Keep up the good work!
    Mei.
    ________
    CHEAP CYMA CM023 AIRSOFT ELECTRIC RIFLE
    Last edited by Mei Chen Lee; Thursday, 24th March, 2011, 12:47 AM.

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    • #3
      Re: Now 6 Confirmed Locations for the Chess in the Library Program!

      You could try to start teaching on a low key basis.
      Like maybe only teach at the Original site.

      If your members' interest is swaying towards teaching rather than having fun playing chess
      then do it at all locations.

      If I was a kid and already knew the moves I'd rather play and enjoy the game then sit and listen to a teaching lesson.
      I suggest you ask your participants what they want because they will come out for what they want to do and may not come if you decide what they are to do .

      You will be taking a big step when you start teaching so do it slow and don't jump in too fast. Once you start teaching and the kids expect it you have to keep it up. Robert Gillanders mentioned to me about a great set of books for kids maybe you should contact him. He is running a kids program at the Mississauga Chess Club. Why not stop in and see what they do for their juniors you may get some ideas.

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      • #4
        Re: Now 6 Confirmed Locations for the Chess in the Library Program!

        Hi Yuanling,

        Congratulations on your expansion. To quote a popular movie, "if you build it, they will come". We had the same experience at Mississauga Junior Club. From humble beginning, we now get 40+ kids a week. We started out just teaching, then changed to just playing, then it became a combo (short lesson and play), then back to just play again. With these numbers, giving a lesson became problematic. You will discover that teaching will add significantly to the workload! We may add teaching again next year, but there will be an additional fee!;)

        Visit our website, http://www.mississaugachessclub.ca/mccCFY.htm

        The books John mentioned are the Coakley books. I see Larry (never one to miss an opportunity):) saw the post and has advertised the books on another thread. The best one is the green book, Winning Chess Strategy for Kids by Jeff Coakley, but go ahead and get all 3. Another good publication is Checkmate University (vol 1 & 2) by Michael Zip. I believe that this was a collaberative effort with the CFC!?

        FYI - I am writing an article about the Mississauga Junior Club for the CFC newsletter for issue 3 (Nov 2009). I hope some of our experiences will encourage others to emulate our program, and avoid some of the problems we encountered.

        Bob

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        • #5
          Re: Now 6 Confirmed Locations for the Chess in the Library Program!

          Originally posted by Bob Gillanders View Post
          Hi Yuanling,

          Congratulations on your expansion. To quote a popular movie, "if you build it, they will come". We had the same experience at Mississauga Junior Club. From humble beginning, we now get 40+ kids a week. We started out just teaching, then changed to just playing, then it became a combo (short lesson and play), then back to just play again. With these numbers, giving a lesson became problematic. You will discover that teaching will add significantly to the workload! We may add teaching again next year, but there will be an additional fee!;)

          Visit our website, http://www.mississaugachessclub.ca/mccCFY.htm

          The books John mentioned are the Coakley books. I see Larry (never one to miss an opportunity):) saw the post and has advertised the books on another thread. The best one is the green book, Winning Chess Strategy for Kids by Jeff Coakley, but go ahead and get all 3. Another good publication is Checkmate University (vol 1 & 2) by Michael Zip. I believe that this was a collaberative effort with the CFC!?

          FYI - I am writing an article about the Mississauga Junior Club for the CFC newsletter for issue 3 (Nov 2009). I hope some of our experiences will encourage others to emulate our program, and avoid some of the problems we encountered.

          Bob
          Just my opinion, but I would rank the Coakley books (having worked with students and using all three):

          1st Blue - Is by far the best; all players (adult or kid) below 1600 should own this book. The explanations of the solutions are amongst the very best I have ever seen in a problem book. Be warned: some of the questions are very difficult. There is one endgame one (some endgame with R vs N) that I couldn't solve after 15 minutes of thinking.

          2nd Red - Is good for near beginners. A unique feature is that In some of the problem sets Coakley creates positions that are almost identical (shifting one or two pieces to different squares for each subsequent problem, for example) and as a result each solution is unique. Teaches kids to keep their eyes open to "small" details, as well as forcing them to consider why this or that piece is necessary for each solution.

          3rd Green - If they are old enough to read this book without problems, then they will finish it quickly; I have had students who finished it in three weeks!

          The Yip books are good, too, but in my opinion the market they aim for is much lower rated than advertised on the cover. No one above 400 CMA (700-800 CFC) needs the first book and no on above 600 CMA (1000-1100 CFC) needs the second. I once had a student do the entire book two in a week. He was about 750 CMA and not under-rated at that.
          "Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.

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