Back In School

Well, it's been a while since my last post.

In about mid-August, our numbers went up again, and we had 15-18 kids each week with several parents playing too. We were able to hold tournaments with full pairings as even when kids left, we could substitute another child who had just come.

Some sad news though: Tony has left! He's gone over to Fairview library to volunteer at the newly opened Fairview program (or more succinctly, newly "reopened" program). So right now, it's Yuan, Harry (a new volunteer) and I. The Fairview opening seems to have taken a toll on our branch numbers a little too; we only had 10 or so last week.

Thanks for reading!

Summer play!

Well, it's been a quick 2 months that have gone by at Pleasantview Library, with lots of fun and learning in chess. This program sure is great!

As summer has come, our attendance has cooled down a bit overall, with about 12 or so kids coming in every Saturday to get their weekly fix of chess. We tend to not hold too many swiss tournaments anymore, as the kids often come and leave at erratic times.

Instead, we hold loosely-organized round robin type games and often let the kids play double chess as a fun tactics-strengthening experience and/or explore books on chess by themselves or with others. It's great for the kids and they seem to like it.

Thanks for reading!

I'm back!

I'm back!

It's been a long time! I haven't updated the blog for about 4 months now, having just about totally forgotten about it. Still at Pleasantview presently, with a few volunteers having gone and left, and a new one, Tony Tang, about to come this weekend.

Attendance here has been good, as we have at least 15 and usually about 18-20 people coming every week. It's been great for the kids- maybe even better for the library, getting many extra people coming in to borrow books after they're done with chess.

Moving to another library!

Well, this week I had to say my goodbyes to Brookbanks library, as Yualing Yuan (the leader of the program) has asked me to head over to Pleasantview library. The former leader of that library has moved, and so there is currently a need for a new leader there. I am both sad to leave, and happy to take a new position (as well as only having to walk 10 minutes to get there).