New Term Timetable

CJCC will remain online for the autumn term. Social distancing guidelines will not allow us to meet face-to-face as a club for a little while yet. One day however....

Our new online timetable is below. Fortnightly tournaments on Wednesdays and Saturdays. All will have Zoom running alongside to allow coaching and social chatter.

The Rising Stars events are specifically designed to help our younger and less experienced players. The tournaments will be followed by a short coaching session on ChessKid for these players using Zoom and ScreenShare.

Wednesday 9th September - 7pm CJCC tournament at www.lichess.org.

Saturday 19th September - 9am Rising Stars at www.chesskid.com (for those rated under 1000).

Saturday 19th September - 11am CJCC Saturday Blitz at www.lichess.org 

Wednesday 23rd September - 7pm CJCC tournament at www.lichess.org

Saturday 3rd October  - 9am Rising Stars at www.chesskid.com (for those rated under 1000).

Saturday 3rd October - 11am CJCC Saturday Blitz at www.lichess.org 

Wednesday 7th October - 7pm CJCC tournament at www.lichess.org

Saturday 17th October  - 9am Rising Stars at www.chesskid.com (for those rated under 1000).

Saturday 17th October - 11am CJCC Saturday Blitz at www.lichess.org 

Saturday 31st October - CJCC Halloween Coaching Day.

CJCC now has around 100 members and all are welcome to join. Members have their own student accounts at ChessKid and Lichess which give them access to a whole new world of chess playing, puzzling and learning.

Please get in touch with any questions about CJCC or Essex Junior Chess.

Best Wishes

Robin Slade (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)

CJCC's First Battle Blitz Match

Tonight I organised a 3-way Arena Battle Blitz Match at www.lichess.org between CJCC, Brentwood School and KEGS.

This was CJCC's first ever chess match. CJCC finished very respectably between Brentwood and KEGS on 103 points.

Brentwood vs KEGS Team Battle #FoDQgBak • lichess.org

13 CJCC players made up our team. More were representing their schools. George (EvenNimbleCamel) was CJCC's top scorer. CJCC player Evan (GingerNinja20) top-scored for KEGS (where he starts in September).

This was all about having fun representing your club or school. Over 40 children entered. We will do it again.

Coming up in the next week...

Sat 8th  - CJCC Blitz at Lichess.

Sun 9th - Brentwood School Blitz at Lichess.

Mon 10th - St Cedd's Closed Tournament on ChessKid.

Tue 11th - CJCC Closed Blitz on ChessKid.

Wed 12th - Brentwood School Social Tournament on Lichess.

Thu 13th - KEGS Year 7 Tournament on Lichess.

All apart from the Brentwood Blitz will have Zoom running alongside to add to the fun.

Best Wishes

Robin Slade

chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

100 Online Members

CJCC continues to grow online with our mix of tournaments and coaching, split between www.chesskid.com and www.lichess.org

Using Zoom during some of the tournaments and to deliver group coaching sessions means it feels like a real club despite being in a virtual world.

We now have 100 members online which is a great feeling.

This week (14th) we'll have our Rising Stars and Superstars tournaments on ChessKid.

Next week (21st) we'll have our first Chess960 Arena Blitz on Lichess with (as usual for CJCC Lichess events) Zoom running alongside.

Saturday 25th July will see the latest CJCC Group Coaching Day using Zoom ScreenShare with Lichess. This time, practical chess endgames.

I also run online chess for Brentwood School, KEGS, St Cedd's and Elm Green.

One advantage of being online is to allow future KEGS students to represent their new school and meet the current KEGS players ahead of starting in September. Many CJCC players have also been part of the Essex Junior Battle Blitz team.

Good luck to our Gigafinalists. Well done to Olga who won the first U12 Girls Gigafinal and goes straight through to the Terafinal.

The world of online chess continues to grow!

Best Wishes
Robin Slade
chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

CJCC online update

CJCC continues to expand and develop online along with chess in general.

We alternate our Tuesdays between www.chesskid.com and www.lichess.org. The majority of the children have student accounts I have created on both sites.

On ChessKid we have two tournaments - Rising Stars at 4pm and Superstars at 5pm. On lichess we all play in one tournament at 4.30pm with the option of linking up on Zoom. Occasionally, our lichess tournament is a chess variant tournament like Crazyhouse.

In addition CJCC have two different Saturday events at www.lichess.org.

There is a monthly CJCC Saturday Blitz Tournament open to any Essex Junior player below a certain grade. I also organise a Sunday Blitz the following day on behalf of Brentwood School open to any Essex Juniors regardless of grade. Many CJCC players choose to play in both.

There is also a monthly CJCC Coaching Day where I deliver coaching sessions to small groups via Zoom and Lichess. Using Zoom's screenshare facility, we can all view the same chess positions while we discuss them. Next Saturday (27th June) 22 children have signed up split into 4 groups when we will look at lessons to learn from a complete game and complimentary positions.

If you wish to join CJCC's online adventure or find out more about online chess please email me.

Good luck to Luoke ("NewWhiteBaseball", Year 3) who has qualified to represent a UK junior team against the USA in an online match next week.

Best Wishes
Robin Slade
chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

Chess Craft

George is making the most of CJCC online, playing tournaments and learning on ChessKid and Lichess. George and I are having some good Slow Chess battles on ChessKid.

But George - redhairedgenius on ChessKid and EvenNimbleCamel on Lichess - is on the blog for crafting not chess skill. He has made the giant chess set in the photo below to help him practice.

George's pieces are attached by blu-tac so can be moved about.

Well done to George. Great to see what other talents CJCC players have.

Best Wishes

Robin

chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

International Honours

There is plenty of online chess around at the moment.

This week CJCC player Shrishti was brave enough to accept an invitation to represent an English women's team in an international match at www.lichess.org

Although this was an adult team, Shrishti (who is in Year 3) managed to win 4 games out of 7 and help England to win their match.

So if you lose to EthicalMoose in a CJCC tournament on lichess, you know you've lost to an international player.

This weekend quite a few current and former CJCC players are playing in a 25 board match I've organised between KEGS and Brentwood School on lichess.

Best Wishes
Robin
chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

CJCC Chess Graduate

One of the nice things about running a junior club for so long is watching the players grow on and off the board.

Max first came to my club when he was 4. He has moved on since (and got a bit bigger) but never lost his love of playing and particularly attacking.

Currently, Max is playing a series of blitz tournaments with chess GMs and IMs. This week he got to play GM Peter Svidler.

Peter Svidler is a chess legend. A multi-time Russian Champion and these days just outside the world's top 20.

What would happen when one of CJCC's strongest graduates met one of the world's best players? Alas, Goliath beat David although Max has beaten a few titled players in the last few weeks.

CJCC is running its own tournaments online for our members (although without any chess legends taking part). To find out more, please get in touch.

Best Wishes
Robin
chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com