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

CJCC Tournament Update

CJCC members have now enjoyed two online tournaments – one at www.chesskid.com and one at www.lichess.org


Last week George won our inaugural event at www.chesskid.com . He won two very close games with Xander and Luoke to finish on 100%. 20 children took part.


This week 30 children entered our tournament at www.lichessorg . Seb (VaultingShark) was our runaway winner but it was close for second. Bertie (JauntyCrocodile) just pipped Samuel (PureFranticPawn). Seb lives in Paris so becomes our first international winner.


We will alternate tournaments each week between the two sites (www.chesskid.com being more suitable for the younger players, www.lichess.org better for the older ones).


On our return to lichess on 12^th May, we will (by popular request) have a Crazyhouse Tournament – where captured pieces join your army. This is the online solo version of Exchange Chess. More sensible chess before that on www.chesskid.com next week.


This Saturday (2^nd May), CJCC host a tournament at www.lichess.org open to all Essex Juniors graded below 60 – those relatively inexperienced in tournament play.



Best Wishes

Robin

chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com

CJCC online tourmaents

Our online club continues to grow. We now have about 50 members split between www.chesskid.com and www.lichess.org .


On Tuesday 21^st at 4pm we have the 1^st CJCC Fast Chess tournament on www.chesskid.com .


On Tuesday 28^th at 4.30pm we have our first CJCC member-only lichess tournament.


I will run CJCC member-only events on Tuesday afternoons to replicate our normal club times (our future events at www.chesskid.com will also start at 4.30pm).


CJCC also hosted an invitational blitz event on Saturday 18^th April. Our next invitational blitz (open to all our members) will be 10am-11am on Saturday 2^nd May. Entry with password via https://lichess.org/tournament/bQDkM4Ga



If your friends would like to join CJCC online please ask their parents to email me at the address below.


Best Wishes

Robin (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)

CJCC moves online

CJCC has moved online so our players can continue to have fun playing and improving their skills while the club cannot open as normal.

I have set up two online clubs. The younger players are at www.chesskid.com while the older players are at www.lichess.org

www.chesskid.com is the world’s leading chess playing and learning site for younger children.

www.lichess.org is a free chess site with a straightforward layout and where I play myself.



www.chesskid.com allows children to play other children from around the world as well as challenge their club friends. The lessons and videos are expertly packaged and presented while the children can also solve puzzles (alone or in a duel) and challenge robots. All the while the children collect ChessKid prizes and rating points.

www.lichess.org also carries some fine learning material and gives older children a chance to try a whole range of chess variants alongside the standard game. You can play at a variety of time limits and earn a lichess rating for playing and puzzle solving.



Both sites will allow us to have internal club tournaments while on ChessKid we can also have matches with other schools and clubs.



The clubs can only be joined by invitation. I can follow the progress of all the players, send them messages and challenge them to a game. Do get in touch if you would like to be part of this.

I will host the regular club on the platforms by logging in at the normal term-times the club would have been open. This will let the children find their friends online to play as well as challenge me.



I hope you and your families all stay healthy. A perfect time for online chess.



Best Wishes

Robin (chelmsfordjuniorchess@gmail.com)