Testing one two three

This is the first post from Dmitriy. Ha ha. Not really. But this is a test to make sure his new account works and he has access to post new messages. Look forward to all kinds of greatness to follow.

Dmitriy will probably test to see if he can edit or delete this post 🙂

Update: he will not.

HACKED

Unfortunately our website was hacked in 2022. The hackers added code to many files that made it inoperable for many months. I have finally rid the files of their handiwork and the site seems to be back up and running like it was before. It is not as nice looking as it was, but I will slowly work to get it back to the way it was before.

Chess club is starting September 9th!!!

Great news everyone.   Our chess club is preparing for club meetings starting on Friday, September 9th.   6:40 to 7:40AM in the library as usual.  

Dmitriy Belyi will be leading the group and is looking for as many interested parents to help get the club up and running again.  If you are interesting in helping, please contact him at dmitriy.belyi@gmail.com

Here is the flyer that will be going out to all students soon:

New Volunteers needed

Good afternoon everyone. 
 
The good news is that the school district is going to allow clubs this year. The bad news is that I am stepping down as a volunteer for the Chess club. My original plan was to continue leading the club, but now that two years have passed and my 4th grade daughter is no longer interested in Chess club, I am stepping down from this position. I started working with the Chess club when my son was in Kindergarten which was now 9 years ago!
 
For those still interested in the Chess club, they are going to need new volunteers to help start up the club this year. I contacted Mrs Reeb and Mrs Mikolay about who at Spicewood should chess club volunteers contact. Mrs. Mikolay was our club sponsor pre-pandemic and she said she is ready to be the sponsor this year. If you are interested in helping get the chess club on its feet this year, I think the first step will be to contact our sponsor.
 
Mrs Reeb still has all of our chess supplies, books, chess boards, chess pieces, etc and it is all ready for use. I will update the spicewoodchess.org website with this information as well as our Facebook page.
 
I am more than happy to help answer any questions the new volunteers might have but I am not going to be active in the club.
 
Thank you,
Chris Jones
Draden and Charlotte’s dad

Club Update Fall 2020

Hello everyone.  Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we have suspended all chess club activities.   The club meetings have many things working against us that prevent a safe and healthy environment including:

  1. Large numbers of kids in the same small room (library).   The CDC still recommends ten or less people in the same space which we could never accomplish.   We could hold meetings outside, with each chess board spaced out enough, but see the next item.
  2. Two players sitting less than 2 feet from each other hovering over a chess board.   It is hard to play a game of chess without being very close to the other player.  We could require all players to wear masks, but see the next item.
  3. Each player has to physically touch their chess pieces and the pieces they capture that have been touched by the other player.  We could have the kids wear gloves and disinfect all the pieces before and after each game.

If we tried to implement the above measures to conduct a safe chess club meeting, it would look like this:   We would setup outside perhaps behind the school on the concrete steps near the playground.  All players and parents wearing masks and gloves, with parents who’s job would be to disinfect all chess pieces prior to each chess game and monitor the kid’s behavior to make sure no one violates our safety rules.   Being outside would most likely cause a lot of distractions that are not conducive to focused game play.  

So, I listed out the top three reasons we can’t provide a safe environment for the kids.   While there are options we could employ to help reduce the risk of transmission, it just doesn’t make sense right now to try to force chess club meetings.   

Another issue is that the school and the district probably would not approve any club meetings on campus anyway.  All of the local chess tournaments have these same problems and that is why they have cancelled and not planned any new tournaments.  

Our only option right now is to use online chess tools.   The kids have their chesskid accounts from last year and while our annual membership has expired, we could consider renewing it, but we first need to know how many kids would actually use it to justify the high cost of the annual membership.   I know with most kids participating in online school, adding another online activity might not make sense for many families.   This of course doesn’t stop you from using your Chesskid account to play online games against other kids.   The lapse in our Chesskid memberrship just reduces your access to the training videos they provide.  

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to email me

Thank you, 

Chris Jones    spicewoodeschessclub@gmail.com