Category: News

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Queen of Katwe

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Draden and I watched a great Chess movie this weekend called Queen of Katwe, a PG rated Disney movie.  We highly recommend it and think it will do well at the Oscars this year.  It has beautiful cinematography, a great script and a glimpse into the wider world around us all.

Queen of Katwe is a 2016 American biographical sports drama film directed by Mira Nair and written by William Wheeler. Starring David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong’o and Madina Nalwanga, the film depicts the life of Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan chess prodigy from Katwe who becomes a Woman Candidate Master after her performances at World Chess Olympiads.

Living in the slum of Katwe in Kampala, Uganda, is a constant struggle for 10-year-old Phiona (Madina Nalwanga) and her family. Her world changes one day when she meets Robert Katende (David Oyelowo), a missionary who teaches children how to play chess. Phiona becomes fascinated with the game and soon becomes a top player under Katende’s guidance. Her success in local competitions and tournaments opens the door to a bright future and a golden chance to escape from a life of poverty.

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Upcoming Pizza Party and Potluck October 22nd

pizza-party-voteThe Spicewood Chess Club is holding our annual party at the Spicewood Elementary school on Saturday October 22nd morning from 10:00 to 1:45.

We will be playing Chess and having fun with our friends.   We will have a few coaches available to work with the students.  We will also have out our fun chess sets, LED lightup boards, 4 player chess, marble chess set, etc.

We have also invited some of our friends from the Laurel Mountain Elementary school Chess club as well as local chess teachers and experts.

The club will be providing Pizza and we ask parents to signup to bring other items needed for the party such as drinks, plates, utensils, etc.  This is also a potluck, so we encourage parents to bring cookies, snacks, etc.  Please bring something to share.  Please remember no food containing nuts.   

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Free Chess Book about the Art and History of Chess Sets

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has made available for free a book that goes over the history and art of Chess sets.

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Chess: East and West, Past and Present published in 1968 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It talks about chess sets from India, China, Japan, Europe and America with very nice photos of chess sets.

If you are interested in learning about the history of the chess pieces, this is a good book to read.

 

The chessmen and boards illustrated in this book range from the seventh century to the present and come from Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Although all made for a single game, they give a very good idea of the diversity in the world. They form the bulk of an exhibition entitled Chess: East and West, Past and Present, shown at The Brooklyn Museum from April to October, I968, sponsored by that museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Most of them were given to the Metropolitan by Gustavus A. Pfeiffer, a devoted collector keenly interested in the history and meaning of chess” or purchased from monies bequeathed by him. In addition to the objects acquired directly or indirectly from Mr. Pfeiffer, this publication contains a few ivory chessmen of the early ninth century, excavated at Nishapur by the Metropolitan’s Iranian Expedition in 1940, and early Islamic and medieval chessmen given by J. P. Morgan, Alastair Bradley Martin, and others. There is only one piece from the thirteenth century, and none from the fourteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. Pieces of this period are rare in Europe outside of museums and church treasuries, and few have been acquired by American collectors.

The book is available on our website here or you can download it directly from the MOMA at this location.

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Club Registration Closed

sorry-registration-now-closedPlease remember that Club registration closed on September 19th.  We have 124 students enrolled this year.

If you would like to join our Chess club, we will open registration again during the first two weeks in January.

Please do not send your kids to Chess club if they are not registered club members.  We have limited parent volunteer resources and cannot supervise non-Chess club kids.  It is also a safety issue since we do not have any parent contact information for students that are not registered members of the club.

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Meridian Tournament Results

Screen Shot 2015-08-27 at 9.43.03 PMWe had 24 students from Spicewood Elementary participate in the Meridian Tournament last weekend.  The tournament consisted of 5 rounds of games each worth 1 point.  In total, our kids scored a total of 64.5 out of a possible 120 points.   Six Spicewood students received trophies for scoring in the top percentile of their groups:  James Shivam, Jacob Li, Bela Jere, Raghav Aggarwal, Aryan Punalekar and Ethan Tang. Seven Spicewood students received medals for scoring in the second percentile of their groups: Iam Leong, Alexander Ho, Darryl Tang, William Du, Sambit Kanjilal, Annika Shivam, and Marvel Chung.  Congratulations to all of our participants.  Each will receive 5 Chess bucks for participation.

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Tshirt Design Contest Results

The Chess Club held a design contest to design our next Tshirt.  Today at the club meeting, it was the last day to turn in submissions.  A committee of 5 parents reviewed each submission and a clear winner was determined.

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Congratulations to Abigail Yarbrough for winning this year’s contest.   We especially liked the panther head on the King piece as well as the chess pieces making the letters in the words.  We all look forward to seeing your design on our club tshirts this year.

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Chess Club Returns This Friday

back-to-school-clipart-summerThe Chess club welcomes all students back to school and hope everyone had a relaxing and fun summer vacation.

Friday, August 26th is the first Friday of the new school year and we invite all returning chess club members to attend starting at 6:30AM. New students are invited to start attending next Friday, September 2nd.

Make sure you follow the 4 easy steps to signup: 1) fill out the student registration form, 2) volunteer for door monitor slots, 3) volunteer for open chess club volunteer positions and finally 4) give your registration fee checks to Mrs. Reeb in the library.

At this Friday’s meeting for returning students, we will show a chesswebsite.com video on the Ruy Lopez opening. The Ruy Lopez is one of the most popular openings in chess. The video reviews some of the common themes you might see when playing the Ruy Lopez.

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Club Registration Opens

online-registration-youth-sportsRegistration for the 2016-2017 school year has opened.  Please click on the About section above and then click on the Registration link.  That page gives some details about the registration process and a link to the Registration Form.

You can also click here to go directly to that page.

We will be closing club registration PROMPTLY on Friday September 1st so please register as soon as possible.  

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Chess Books!!!

Do you know how many books have been published about the game of Chess?  Since Chess is such an old game, some estimate that over 100,000 books have been written about it.  Even today, over 300 new Chess books are published each year.  No one has the time to read all the available Chess books, so we have to rely on reviews from expert Chess players to tell us which books are the most effective and useful.

Want to see the covers of over 900 Chess books?  Here you go:

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