Category: News

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Summer Chess Camps

Chess Camps

There are a number of chess camps running this summer that are excellent ways for you to keep improving your Chess skills.  We list some of them below:

Best in Class Education Center in the Galleria Oaks shopping center on Research at Anderson Mill Rd. is hosting a Chess camp which is run by our club friend Gary Gaiffe.  To register for this camp contact the Best in Class Education Center at 512-375-3245.  There is limited space at this venue so don’t wait too long to sign up as they expect to have more campers than we can accommodate.

  • August 1 – 5

North Austin Mathnasium located on Anderson Mill Road is hosting 4 chess camp weeks. Summer Chess Camp at Mathnasium! Featuring National Master Paul Chaplin, this camp offers five exciting full days immersed in a fun yet structured hybrid learning environment. Offering beginning and advanced grouping, individual and team competitions, t-shirts, awards and prizes!!

  • June 6 – 10
  • June 20 – 24
  • July 11 – 15
  • August 8 – 12
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2015-2016 End of School Year Review

We come to the conclusion of another fantastic school year and have put together a review of the Chess Club’s accomplishments this year.  Please look through the file below that outlines all the great things our kids and volunteers have done over the past school year.

We look forward to next year with great enthusiasm and want to thank all of our volunteers, without which, none of this would be possible.
You can also view this file in PDF or PowerPoint format.
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Donated Marble Chess Set

IMG_3390We were surprised two weeks ago when we found a beautiful marble chess set that was donated to the Chess Club by Patrick Ivey.  It has a very heavy and thick marble base board and elegantly carved pawns and pieces.  We had a couple of kids test it out and they all gave their approval to a nice set with good weight.  Thank you for your generous donation and please know it will go to good use.

 

 

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Casis Elementary Chess Tournament Results

The chess club participated in the Casis Elementary chess tournament held on January 30th, 2016.  The tournament had over 400 participants and we had 48 students from Spicewood attend.  (12% were from Spicewood!)   Our students did great winning two 1st place and three 2nd place team trophies.  Individual awards were given to 11 students who won trophies and 16 students who won medals for their performances. We had quite a few new students do well who have only been playing chess since September.  The students worked really hard the last few months and it paid off. Great job Spicewood students!

Congratulations to the students who won trophies:  Darryl Tang, Bryan Lee, Jacob Li, David Liu,  Jameson Murphy-Hall, Sambit Kanjilal, Annika Shivam,  Shalin Lakhia, Marvel Chung, Aakash Nagarahalli and Ivan Leong.

Congratulations to the students who won medals:  Marcus Fung, Varun Sanghavi, William Du, Reett Aulakh,  Jack Megnin, Aria Mitra, Milo Garcia, David Li, Kavin Thiyagarajan, Alina Du, Brandee Benson,  Ethan Fung, Raghav Aggarwal, Dhruv Pathak, Ethan Tang and Tianwen Gao.

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Chess Store Fall 2015

At today’s meeting we held our first of two Chess stores. Our students earn Chess bucks for attending our weekly meetings as well as for participating in Chess tournaments.  The students can then spend these Chess bucks on fun items like toys, games, books and puzzles during the Chess store event.  The Chess store is a great motivational event for our club members.  Thank you to all of our volunteer parents for helping make this first Chess store a big success.

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Club Meeting November 6th, 2015

At last Friday’s club meeting, the Pawns reviewed two training videos.  The first one on the Ruy Lopez opening, also known as the Spanish opening.

Chesskid video:   What is the Ruy Lopez?

The second video that the Pawns reviewed was about a great tactic known as the fork which is where a single piece makes two or more direct attacks simultaneously.

Chesskid video:  Tactics: The Fork!

The Knights reviewed a Chesskid video on outposts which is a square on the fifth, sixth, or seventh rank which is protected by a pawn and which cannot be attacked by an opponent’s pawn. Outposts are a favorable position from which to launch an attack, particularly using a knight.

Chesskid video: Outposts

The club also purchased and donated a booster amplifier for use in the library to make the overhead speaker system easier to hear.  We tested the amplifier after the meeting and the overhead speakers can get very loud, making it easy for the coaches to drown out the kids when they get overly rambunctious.   Ms. Reeb was very appreciative for the donation and help setting up the new amp.