Category: News

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Kealing Tournament Results

25 Spicewood Elementary students participated in this past weekend’s Kealing Middle School Chess Tournament.  Sixteen local elementary schools participated. The tournament consisted of 5 rounds of games each worth 1 point.  In total, our kids scored a total of 53 out of a possible 125 points.   Four Spicewood students received trophies for scoring in the top percentile of their groups:  Rounav Sur (K-1 U300 1st place), Aria Mitra (K-1 U300 3rd place), Yifan Qiu (K-1 U300 4th place) and Peter Kim (K-5 U600 3rd place). Five Spicewood students received medals for scoring in the second percentile of their groups: Noah Cush, Leon Chen, Ethan Fung, Bela Jere and Ethan Yang.

Our club came in 2nd place in the K-3 Reserve team results, 5th place in the K-5 Reserve team results and 4th place in the K-12 Championship team results.  Canyon Vista Middle School took 1st place in the K-12 Championship team results lead by Eric Gao who is a Spicewood Elementary Alumni.

Congratulations to all of our participants.  Each received 5 Chess bucks.

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If you have any photos from the tournament that you would like to share, please email them to chris@spicewoodchess.org

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Club Meeting October 9th, 2015

With the book fair behind us, we were back to normal with the Pawns and Knights in the library and the Rooks and Kings in the Gym.  Today was National Chess Day which was designated by former President Gerald Ford in 1976.  It is rare for us to have a club meeting on the same day as National Chess Day!   President Ford is quoted as saying:

“To give special recognition to a game that generates challenge, intellectual stimulation, and enjoyment for citizens of all ages.”

The Knights skill group reviewed more information on first moves including the three C’s and the importance of developing the minor pieces (knights and bishops).  We watched a Chesskid video that shows very well what can happen if you bring your Queen out too early.

Chesskid video:  More First Moves

We observed much improved kid behavior at today’s meeting, so thank you to all the parents who helped today.

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Meridian Tournament Results

Screen Shot 2015-08-27 at 9.43.03 PMWe had 25 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 63.5 out of a possible 125 points.   Five Spicewood students received trophies for scoring in the top percentile of their groups:  Rounav Sur, Annika Shivam, Ivan Leong, Aryan Punalekar and Ethan Tang. Seven Spicewood students received medals for scoring in the second percentile of their groups: Aria Mitra, Yifan Qui, Jhivan James Ravichandran, Marvel Chung, Aakash Nagarahalli, Raghav Aggarwal and Tianwen Gao.  Congratulations to all of our participants.  Each received 5 Chess bucks.

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Club Rules Posted

The Rules Ruler Guidelines Regulations Laws Limits

 

We have posted the rules of our Chess Club for all parents and kids to review.  With any large group of people, it is important that we understand what is expected during our club meetings so we can all have a good time while learning the game of Chess.

You can view the rules by clicking on “About” above and scrolling down to “Rules” or you can simply click here.

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Summer Chess Camp

streakerteachescopyLocal chess expert Gary Gaiffe is leading a chess camp the first week of August (3rd – 8th) at the Best in Class Education center located in the Galleria Oaks Shopping Center at Anderson Mill and Highway 183.  Gary runs many of the local scholastic chess tournaments and he visited one of our club meetings in January to perform a simultaneous match against ten of our players that our kids really enjoyed.  If you are looking for a fun and educational camp for your kids, please see more information below about this chess camp.
Greetings Chess Players and Parents,
We are running a chess camp from August 3rd to the 8th at the Best In Education Learning Center in the Galleria Oaks shopping center on Research at Anderson Mill Rd.  To register for this camp contact Ravinder or Aruna Andrew at 512-969-8365.  There is limited space at this venue so don’t wait too long to sign up as we expect to have more campers than we can accommodate.  Below is a flyer with additional information.  
[gview file=”https://spicewoodchess.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2015-Summer-Chess-Camp-Flyer.pdf”]

 

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2014-2015 End of School Year Review

Our Chess Club had a fantastic year and to end on a high note, we decided to put together a review of our accomplishments.  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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Club Sponsor Thank You

Last week, we asked for donations from the parents in order to give thank you gift cards to three hardworking school staff that help make our club so successful.  Those donations were used to purchase three Target gift cards that were given to the following awesome people:

Laura Reeb has been our hardworking club sponsor who was kind enough to wake up extra early every Friday to make sure the school doors were open for Chess Club meetings.  She also made sure to properly report the monthly finances and handled items like Chess books returned by students.

Hernan Benitiz has also helped the club by ensuring the school doors are open for us.

Courtney Torres graciously placed all of the orders for chess equipment, chess books and other items throughout the year.

 

We received the following message from Laura Reeb:

Hernan and I would like to say a big thank you for our gift cards. You are very generous and we appreciate your thoughtfulness. I have enjoyed being your sponsor this year. It has been a big eye-opener to see all that it takes to make the Chess Club successful. Parents have given so much time to make the club run smoothly… true dedication to our kids!

I hope you all have a wonderful summer.
See you next year!
Laura

LauraReebHernanBenitizCourtneyTorres
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Amazon Shopping

amazon_cart-299x300We are testing the Amazon Associates program that allows you to purchase goods on Amazon.com and at the same time, gives a small percentage reward to our Spicewood Chess Club account. Each quarter, we should receive an update with how much we have earned in the form of an Amazon reward card that we can then use to purchase Chess club equipment. If you are going to purchase something on Amazon, please help us test this new program by clicking the link below first before you make your purchases.

Amazon Shopping for Spicewood Chess Club

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Last Club Meeting of the Year

Today was our last club meeting of the school year.  We celebrated by bringing out the LED Chess sets and the 4 way Chess sets for kids to play.  Ms. Kim also stopped by and spoke to the group to tell them they did a great job this year and to encourage them to keep playing Chess over the summer.  We also let the graduating 5th graders say a few words of encouragement to the rest of the club and we wished them well as they move on to Canyon Vista Middle School.  We are sure to see them at Chess tournaments next year.

Here are a few photos from today’s meeting. (Thanks to Marlon Revelett for the photos)

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Next week, there will be no Chess club meeting, but we are asking parents that are available to meet in the Library at 6:40AM-7:40AM to help organize, clean and store all of the Chess Club equipment.  We plan to disinfect all chessmen and boards before storing them over the summer and request your help next week.  Parents that attend next week’s organization meeting can bring their kids if they want to also help.