2013 Volunteer Appreciation Party!

CITL's annual volunteer appreciation party was held on Sunday, April 21^st, 2013 at Snakes and Lattes, a boardgame café. This appreciation party gives a chance for Chess in the Library volunteers from all the different branches to come together and interact during a funfilled day of games, games and more games!  

This year, there was a total of 12 enthusiatic volunteers who came out to the event and had lots of fun! Some games that were played include Cards Against Humanity, Monopoly, Cranium etc. In addition, entry fees were covered by CITL; making it an amazing opportunity to just relax and get to know all the different volunteers. The annual party is held to show the team's gratitude towards the wonderful volunteers who dedicate much of their time and energy to help CITL function smoothly at various branches. Our program wouldn't be possible without the hardwork and dedication of all our volunteers.

It was a day of laughter, smiles and loads of fun! We'd like to thank everyone for participating as well as ALL of Chess in the Library's amazing volunteers for their support and dedication. We hope you all decide to come out next year to the 2014 appreciation party that strives to be even bigger and better :)

East Region Swiss!

For every West there has got to be an East right?

Few months ago there was the West Region Swiss. Now, it’s only fair if we have on in the East too. This year, 30 chess warriors gathered at the North York Central Library Concourse to participate in the CMA rated tournament. Isn't it a great sight to see everyone gathered in the library room to play chess?

Our filled Tournament hall

Girl power :D

There were three separate categories for the tournament: Grade 3 and under, Grade 6 and under, and Open. The tournament was CMA rated, and you can find the official results here.

Special congratulations to the winners:

Grade 3 and Under:

1. Sivan Xu

2. Joey Qiao

3. Christian Choi

Grade 6 and Under:

1. Evan Wong

2. Pirathapan Ahilan

3. Cindy Qiao

Open:

1. Yi Deng

2. Kayton Yan

3. Joshua Pavusthy

As always, participation and enjoyment is far more important than the competition result. So congrats to all participants! Winning prizes is nice, and don't forget there's always next time :)

Group participation photo!

Every CITL tournament promises to be exciting. This time, we have implemented food in the tournament process! Don’t want to find places to eat? We serve it right in our tournament hall (outside the playing hall, of course). It is both convenient and delicious.

Once again, we are fortunate to have received generous donations at the event. Thank you to all who have supported us at the event. Whether it's by donating some of your pocket change, taking pictures at the event, or simply participating, you has made CITL tournaments bigger and better.

If you missed this awesome event, you can make sure you won't by follow our updates on Facebook, our website and our blog!

Until the next CITL event :)

CITL Team

The 2013 CFC Spring Open!

CITL's first ever CFC Spring Open tournament was held on Saturday, March 30^th at Jarvis Collegiate Institute. This exciting event provides competitors of various ages from all across Toronto, with a chance to challenge other skilled individuals in multiple games of chess.

This year's tournament was a great success, for there was a turnout of 24 talented participants! The tournament was divided between Junior and Senior sections and consisted of 5 competitive rounds. In addition, winners for the Open section were awarded cash prizes and Juniors with certificates.

Without further ado, here are the winners of our 2013 Spring Open!
Junior Section: (with all participants winning 4/5 games and sorted through tiebreaks)
1) Hazel Guo
2) Sudhir Pokhrel
3) Binil Pokhrel

Open Section: (with a 4-way tie for first and all participants winning 4/5 games)
1) Mike Ivanov
1) Roman Sapozhnikov
1) Konstantin Semianiuk
1) Dmitri Chernik

We would like to congratulate our winners and thank ALL of our lovely participants for coming out and having a great time! Our next CFC tournament aspires to be even better! :)

SPRING OPEN 2013!

Quick, only 2 more days till CITL's Spring Open event!

Whether this is going to be your first tournament ever or your 23841309th one, you will have a fabulous time at the Spring Open.

If you haven't registered yet, make sure to do so here! You don't want to miss the event.

If you have registered, then the CITL team wishes you the very best luck.

See you there!

Connections

A second branch of London Public Library is chess-ed! The game of chess now finds its place at the Central Library. True to its name, Central Library is located in Central London. What better place to promote chess than at the heart of the city?

First session at Central was held yesterday, and it was a success. We had chess sets set up and quite a few kids approached the table. Some didn’t know how to play, and won their first game thirty minutes later. I hope to see many more of these kids in the upcoming weeks.

Despite the smooth running of the program, there was the initial issue of gathering volunteers. Just when I was stressed by the challenging task, our president, Vivek, messaged me that he has a connection “who has offered to help out by volunteering and recruiting some volunteers”.

Upon hearing the news, I was ecstatic, but also puzzled- who would contact Vivek about volunteering in London? Turns out, the guy was Aaron Zhang, former executive member of CITL and currently a student at Western University.

At the program, I met Aaron and was taken by his enthusiasm and altruism. Here was a University student, dedicating his precious time teaching kids half his height how to play chess. I realized that Aaron, like myself and all CITL volunteers, is simply volunteering for enjoyment. I left the Central Library with a different outlook on the program. It doesn’t just connect chess to the kids, it connects Toronto to London, and Aaron to me.

The 2012 West Region Swiss!

The Annual West Region Swiss was held in the Downsview Library on Saturday, December 1^st. The annual tournament provides a chance for kids from the west region branches to play against one another, to experience competition play.

This year, the WRS was a great success. Compared to last year’s event, where around 20 kids participated, there were over 40 young minds playing on Saturday! So, in a year, the amount of kids playing in this tournament doubled. The exponential growth in participants no doubt reflects the promising possibilities of the chess events like this in the future. I’m confident next year’s WRS will be even bigger and better.

The tournament was split into 3 sections: Grade 3 and under, Grade 6 and under, and Grade 7 and up. Four rounds of Swiss determined the top three players from each category, who go on to receive medals.  With the newly added categories (there was only one large section last year), we had a lot more prizes to hand out. Of course, everyone loves prizes.

A photographer from North York Mirror, Peter McCusker, captured some great shots. Make sure to check out Peter’s (as well as CITL's own) pictures from the tournament! 

What are you going to do about my next move?

The chess game, in a different perspective.

Here are the winners of the tournament (in order from first to third):

Grade 3 and under: Jorge Jorda, Easshan Sumbli, Julia Rodriguez
Grade 6 and under: Julianne Jorda, Joyce Jorda, Darryl Mohabeer
Grade 7 and over: Raymond Quan, Joshua Jorda, Melalee Gordon

Aside from the main tournament, there was also a room just for chess puzzles! Sound familiar? Yep, we took the idea from the awesome Chess in the Library festival. Kids not only put their bright minds into use on the board, they also engage in solving challenging puzzles. Those who came up with the most correct solutions in the quickest time won book prizes. The addition of puzzles added a fun dimension to the tournament, making it more chess-y. Speaking of the chess-i-ness of the event, what if you want to play chess outside of CITL and tournaments? We got you covered- we had chess sets for sell. How convenient!

Puzzle Contest Book Prize Winners:

Grade 3 and under: Easshan Sumbli
Grade 6 and under: Aarabhi Krishnakumar
Grade 7 and over: Jaanani Sivarasacumar

Despite the abundance of prizes, admission was free of charge. The generous donations we have received enabled us, a student-run non-profit organization, to give out prizes and host the West Region Swiss. If you wish to support chess and tournaments like this, please click here. Every little bit helps, as it sure adds up to make events such as this possible.

We (the executives) had a lot of fun at the tournament, and we hope you did too! Stay tuned for future events: “like” us on Facebook, and follow our updates on our website and blog. 

Chess in the Library- Now in NEW BRUNSWICK!

One of the original goals of Chess in the Library is to promote chess across Canada. Currently, most of our locations reside in Ontario, along with successful programs running in Alberta and British Columbia. Now, Chess in the Library is heading to the beautiful east coast! We are excited to announce that the newest place to promote chess is in Campbellton, New Brunswick!

Stepping into another province is truly a milestone. (Shoutout to our new president Vivek for his work to make this possible!) Not only is the New Brunswick far away from the base of CITL (Ontario), it’ll even operate in French as well since it is Canada’s (one and only) bilingual province. No worries there though; our volunteers have created bilingual materials for this location. On top of that, chess is an international language, remember? We are thrilled to bring chess to a different branch, a new city, and a wonderful province.

Today was the launch of the program- the program will run on Saturdays at the Campbellton Centennial Library.

The gorgeous Campbellton Library- the newest home for CITL

Stay tuned for more details on our website as the program will start in a few weeks!

Outreach Coordinator,
Tina Fang