chessctc

The week-long trip will begin with a three-day after-school chess workshop at the Salama Gachie community school, where WIM Ellen Wang has been teaching remotely since 2016 and was later joined by IM Evan Park in 2022. The current chess club members, reunited with the alumni from high schools, will have the very rare opportunity to take in-person chess instructions and to practice together. Afterwards, CTC will offer a two-day intensive mini-camp to the competitive Kenyan youth players in the Nairobi area, who have been studying with IM Nico Chasin since Dec. 2022.

Being able to o meet face-to-face with CTC’s students that have been learning over Zoom and Skype will be a crucial exercise in coalition building and will help reinforce the connection between students and instructors. During the trip, CTC will also visit the local public schools and meet with Kenyan chess officials to discuss on the potential of future expansion of its global outreach programs in an effort to further develop CTC’s outreach in Nairobi and other areas in Kenya.

To help fund this trip as well as many other CTC’s global outreach programs, CTC calls for donations through its fundraising event scheduled on March 4^th. Please come play the nation’s chess talents and be part of a great cause.

The whole team expressed their sincere gratitude to all donors on a delicately designed Thank-you card, on which they wrote: “It is heartening when we receive a donation from you! Thank you for being with us in a great cause to help the under-resourced chess communities. Your generosity means a lot to us – givers like you are pivotal to our initiative and motivate us to contribute more. Please continue supporting us and be our ambassador!” The team also wrote to the SG chess club members, encouraging them to keep up their hard work on chess and continue spreading their love for the game to their friends and families.

With a very successful first step of the Chess Library Project, CTC looks forward to collaborating with more individual donors and chess organizations in the new year of 2023. Please consider making book donations by contacting one of CTC’s regional leaders or donating cash through CTC’s website to help cover the shipping and delivery costs.

The tournament ran from December 9^th-11^th at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. Scholastic players from around the country competed by grade to claim the glory of a national winner. IM Evan Park, CTC President of Global Outreach, entered the field of 9^th grade as No. 1 seed with a dominance of over 200 rating points higher than the next seed. He showcased his superb chess skills, remained undefeated over 7 rounds of fierce battles.

IM Nico Chasin, who has been leading an online group study for African competitive youth chess players under CTC Global Outreach Initiative, was also first seeded in the 10^th-grade section. With a dazzling score of 6.5/7 and pitifully losing only on tiebreak, he became the co-champion of his grade, the fourth National Grade Championship title he proudly collected.

Ryan Zhu, 6^th grader from Millburn Middle School in NJ and a CTC Global Outreach Chapter Coordinator, also had much to celebrate. Individually placed 9^th, he brought home the Team Championship title together with his schoolmates, a feat that proved their unparalleled team spirit. His sister Florina Zhu, a CTC Global Outreach Chapter Leader, demonstrated her girl power with the game and placed 43 out of 190 players in a very tough 8^th-grade section.  

What needs to be added is the sensational win by Alice Shen, a long-time participant in the Unruly Queens programs and a winner at the Fall 2022 Unruly Queens Chess Festival. Consecutively beating the boy opponents in her section and winning all her 7 rounds, she became the 2^nd-Grade National Champion! The whole Unruly Queens team cheered for Alice throughout her play and could not be prouder of her amazing achievement!  

For more details on the results of the 2022 National K-12 Grades Championships, please visit http://www.uschess.org/results/2022/k12.