Milestone: 100% Going Provincial Wide

Last weekend, it was an honour for me to participate at the 2010 Montreal Open. The tournament was simply A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! However, it was not only for the tournament that I went, but also for Chess in the Library.

The tournament site was gorgeous!

The paper boards that they printed were really nice.
Perhaps we can also do this for CITL to save some money on equipment.

In Montreal, I met up with Joey, the high school freshman who made CITL possible outside of our headquarters, Toronto. So where is this place that I speak of? Well, you've seen it before on my blog, just a little mention here and there. However, now I'm announcing this as our official 12th location - OTTAWA!

Ottawa is my lovely hometown where I grew up and spent most of my childhood. It's where I first stepped into the chess community in Canada at the age of 7. I've had so many great memories at Ottawa - RA Centre, my chess friends, the tournaments, the nice people...the list could go on forever.

Joey and I go way back. We first knew each other in grade 1 or 2 but I don't remember the exact year. We used to learn and play chess together along with many of our other chess friends there. Now look at both of us, all grown up and already masters!

Joey and I at the tournament site. 2 years younger than me and he is so tall!

Me playing my game...

Very focused~

So we talked about a lot of CITL related things there during our lunch breaks. He updated me on CITL in Ottawa and how it is officially confirmed! So now the CITL location in Ottawa is also listed on our website www.chessinthelibrary.com:

Ruth E. Dickinson Library

100 Malvern Dr.
Ottawa, ON
K2J 2G5
613-580-2796

Open from 1:30pm to 3:00pm on Saturdays, starting on September 18, 2010

Yes, that's right, the grand opening will be held at the Ruth E.Dickinson Library this Saturday! When I was in Montreal, I brought Joey 18 chess sets, a demo board as well as 8 chess books from our storage in Toronto. The main sponsor of the program in Ottawa is Gordon Ritchie, who donated $100 to support the innovation. Thank you Gordon!

Finally, please do take a look at this ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92x1EoAG908. It's an interview that Joey and I did at the Montreal Open with Don from Godesschess. The interview is mainly about Chess in the Library and our milestone in Ottawa. The ending is cut off because we just happened to run out of batteries. :( Sorry!

Last but not least, I got a message from Joey today saying that registration for the program in Ottawa on the Ottawa's libraries website opened yesterday and it was full with many still on the waiting list in the first 5 minutes! That really amazes me because I honestly didn't expect that the program would receive such a huge interest from Ottawa citizens. Great work Joey and I'm looking forward to seeing that blog of yours coming out soon~ ^_^