North York Central Library Create Special Chess Display Case

This news is a little outdated but I'm super excited to tell you all that in August this year, NYCL dedicated one of its stand-alone display cases just to chess and Chess in the Library! The display case was placed near the elevator on the third floor and it was there for an entire month, according to Gal.

It actually came as a complete surprise to me when I first saw it. Gal and I was at a meeting with Cameron, the new NYCL "chess manager" to book rooms for next year's festival. Speaking of that, we will have the NYCL auditorium for the ENTIRE day next year! Isn't that lovely news? This was something we've been trying so hard to accomplish for the past 2 days and because of Cameron, our dreams came true!

Anyways, after the meeting we went to the third floor (unintentionally) to put away the chess sets that were just being used for the Saturday program. I actually didn't even notice the display case when I walked by but then Gal suddenly exclaim:"Oh yeah, Yuanling, I forgot to tell you...look at this!" After that I practically was in shock for the rest of the day and it took me a good 10 minutes to examine each and every single detail on it. Take a look for yourself:

Front view - see the trophy??? :O

Side view

Back view - you can catch a glimpse of the 3rd floor front desk. If my eyes don't lie, then is that Tom I see sitting in front of the computer? Haha~

In the middle you can see the CITL Annual Trophy that was won by NYCL this year, so yes, they do have the bragging rights for it. The precious trophy is surrounded by many chess books and tiny chess pieces if you take a closer look at it. However, I am most impressed by the self-made paper chess pieces that are taped around the top of the display chess. It must've taken A LOT of time to draw and cut these out! Here's a close-up:

Don't you think that chess pieces are easy to cut! I've tried it many times before and boy, there are surely many contours! 

Nonetheless, the reason why I was in a shock for so long is because this is the first time that someone voluntarily did something great for chess under the influence of CITL. I didn't even know about this entire project until Gal and I accidentally walked passed it. This was the day I that had been waiting for ever since I founded this program. It shows how enthusiastic NYCL, the second largest library in Toronto, is about chess now, to the point where they take the time and effort to put this together. This display case must also be in high demand and to consider it a possibility of dedicating it to chess makes me thrilled, let alone a reality. However, the significance of this display case far exceeds what can been seen on the surface. It is a representation of a true beginning towards the growing popularity of chess in Canada!