Yuanling Yuan - Chess in the Library

Chess in the Library Goes International!

2011-11-12T11:08:00.001-08:00

When I founded this organization two and a half years ago, I hadn't the slightest idea that one day, this very program will be not only expanding to the rest of Canada but also to other countries. I clearly remember that my initial goal was to expand the CITL program to 30 Toronto Public Libraries and then to several other cities in Ontario. Once that seemed to be feasible (as of today, 17 Toronto Public Libraries have hosted this program), I dreamt of spreading the program to other chess popular (relatively speaking, haha) provinces such as British Columbia and Quebec. When we went nation wide in Oct 2010 with a program in Victoria, B.C. (see blog post Officially a Nation Wide Program Now!), my goal was only to reach out to the other 11 provinces in this country and that is something we are still working on, even after the expansion to Calgary, Alberta.

It was approximately two months ago when Kellar Wendell, a librarian from the Washington D.C. Public Library system contacted us inquiring some advice on running the CITL program. After a long telephone conversation with Wendell, I found out that they only had 3 chess sets in the library and was currently doing a casual drop-in based chess club.

My first response was, "How do you run a chess club with ONLY 3 chess sets?". Wendell continued to tell me that like Toronto, the major of Washington D.C. implemented some budget cuts that not only inhibited the purchase of library materials (let alone chess sets...) but also limited the service hours to two nights a week. Evidently, in that situation, it is extremely difficult to run a prosperous chess program without outside support - and that's us!

The purpose of CITL is essentially to help promote chess, anywhere, any time, as long as there is a demand for the game. Any library that joins the CITL network is considered family and we will do everything we can to make sure that their CITL program becomes successful. Thus, I sent Wendell our CITL handbook and told him many of our success stories in Canada, including marketing strategies and such. I also sent his library 7 chess sets so they could have a capacity of 20 participants, which is the minimum for any CITL location in Toronto at least. Here is the info for our new CITL location:

Deanwood Library
1350 49th. St. N.E.
Washington, DC 20019Phone Number: 202-698-1175Info: Open from 7pm-9pm on Fridays.

If you live in Washington D.C. and love playing chess, do come out and support the chess program at the Deanwood Library! :)

In only 2 years and 5 months, CITL made its first step into the international market in our neighbour country, the United States of America. This is truly a milestone for our organization as it really shows us that with our passion and drive for success, the sky is our limit. More importantly, it made me realize that even if I go to the States (or anywhere outside of Canada) for university, I can still continue running the program there. CITL will follow me wherever I go and maybe, just maybe, you see CITL in Europe, Asia and all the other continents of this unifying world.

WIGUP TV Features 3 Articles on Chess in the Library!

2011-11-10T15:17:00.001-08:00

To those of you who attended the 2nd Annual Chess Festival, you should remember that we have several TVs and newspapers covering the event. One of them was WIGUP TV, represented by Averie MacDonald, a very sweet young lady who travelled a great distance just to get to the festival venue. Aside from having a little chat with me whenever I was not anxiously running around and making sure that everything is going well, Averie interviewed several CITL participants who represented different libraries. Her articles would have been published on WIGUP TV's site long ago had it not gone under "construction" for many months since the festival.

However, it was last week when I received a pleasant surprise from Averie - the articles have been officially published! I must say that they were all very nicely written and engaging! I want to take this opportunity to thank Averie for helping us promote chess in Canada! :)

I did not copy and past every paragraph that Averie wrote below so if you want to see the ENTIRE 3-article series with pictures, then do check out the following links (will also be posted on the right side bar under CITL in the Media) Otherwise, just keep reading this extra long post!:

1. Chess 101: http://wigup.tv/en/news/news_wire?id=174
2. Chess in the Library Turns Two: http://wigup.tv/en/news/news_wire?id=170
3. Meet the Chess Champs of Tomorrow: http://wigup.tv/en/news/news_wire?id=171

Averie began her 3-article series with an introduction to chess in general, quoting some of my philosophies haha. The article was titled "Chess 101".

What can chess do for me?
According to Canada's top female chess player, Yuanling Yuan, chess can do a lot for a young person. Chess can make you more patient..."The biggest benefit that chess brings to kids is allowing them to develop patience and develop endurance," says Yuanling, "because Chess is a game where you really have to sit there quietly and play for a long time. My longest game was like 6 hours, believe it or not!"

Chess can help you focus in school...
"Especially as you get to high school, sometimes your classes are pretty long, so for (kids) to be able to sit there and listen to the teacher and concentrate and absorb all the information... that requires patience and other abilities that chess players have," says Yuanling, "I think that's the biggest thing that chess brought me, I'm always able to focus for a very very long time."

Chess can help improve your memory...
"When you play chess, you have to think a few moves ahead... So in order to do that, you have to develop a very good memory," says Yuanling, "and that helps with language I think. Say you're learning a second language, a good memory really helps because you're able to pick up the words faster."

Chess can help keep your mind sharp for your whole life!
"Chess increases kids' academic performance and it decreases seniors' chances of getting Alzheimer's disease," says Yuanling. "There are a lot of benefits to chess that people don't really realize!"

Her next article was called "Chess in the Library Turns Two!", which is exactly the purpose of the annual festival.

On Saturday, June 25th at the North York Central Library in Toronto, Yuanling and her volunteers celebrated their two-year anniversary with a huge chess festival for kids of all ages!

"This is one of the few times in the year when all of the volunteers and participants get to come together in one place and enjoy a day of chess," said Yuanling.

The festival started off with a speech from Canada's top overall chess player, Grandmaster Mark Bluvshtein, and some funny videos showcasing memories from the past two years.After that, it was time for the main event, a free chess tournament for the best players from the Ontario library teams. Players squared off in three categories: Grade 3 & Under, Grade 6 & Under, and the "open" category, for Grade 12 and under and kids who wanted to take on players above their grade level.

Once they were finished each round, participants could do chess quizzes to win a prize, attempt some tricky chess puzzles, or play on a life-sized chess set (with pieces as big as some players!)

"For me, looking at these young kids reminds me of when I was little," said Yuanling once the festival had begun. Yuanling started playing chess at 7 years old and is now the top female player in Canada.
"It's really something that makes me feel that all my effort that I put into this program was worth it."

After four intense rounds of competition, it was finally time for the 76 competitors to head home, but not before the trophies were handed out! The top prize, a gigantic golden trophy, was given to the host team-- North York Central Library-- for winning first in the open category. But winner or not, each participating team walked away grateful for the chance to play.Happy Birthday Chess in the Library!

I just love how Averie adds in her own comments of "with pieces as big as some players!" and "a gigantic golden trophy", haha! Anyways, I am saving the best for the last because my favourite article of the 3 was the one with the interviews of the participants. Their responses are just so cute - exactly what kids should be like. This one was titled "Meet the Chess Champs of Tomorrow".

While on site at Chess in the Library's second annual festival, WIGUP.tv sat down with some competitors to get the inside scoop on what's so great about chess, they even shared some of their top-secret tips!

Name: Jaanani Age: 10Plays chess at: Humberwood Library (Toronto)Has been playing chess for: about one year

What do you like best about chess? "Every time you're playing it, you somehow find a new strategy that you never really knew could be so useful."

Why should other kids learn to play chess?"There's some people that really hate school and don't want to study, but still want to be smart... (I would tell them to) play chess because it's the fastest way to learn."

What's your number one chess tip?"The most important thing is always staying confident that you're going to win. And don't scared just because (your opponent) is older because I have versed someone in grade 11 and beat them, and I'm only in grade 5."

Name: Jayden Age: 12Plays chess at: Brookbanks Library (Toronto)Has been playing chess for: about 4 years.

What's the best part of a chess game?"Probably the gameplay or taking other people's pieces, because it makes you feel like you're going to win."

Why do you play chess?"For the fun of it! It's good to pass time and it's also really interesting."

Melalee GordonAge: 11Plays chess at: Downsview Library (Toronto)Has been playing chess for: two years

What's the best part about playing chess? "You get to have fun with your opponent, and you get to try your hardest. It's not like checkers or cards... because when it comes to chess you're moving (your piece) all around the board that has 64 squares, so there's many possibilities of moves. It's more long-lasting."

How do you feel when you're playing chess?"I feel confident in myself because I think I may have a chance to win, I may not, but it's just about having fun and doing your best."

Do you have any tips for new chess players?"If you're new to chess, you should go to a chess club. There, you can get people to help you and experience the wonders of chess!"Melalee says to remember these tips when you're playing chess: 1. protect your king.2. keep your focus on the centre of the board.3. use all your pieces.4. don't give away any of your pieces.

Journalist Creates German Wikipedia for Me & CITL

2011-10-30T11:53:00.000-07:00

It was several weeks ago when journalist Gereon Kalkuhl infomed me, completely unexpectedly, that he has written a German Wikipedia page on me and Chess in the Library! Boy, that sure came as a huge surprise!

Interested in learning more about his motive, I asked Gereon what made him decide to write a Wikipedia page about me and CITL, especially in German. This is his response, word for word:

"The reason why I wrote the article in German is simply that German is my first language.Journalistic work is fun for me. Newspapers and magazines often have inacurate information about chess players. By writing these articles I provide some facts about chess personalities. The article about you I wrote because I like the idea of Chess in the Library and I thought we didn't have enough biographies about Canadian chess players. The only other female chess player from Canada that has an article on de.wikipedia was Nava Starr. I could have written about Natalia Khoudgarian, Dinara Khaziyeva, Johanne Charest, Dina Kagramanov, Diane Mongeau, Smilja Vujosevic or Vesma Baltgailis, but since you lead the Canadian FIDE list..." - Gereon

You can see the article here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuanling_Yuan. I will also post the link on the right sidebar, under CITL in the Media.

Although I don't understand a single word of the article, the fact that it is there, English or not, is heart-warming. I am touched not because of the sight of my own bibliography, but rather the short paragraph on Chess in the Library. The fact that this organization has become nation-wide, and now aware to Germans across the world, is simply unbelievable. I did not write this blog post earlier because it took quite some time for me to actually believe that I'm not dreaming!

You can see a list of Gereon's other articles here: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Gereon_K.

I want to take this opportunity to give a big THANK YOU to Gereon for helping us spread the word on CITL to the millions of Germans out there!

Victoria Library Juan de Fuca Starts New CITL Session

2011-10-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

It was only several days only when I heard from Brian Raymer and Shannon Kenning with regards to the great news of revitalizing the Chess in the Library program at the Juan de Fuca Library after a year of inactivity.

The new session began on Wednesday September 28, 2011 and will continue every Wednesday until November 30, 2011. The first session attracted 16 participants which leaves only 2 more spots in the program open. Below are the details for this location:

Juan de Fuca Library

1759 Island Highway
Victoria, BC V9B 1J1
250-391-0653

Open wednesdays from 6:30 PM to 7:45 PM till November 30.

I'm so excited to see the program restarted in the west end! Although I had a chance to visit Vancouver this summer for Shad Valley, I have never been to Victoria. However, it is definitely one city already marked down on my "future travel list"! When the day comes for me to fly over to Victoria, I hope to meet the legendary Brian Raymer in person as well as the amazing librarian, Shannon, who made all this possible!

North York Central Library Create Special Chess Display Case

2011-10-03T16:58:00.000-07:00

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!

New Chess in the Library Executive Blog

2011-09-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

The Chess in the Library team has recently launched our very own blog this month, which will be updated on a weekly basis! :)

Originally, I encouraged many CITL volunteers to start up their own blogs in order to reflect upon their personal experiences when volunteering at the program like I do; however, none of them seemed to last very long. Well, not everyone likes writing and blogging, right?

Nonetheless, a great idea that the new CITL Executive Board has came up with is an official "CITL Executive Blog" that will be written by the CITL Executives currently in position. I will not be participating in the writing of that blog, since I've got my own to keep up with! However, it is a great idea in the long run because the day will come when I am no longer the President of CITL and I hope to see the organization running smoothly without me. The executive blog is one of the many things that will help CITL's name live on. That doesn't mean the end of my blog though! Even if I cannot always be the President, I will forever and always be the CITL Founder that will step in when help is needed.

My fellow executive members will take turn blogging once a week and they will sign their names at the end of each post so we all know which author to credit. Check it out: http://chessinthelibrary.blogspot.com/

If you have any comments or suggestions regarding the new executive blog, do send us a message and let us know! Our email is info@chessinthelibrary.com

CITL in Barrie Update

2011-08-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

We recently received an email from the CITL program organizer in Barrie, Michael Zaghi telling us about how everything went. Below are some quotes from Michael himself:

"It looks like the CITL in Barrie was very successful and I really enjoyed my time working with kids and showing them some chess. The program in Barrie officially ended yesterday (Aug 21st) which was the timeline me and the manager decided upon before the program started. Over the past 6 weeks our numbers have ranged from 9-15 which isn't bad at all in my opinion."

For a small town like Barrie that has only ONE public library, the Barrie Public Library, the turn out for CITL is quite respectable! Unfortunately, Michael didn't take any pictures as he was afraid things might get complicated with parental permission, etc. It's so true though, because in Toronto, the libraries are very very strict with picture taking - each kid that we take a picture of has to fill out a media release form! When I went to chess tournaments anywhere on this planet, people take pictures of everyone but nobody had to sign anything haha. But it's alright, I'm already used to this by now. :)

Anyways, I'm just so pleased to hear the great news about Barrie! However, Michael will no longer be able to volunteer at the program anymore and certainly, we all want to see this program continue throughout the year. Michael hopes so too.

"I am going to try and see if I can get some volunteers to continue the program so I would consider it on hold for the time being since I would like to see it continue."

Michael spent a lot of effort convincing the librarians in Barrie to get this going so securing this location was 5 times harder than those in Toronto. I want to take this opportunity here to thank him for literally everything, EVERYHING he did to make CITL in Barrie possible!

So if you're living in Barrie and would like to contribute to the Canadian chess community by promoting chess, then this is your chance! Honestly, we would all be very grateful is someone steps up and takes on Michael's position after he leaves. Even if you're only available to do this for a month, it will mean a lot to us, the participants of the program and the chess community as a whole. Even if you spread the word about this program to your family, friends, coworkers, etc who might be interested in helping out, we will be more than appreciative, really. To those of you who read this post and took action, I sincerely thank you all! It's really all of you guys who made CITL so successful today, bit by bit, little by little, detail by detail. Email volunteer@chessinthelibrary.com if you're interested in helping out! :)

A Sneak Peak at a CITL Exec Meeting

2011-08-19T19:13:00.001-07:00

Two days ago, the new CITL Executive Board had its 2nd internal meeting, which lasted for 2 hours and 30 minutes. You might consider that a super long meeting, but you know what? This meeting was actually more efficient than our previous one, which ended after 4 hours! Well, everyone had a lot to say at the first meeting anyway...

So we all met up at the North York Central Library and walked to the nearest Tim Hortons, where we all made ourselves comfortable in the non air conditioned room with some ice cappuccino. Yum! Now down to business.

From left to right：Linda, Vivek, Gal, Aaron and me. What a coincidence - Linda and Aaron were wearing the same shirt haha~

We delineated our goals for the upcoming quarter and set deadlines for them. One of the three main projects that we are working is a completely new and updated website that will be more organized and visually appealing. Our Director of Communications Vivek as well as our Art Director Linda will be the main coordinators of this big project.

The website team hard at work...

The two other projects are more on a small scale as they will be completed in the next several weeks, especially before school begins. Gal and I will be creating a step-by-step CITL set-up manual for libraries who are potentially interested in joining the network. We will also build up our image by drafting a document explaining briefing the benefits of chess to children and seniors alike. This document will allow potential donors, sponsors and libraries interested in getting involved in CITL understand the true value of CITL's programs.

Finally, Linda will be designing 4 large CITL posters that we would be able to display at promotional sessions, workshops, or any CITL event. Can't wait to see how it looks! :)

So that's it for now. After the meeting everyone had written a long list of things to do along with their deadlines. I better start checking off those boxes on my to-do list! ^_^

New Location Out West - Runnymede

2011-08-18T17:42:00.001-07:00

Our 17th location in Toronto has just been confirmed 2 days ago after a short meeting with the librarians of Runnymede branch. The possibility of introducing CITL to this library, located in Etobicoke, was first brought up by a chess player in April this year. I was the special guest at the Ontario Girls Chess Championships this year and after the awards ceremony, a grade 9 girl who had won second place in her division approached me and said:"Hey Yuanling, do you think you'll be able to start Chess in the Library at Runnymede? I'd really like to volunteer!".

It's not so often that I get these requests from potential volunteers, you know. Surprised at the sudden request, I wrote down her email and told her that I will look into it. So who is this girl? She is Jennifer Ugodnikov, a young girl full of passion and enthusiasm for not only chess but also the community - a complete reflection of myself when I founded CITL back in 2009.

Several months later, in mid-July, I received an email from a librarian at Runnymede expressing their willingness of giving the program a shot! And that's how we got our 17th location in Toronto and 23rd CITL location nationwide. It's great to see more CITL programs in the west side of the city! So far we've got Humberwood, Richview and now Runnymede! :)

Your Prez and Vice Prez in front of the very pretty Runnymede branch!

Close-up picture. Just look at the details on the both sides of the door! Gorgeous!

I want to thank Helen and Monica, the librarians at Runnymede who made the program possible on TPL's part and our future volunteers Jennifer, Pascale, Alexandru and 2 other girls whom I haven't yet met. So this branch will have 4 girls and 1 guy as volunteers! That's surely a first!

Group pic! From left to right: Me, Gal, Jennifer and Pascale. I love how there are more girls involved, hehe~ :)

Below are the details of this new location that will be targeting children from grade 6-8:

Runnymede Branch

2178 Bloor Street West

Toronto, ON

M6S 1M8

416-393-7697

Open from 2-4pm on Saturdays, starting from Saturday October 8, 2011.

Ghetto Chess

2011-07-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

I should have written this post months ago but then someone kept forgetting to upload the pictures no matter how many times I reminded him (you know who you are). :)

Fortunately, I had a very similar experience recently so I figured that it wouldn't be too late to blog about this extraordinary topic now. Better late than never, right? So what exactly is this "ghetto chess" that I'm talking about? See for yourself:

a chess board drawn on a table at school and the pieces are represented by coins - how creative!

the very enthusiastic friends in my math class who drew the chessboard on one of the desk. From left to right: Shreyash, Sathvik, Sabin and Ike

So the story goes like this: one day, my friends finished their math homework in class and had a sudden rush to play chess! There was no chessboard, no chess set, absolutely nothing in the classroom. So the guys came up with a brilliant idea - drawing a chessboard on a desk! We laughed so hard at the finished product, haha...However, our ghetto chessboard didn't last long. Our math teacher walked by 5 minutes later and made us erase not only that specific desk but also the surrounding ones that had writing on them. We had an amazing time erasing the desks nonetheless. :)

Perhaps it's a coincidence that another variation of "ghetto chess" came up in the last several days. Check it out:

multiple chessboards drawn on pieces of paper

my cool friends who challenged me to a blindfold game on a 5-hour bus ride. From left to right: Amon, Jane and Joyce

So as some of you may know, I am currently in Vancouver for an awesome summer program focused on sciences and entrepreneurship. During a 5-hour bus ride to the UBC Okanagan campus from the UBC main campus located in Vancouver, 3 of my fellow Shads (that's what we call ourselves) challenged me to a game of chess. Amon asked everyone, yes, literally everyone on the bus, whether they had a chess app on their ipod. Unfortunately, just like my math class, the supply of chess sets and apps is really scarce. :(

In the end, they decided to play me on the paper while I played blindfold. What's even worse is the fact that they did not have any pencils so they couldn't just draw a chessboard and erase the pieces each time I made a move - they had to cross out the pieces and redraw them each time. Just look at the 2 pictures above! :)

Regardless, the reason why I decided to blog about this topic today is because these 2 "ghetto chess" examples mirror the way in which the Canadian chess community functions. There are so many people out there who are enthusiastic about chess but do not have the resources to enjoy the benefits of this game. It's almost as if these chess players are in poverty because of the scarce resources available to them. Chess in the Library bridges the gap for these people.

Through these 2 groups of people (my math classmates and my fellow Shads), I have seen people who love chess and while the circumstances don't allow them to play, they still figure out a way to do so. That's the chess spirit I love seeing!

Three New Toronto Locations

2011-07-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

Although I am currently in Vancouver for a summer program, the past Friday and Saturday were big days for the Chess in the Library program. There were 3 new locations in Toronto that just had their grand openings on July 8th and 9th in completely different areas of the city. The executive board and I are so pleased to see the program spread to areas outside of North York, where the majority of CITL locations are up and running. Moreover, one of the new locations, the Malvern Branch, is primarily targeting seniors and adults in the Scarborough region. So to all the seniors and adults who wish to play chess, you now have 2 places to check out - the Deer Park Branch and the Malvern Branch! :)

Below are the details of the 3 new locations in Toronto:

Richview Library

1806 Islington Ave.
Toronto, ON
M9P 3N3
416-394-5120

Open from 2pm - 4pm

Malvern Library
*for Seniors & Adults only*

30 Sewells Road
Toronto, ON
M1B 3G5
416-396-8969

Open from 2-3:30pm on Sat July 9 & 23 and Aug. 6 & 20, 2011.

Barbara Frum Library

20 Covington Road
Toronto, ON
M6A 3C1
416-395-5440

Open from 2pm - 4pm on Fridays

So what are you waiting for? Come on down to any of these 3 locations and play some chess with people from all over the city! :)

CITL 2nd Annual Festival Tournament Results

2011-07-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the following individuals and library teams! We are so proud of you! May your chess skills grow with Chess in the Library~

Individual Winners
Open Section
1st: Soorena Miralanmi (North York Central)
2nd: Kristen Li (North York Central)
3rd: Yang Ji (Fairview)

Grade 6 & Under
1st: Jonathan Chan (Brookbanks)
2nd: Harry Zhao (North York Central)
3rd: Erkhes Bayan-Altai (Fairview)

Grade 3 & Under
1st: Benjamin Lin (Fairview)
2nd: Evan Liu (Fairview)
3rd: Julianne Jorda (Downsview)

Team Winners
Open Section
1st: North York Center Library

Soorena Miralanmi
Kristen Li
Catherine Li

2nd: Fairview Library

Edmund Rong
Newton Xu
Yang Ji

3rd: Humberwood Library

Niruthika Puvaneswaran
Tina Vo
Gaajen Sivarasacumar

Grade 6 & Under
1st: Brookbanks Library

Jonathan Chan
Cassidy Wang
Henry Li

2nd: Downsview Library

Joshua Jorda
Bradley Ho
Melalee Gordon

3rd: Fairview Library

Erkhes Bayan-Altai
Bruce He
Victor Rong

Grade 3 & Under
1st: Fairview Library

Benjamin Lin
Evan Liu
Ray Liu

2nd: Bridlewood Library

James Gao
Jennifer Zhang
Alan Li

3rd: Downsview Library

Julianne Jorda
Diana Lin
Ba Son Nguyen

CITL 2nd Annual Festival - A Huge Success!

2011-06-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

A blink of an eye and it's already been 2 years since we first launched the program back in June 2009! To celebrate our 2 year anniversary, the Chess in the Library organization hosted its 2nd Annual Festival at the North York Central Library. There were over 150 people coming from each corner of the city to join the festivities, including participants, parents, volunteers, librarians, sponsors, donors and the media. With 76 participants representing 8 different libraries and 23 volunteers to help organize the event, this festival was the most successful event yet! However, not everything went so smoothly as we wished...

June 25, 2011, 11:30 am: The majority of the participants, parents, special guests and media were already on the second floor of the library, waiting for check-in, which starts at 11:45am. Leading the group of volunteers, I walked up to the second floor after a successful election in the morning, feeling as if the day couldn't get better. Well, at that very moment...our dreams were almost crushed. Suddenly there comes a librarian, whom I've never ever met before and for all I know, she was never involved in any CITL matters. She bluntly tells me that we are only able to enter the room at 1pm, despite the fact that our booking was for noon.

Imagine - a floor packed with 150 kids, parents, guests and media waiting to be served. We've got 30 minutes to do the check-in and setup everything for the opening ceremony, previously scheduled to commence at 12:15pm. Right when your anxiety level is at its heights, your mind is buzzing with thoughts of all the people waiting and bumping into you, a stranger just pops up and tells you that the event shall be delayed for an hour and that that "this is not debatable". For the first time in my life, I didn't know what to do at all.

I thought about all the happy kids anticipating the festival and all the volunteers who surrounded and depended on me. I knew that whatever I do, I can't let myself fall apart right then and right there. But I am one lucky girl, blessed to have a such an amazing volunteer team who told me: "Yuanling, we've got your back. Don't worry,don't worry...everything will turn out just fine."

So I cleared my head and thought of possible solutions to the problem. Crowd control is very important when you organize a large event like this. I grabbed a few desks and told the volunteers to start the check-in process ASAP. To ensure that we wouldn't create a mess, I told the participants to form 3 straight lines for check-in, one for each section. There were over 150 people waiting for us and we must try to do everything according to the plan. At the very least, we kept the bad news within the volunteers for as long as possible, or else we would've really lost control of the people. Meanwhile, we printed a copy of the email with the promise that room setup for our event will start at noon, hoping that it would clear the misunderstandings. And so it did, with the help of Tom from NYCL.

Regardless, I know that this post should be a report on the festival but I wanted to share this story with all of you today because of several reasons. First of all, I've learned a life lesson that day - no matter what barriers come in your way, you've just got to keep moving forward. If you've done nothing wrong, then God will help you and luck will be on your side. Second of all, perhaps the majority of you who follows Chess in the Library thinks that it is an easy job to undertake - how hard is it to run a chess club in a local library, right? Well, now you know the things that I, as well as the volunteers at times, go through. It's not easy. Finally, it was at that very moment that something hit me - I, Yuanling, the Founder of the CITL, is no longer alone like she was on June 20, 2009. It was truly after this incident that I felt like a part of a big family, a family that would support you no matter what. So I want to give a big thank you to all the volunteers for joining CITL and giving me what I needed the most - moral support.

The big family of CITL volunteers. :)

Now let's get to the real report of the festival! The flow of the opening ceremony was done very smoothly, starting with a short clip (should be available on YouTube soon), speeches and ending with the announcement of the 2011 CITL Volunteer of the Year Award. I'd like to thank our special guests, Vivien Canning, Maurice Smith and GM Mark Bluvshtein for making their appearance and presenting the Volunteer of the Year nominees and award winners with certificates and trophies. To see what Mark has to say about the festival, check out his latest blog post: http://markbluvshtein.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/what-happened-this-weekend-2/

Commencement of the opening ceremony - the white screen in the background is where we showed the video

The audience. All the volunteers are lined up on the right hand side of the wall, wearing the special CITL T-shirts!

Me welcoming everyone to the festival. :)

Michael Kleinman, the 2010-2011 CITL Vice President, says a few words to the audience.

Kevin Wu, the 2010-2011 CITL Executive Director, despite being the youngest member of the CITL Executive Board, has showed his capabilities as a leader in this organization.

Tom Maragos, NYCL librarian, is the one who saved the day! Honestly, without him, I really don't know whether we would have a happy ending that day. Thank you so much, Tom!

Maurice Smith, one of CITL's main donors, takes an hour out of his busy schedule to support the festival! Maurice said a few touching words on behalf of all CITL donors and sponors. Thank you Maurice!

Vivien Canning, the Branch Head of of the Humberwood Branch in Etobicoke, is one of the most enthusiastic librarians that I've ever met! Humberwood was one of CITL's very first locations and right now, it is our of the most successful locations! Thank you Vivien for always supporting us!

The six 2011 CITL Volunteer of the Year nominees with their certificates presented by Maurice and Vivien. Since Yuan Dai could not make it to the festival, Lennart (far right) received the certificate on behalf of Yuan.

GM Mark Bluvshtein announces the 2011 CITL Volunteer of the Year winners

So who won the award? I want to give a BIG congratulations to the 3 outstanding youths:

Gal Gross, winner of the 2011 CITL Most Dedicated Award
Jesse Feng, winner of the 2011 CITL Most Innovative Award
Yolanda Zhang, winner of the 2011 CITL Best Instructor Award

The media. Thanks to Bob Armstrong, we were able to get several media coverages for the festival.

After the opening ceremony, the team tournament began. Every participant wore a sticker with their library name on it - something new that we introduced this year to show team spirit! We had enough time to play a 4-round Swiss, far better than last year's 3-round Swiss.

a beautiful tournament sitea beautiful tournament site

The referees of the Grade 3 & Under section announces the pairings to the kids

Games in action - there were 2-3 volunteers taking the role of a referee in each section. They would ensure that the kids were playing again the right opponent and that the results were marked correctly.

The Open section in action

Cool chess kid - is he playing chess or poker? :)

Naeema Garcia, age 5, is one of the youngest contestants in the tournament. Her shirt says "cute by psycho" ^_^

In between the games, the participants could visit the puzzle booth set up by Hazel and Lennart and take a shot at some trivial questions such as "What colour is CITL's logo?". There were also a set of chess tactics for the participants to solve, ranging from super easy to super hard, with a total of 5 difficulty levels. For a full list of questions and answers for Hazel's puzzle contests, check out her latest blog post: http://checkmateupdate.blogspot.com/2011/06/citl-quizzes.html

Hazel and her puzzle contest booth

Hmm...how to solve this problem?

However, the activity that caught most people's eye was of course...the GIANT CHESS SET!!! :) Everyone has so much fun moving the pieces, which were almost the same height as some of the younger kids!

Let's see if you can play chess equally well on this gigantic board!

Another blink of an eye and the festival was over. It was time to present the awards to those who fought the hardest in front of the chess board! We gave out a total of 27 medals to the top 3 teams in each of the 3 sections (Grade 3, Grade 6 & Open), as well as 9 trophies for the top 3 finishers in each section. What's even more exciting is that this year, we bought a large annual trophy for the library team that won gold in the Open section. Not only will the library's name get engraved on the trophy, this winner library will keep the trophy on display for an entire year and until the next CITL Annual Festival.

On behalf of the organization, I want to give a special thank you to the Southam family, who was not able to make it to the festival this year. It was them who donated the beautifully designed marble-based trophies as well as the big annual trophy. Some of you may know the background story behind these trophies from last year's festival, but others may not. Todd Southam, the younger son of the family, was one of Canada's brightest and most promising chess players a few decades ago. During his chess career, he won numerous trophies and plaques from local tournaments to international ones. As a FIDE Master, he was not only his family's pride, but also Canada's. Unfortunately, he passed away at a very young age, leaving his family and the country in great sorrow. When the Southams heard about the Chess in the Library program back in the summer of 2009, they immediately donated all of Todd's trophies to us, thinking that Todd would be very happy to see his trophies redistributed to a new generation of young chess players. Today, all of the 18 trophies that belonged to Todd are now shining ever so brightly in different chess families located in each corner of the city, encouraging the kids to keep playing this royal game. And so, we named the trophies "The Todd Southam Award". Todd and his family's contribution to the chess community will always be remembered, and we really believe that up there in heaven, Todd smiled when he saw all of this happening.

The awards, donated by the Southam family, are ready to find a new home.

The North York Central team, volunteers and librarian were all super excited about winning the large annual trophy! Congratulations to team NYCL!

We gave out a total of 12 book prizes for the puzzle competition winners as well as the contest winners. All these books were donated by some very generous people, so thank you!

It's so sad when I realized that it was already over...*sigh*. However, we did get many emails from parents telling us what an amazing time their kids had and that was enough for us to feel reassured. All the time and effort put into this event was worth it. Although the event was only 5 hours long, we gave over 76 kids an amazing experience that will forever be a part of the wonderful memories of their childhood.

For more pictures on the CITL 2nd Annual Festival, check out our web album here. I will be posting the individual and team results shortly.

2011-2012 CITL Executive Board Elections

2011-06-28T21:03:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday morning, the Chess in the Library organization held its 2011-2012 Executive Board Elections, in which there were 8 candidates for 5 positions and 21 volunteers present to vote for the next CITL Executive Board. Candidates and volunteers rushed to the North York Central Library at 9am in the morning, shortly after the library first opens its door for patrons. Below are the list of candidates and with their respective target position. Click on the names to see their written campaigns:

President
Yuanling Yuan, Grade 11

Vice President
Gal Gross, 2nd Year University
Kevin Wu, Grade 10
Michael Kleinman, Grade 11

Treasurer
Mike Ivanov, Grade 10
Aaron Zhang, Grade 11

Director of Communications
Vivek Chachcha, Grade 10

Art Director
Linda Fu, Grade 11

Once everyone arrived, a special Chess in the Library T-shirt was distributed to them. We asked 2 different artistic students to design a T-shirt that would represent Chess in the Library. Below are the designs:

Designed by Lennart Batilando & Edited by Kevin Wu
The banner says "Chess in the Library" and the bottom of the king says "est. 2009"

We ended up using the second design by Lennart and Kevin but I want to thank Hazel for putting so much time into this. She learned how to use the vector draw software just for this - now that's what I call dedication.

I would say that the one of the most successful things of this festival was this T-shirt. This isn't just any T-shirt - it's something that unites all of us, like a big family of volunteers. Whenever someone walks past us, they would stop for a moment, just a split second, to see what is going on. We not only attract the attention of outsiders but also each other. Everyone felt as if they fit in and the barrier between those who previously did not know each other just came down. We are one big family.

Let's take a look at some pictures and short clips captured at the election:

front view of the conference

back view of the conference

Art Director candidate Linda Fu makes her speech

Director of Communications candidate Vivek Chachcha delivers his speech

Treasurer candidates (from left to right) Mike Ivanov and Aaron Zhang stand side by side during question time

Vice-President candidates (from left to right) Gal Gross, Kevin Wu and Michael Kleinman during question time

me making my presidential speech

I want to say congratulations to each and every single one of you who chose to run in this election. It means that you care. You care about Chess in the Library and moreover, the promotion of chess in Canada. You were brave enough to stand up in front of a crowd and present yourself so thoroughly. Even if you didn't win in the end, the fact that you took this initiative tells us all that you've already won. As the Founder and President of this organization, I am really, really, really proud of you all. This is exactly what I envisioned the program to be - full of enthusiasm and initiatives from the leaders. I couldn't possibly ask for more.

Some of your speeches were very inspirational and they really touched me deeply. Each candidate suggested something new for the program, from chess workshops to a meet-and-greet breakfast. We added in a 5-min question session after the speeches for each position were completed. I was a little surprised at how profound some of the questions were!

The ballets were counted by 2 random people at the festival that were not affiliated with any of the candidates in this election. They tallied the votes and wrote the results on a small piece of paper, which was then placed into a small envelope. It was only until the closing ceremony of the festival that I opened the envelope and announced the results.

I'm proud to say that we an amazing team of leaders that will be bringing the program to new heights in the upcoming year. I believe that you will do your best and I know that are capable. :)

A BIG congratulations to the 2011-2012 CITL Executive Board:

From left to right: Vice-President Gal Gross, Treasurer Aaron Zhang, President Yuanling Yuan, Director of Communications Vivek Chachcha and Art Director Linda Fu

To those of you didn't win - don't give up! If you set your heart on contributing to CITL, you can do so without being on the executive board. Like our new Vice-President Gal once said in this speech, we need the general volunteers to help out in whatever way they can. Remember - the 5 of us are on this executive board not for the glamour that goes with the title of our position but for the ultimate purpose of this program - to promote chess in Canada.

So if you are proficient in facebook - why not manage a facebook page for us? If you are proficient in twitter - why not setup a twitter account for us? As long as you want to contribute, there is always a way for you to use your specialty to show everyone what you can do. Most of you have lots of potential so if you didn't succeed this time, I encourage you to try again next year. To succeed, you must believe!

Finally, I want to dedicate a few words to the past Vice-President Michael Kleinman and Executive Director Kevin Wu: You guys have been amazing this year and I cherished the times when we worked hard together to create innovations for Chess in the Library. I want to thank you both for always being there for me, regardless of the situation. Your contributions to Chess in the Library will always be remembered and I hope that you continue to be a part of us! :)

2011-2012 CITL Treasurer Candidate - Aaron Zhang

2011-06-25T21:17:00.000-07:00

Below is what Aaron wrote for his campaign:

Glad to be back everyone! I’m happy to say that I will be back in action at the 2^nd annual festival at NYCL on Saturday! In case you don’t know me, I am Aaron Zhang. I was one of the first volunteers of Chess in the Library, having joined the program when it opened its first branch at Brookbanks. Then, after we opened a second location at Pleasant View, I permanently settled there. Today, I come to all of you because I see myself as the best candidate for CITL’s 2011-2012 treasurer. Hopefully, you will also agree with me after reading what I have to say.

First of all, I’m not just another high school student wanting something to put on my résumé. To be honest, I don’t think I’m even going to write this on my résumé even if I get elected. I am running for Treasurer because I love the ideas and people driving CITL and feel that this program could use my experience and expertise.

Ever since I first became a student at Macdonald, I’ve been involved in many large-scale fundraising events; this includes the extremely successful Relay for Life, which has been bringing in over $40,000 each year in donations for the Canadian Cancer Society. Outside of school, I’ve also been working for an international media company. There, I have been responsible for gathering new corporate sponsors and maintaining relations with current sponsors. Some of the sponsors I have brought in include some of the world’s largest corporations—Samsung, LG, and RIM.

On top of my work experience, I believe that I’ve proven my knowledge and skill in the many business-related events I’ve participated in. I was the 1st place winner of the Toronto Student Business Plan Competition, the MBA Virtual Stock Challenge, and the DECA Toronto Principles of Finance event. Today, I’m proud to say that I’m also the fund manager of an equity portfolio valued at over $30,000. It is both my passion and proven skill in the business world that has led me to my current acclaim in my school as Little Warren Buffett.

As a candidate for treasurer, I already have many plans for CITL for next year. The first step I intend to take as treasurer is to secure a non-profit business grant from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development. A past award winner of the Ministry’s business competition, I’ve been told that I could apply for the Youth Entrepreneurship Grant and receive thousands of dollars’ worth of funding. With the new funding, I intend to work with the Director of Communications and Art Director on a large-scale promotional campaign to dramatically increase membership at CITL. One of my ideas is to advertise and hold a large CITL meet-and-greet breakfast for new members. This will not only increase membership tremendously, but will also warrant media coverage, which will in turn increase the chances of us receiving corporate sponsorship.

Of course, actions speak louder than words. Therefore, I don’t believe in repeatedly making promises to get donations, expand the program, and whatever else any treasurer candidate would say. What I do not say, however, I let my actions put into words. Remember, though, for me to take action, you must take action too: Vote Aaron Zhang for Treasurer!

2011-2012 CITL Vice-President Candidate: Michael Kleinman

2011-06-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

Below is what Michael wrote for his campaign:

Re-elect Michael Kleinman as Vice President for CITL!

Running again has been a difficult choice, with outstanding running-mates, the grade 12 year approaching, and the goal to become an International Master before university. I was very ambivalent in running, but I remembered why I first joined Chess in the Library. I wanted to give back to the community of chess, in return for all of the experiences that it brought me.

First of all, it has been an absolute honour to be able to represent the Chess in the Library organization as vice president this past year. Through meetings with a manager of Toronto public library, attending the openings of new branches, and crafting out the volunteer handbook, Chess in the Library has grown, and its been a pleasure to see.

Next year, a primary goal would be to expand. If you break it down, our organization is just awesome. We’re giving many children an opportunity to learn and appreciate the game of chess, who likely otherwise would have not been able to. Likely, these children will improve in many other areas of their life, its really awesome.

Also, I feel that we should have better means of communication. I would hope that we could have around 10 mentors, volunteers with a lot of experience. After sessions, these mentors could talk, and aid newer volunteers, increasing the strength of our network.

I really hope many of you come out and vote. This is an organization with a great initiative, and your vote really impacts the future of this organization.

See you guys Saturday, and the festival will be awesome!

Sincerely,

Michael Kleinman

2011-2012 CITL Art Director Candidate - Linda Fu

2011-06-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

I know this is a bit late but I still have to post it. Below is what Linda wrote for her campaign.

Hello guys,

Being someone who's been with the organization for more than a year, I have definitely seen the organization prosper under the hard work and dedication of everyone on the CITL team, including the execs. However, I think this organization still has an endless amount of space to grow. Every time I volunteer at the Bridlewood Branch, seeing the kids play chess and their smile of reward afterwards just keeps on bringing warmth to me, knowing that my small contribution of teaching the kids basic chess principles has brought them joy and experiences that they haven't experienced before. But I feel like being someone extremely passionate about the artistic field, I can use my strength to contribute even more to this organization, which is why I am running for your art director.

As your art director, the main focus is to make CITL look appealing to chess minds of all ages. As seen by the next festival coming up, CITL has many events that needs artistic input, like flyers, T-shir designs, invitations, banners, you name it! These methods of communication is the first thing that grabs people's attention when they are introduced to CITL, and thus it is my goal to make it as artistic and creative as possible. And of course, promotion of branches will need the attention grabber as well, since it is our goal to expand CITL across the country, a catchy flyer will definitely make the job easier. Also, I plan to work with the director of communications to make the website as appealing and artistic as possible, so youth who loves to go on the internet can get all the CITL information, while at the same time enjoying the creative layout and appearance of CITL's website.

Having an extensive background in inDesign and photoshop, graphic designing is not a problem. I have experience working in this field as I am the layout editor of my school's newspaper, and as well as layout editor of a national magazine.

I will be bringing the magazine and my school's newspaper to the festival for y'all to look at, and hopefully they show the passion I have for arts and a perfect candidate as you're arts director.

Thank you for reading this, and please support me on Saturday!

Linda Fu

2nd Annual Festival Pre-Registration List Updated

2011-06-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

This should be the final list. We have a total of 76 players this year representing 8 different libraries! That's almost half as more as last year's figure (55 players). Here is the pre-registration list:

Open Section

Team	First Name	Last Name
BB	Eno	Masha
	Vlad	Bardalez
	Tonia	Tong
BRW	Zelin	Liu
	Andres	Escobar
FV	Yang	Ji
	Newton	Xu
	Edmund	Rong
HW	Mann	Parekh
	Niruthika	Puvaneswaran
	Avni	Kaur
	Gaajen	Sivarasacumar
	Tina	Vo
NYCL	Soorena	Miralami
	Kristen	Li
	Catherine	Li

Grade 6 & Under Section

BB	Jonathan	Zhao
	Dylan	Chen
	Jonathan	Chan
	Cassidy	Wang
	Henry	Li
	Jaden	Wang
DV	Melalee	Gordon
	Minhyun	Hwang
	Seonghyun	Hwang
	Bradley	Ho
	Adesh	Leaver
	Joshua	Jorda
	Yvan	Nguyen
FV	Victor	Rong
	Helen	Chen
	Bruce	He
	Erkhes	Bayan-Altai
GE	Callum	Denault
HW	Jaanani	Sivarasacumar
	Anjan	Gnanatheevam
	Rajan	Kandola
NYCL	Raelyn	Song
	Harry	Zhao
PV	Serena	de Vera
	Anji	Zhang
	Oliver	He

Grade 3 and Under Section

BB	Tiffany	Yan
	Benjamin	Lin
	Maxwell	Tong
BRW	Jennifer	Zhang
	James	Gao
	Alan	Li
	Aarabhi	Krishnakumar
	Mandaran	Krishnakumar
DV	Julianne	Jorda
	Diana	Lin
	Edward	Hidalgo Lopez
	Jeremias	Campos
	Ba Son	Nguyen
FV	Calvin	Pan
	Anthony	Chen
	Anar	Bayan
	Evan	Liu
	Brian	Xian
	Ray	Liu
GE	Aydin	Kachra
	Benjamin	Lemke
	David	Teresi
HW	Kevin	Johny
	Alen	Johny
NYCL	Kalan Raven	Samaroo
	Haotong (Hazel)	Guo
	Jouhan	Pathmanathan
	Kalan Raven	Samaroo
	Alum	Jivra J.
PV	Naeema	Garcia
	Ayah	Barghout
	Santiago	de Vera
	Domenic	de Vera
	Eric	Sun

2011-2012 CITL President Candidate - Yuanling Yuan

2011-06-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

First of all, I just wanted to say that being your 2010-2011 CITL President and representing all of you was an amazing experience. I want to thank everyone for always believing me and giving me the chance to show everyone what I can bring to our organization. In the past year, Chess in the Library has grown to a total of 21 locations (the last one hasn't been posted yet) and spread to another province - Alberta. It was my dream to see CITL operating in every single province of our beloved country.

For the past month, I've been busy preparing for the CITL 2nd Annual Festival, which will happen this Saturday. Being the leader of the organization, I was responsible for sending out invitations to participants, sponors, donors as well as media. I'm proud to announce that there will be at least 2 TV stations coming to the festival - Fairchild and WIGUP.

I believe that each and every one of you has witnesses what I've contributed to the organization, so I just outlined the main ones. However, at our age, the sky is the limit. If you say that I've done well this year, well then, I can do better. Below is a list of short-term goals that I would aim towards accomplishing if elected as your 2011-2012 CITL President:

- spread the program to a total of 30 locations by June 2012
- have the program spam over at least 5 provinces in total (so 2 more than now)
- create an application form for libraries that wish to join our network
- have the CITL Handbook available online
- dedicate a special page on our website to volunteers (Volunteer of the Month Awards, etc)

Certainly, more ideas will come to me as time goes by but nonetheless, I can only do these things if you re-elect me as your 2011-2012 CITL President! :)

2011-2012 CITL Director of Communications Candidate - Vivek Chachcha

2011-06-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

Below is what Vivek wrote for his campaign:

Hey everyone,

My name is Vivek Chachcha and I am a grade 10 IB student at Victoria Park CI. Unfortunately I have not had the chance to meet many of you, but hopefully I will get the opportunity to meet all of you at the upcoming festival.

I only discovered my love for chess about a year ago when I was stuck with no internet and the only interesting game on my computer was chess. I often visit the local library and through these visit I eventually discovered two great things: the Youth Advisory Group (YAG) for Brookbanks library and CITL. I have been a volunteer for Chess in the Library at Brookbanks Library for the past year now and find the experience greatly rewarding.

While I have not yet had the chance to contribute as much as I would like to the program I think this is the perfect opportunity for me to give back to CITL. I personally believe that CITL is one of the greatest programs offered at the Toronto Public Libraries. It creates an environment for players to meet and play with each other while at the same time providing the opportunity for new players to learn and discover the great game of chess.

Despite these great attributes of the program, I think Chess in the Library could be improved with a new and up-to-date website. The internet has become the number one pass time for youth and children alike and by creating and maintaining a newer website, CITL has the potential to expand its horizons even more.

I have been a part of several web design teams over the past years and have become adept at dealing with CSS, HTML, Flash, and PHP as well. Here are some websites that I have helped develop and help maintain right now:

http://pantherpress.ca/

http://victoriaparkci.com/

http://forum.youthactionnetwork.org/

I have the motivation, the skills, and the passion for this job; so when you are voting this Saturday morning, please vote for Vivek Chachcha as your Director of Communications!

Thank you for taking the time to read this speech!

2011-2012 CITL Vice President Candidate: Kevin Wu

2011-06-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

Greetings fellow volunteers,

Thank you for an amazing year! As your current executive director, I have absolutely enjoyed the experience, which was quite a lot of work but in the end very gratifying. You’re probably itching to get on with your doings, but take a minute to read what I have to say.

We have come a long way from the small organization it was when I first joined. Back in the summer of 2009, it was but at a few libraries scattered around North-eastern Toronto. Through the efforts of the executive board, but more importantly, through the efforts of all of our volunteers, CITL has been able to grow into nationwide effort.

Personally, I have been ushering new programs in at libraries across the city, sometimes alone and sometimes with my executive-mates Yuanling and Michael. Meetings with TPL officials were also a regular occurrence, where we discussed the future of our program in various aspects, including regulations, expansion, and police checks. Our CITL handbook to be handed to every new volunteer has been polished throughout the year.

Nearing that time of the year again when all get together, the annual festival at North York Central Library, I believe firmly in doing everything but stand still. Trophies and certificates, letters to the mayor, press releases, all the little bits and pieces that complete a celebration on the scale of ours, not a single piece has been left untouched. You, as the volunteers, as well as the patrons of our program, deserve as much.

This coming year, I believe it is time for me to take a step forward and become the Vice President of CITL. My experience will certainly be an invaluable asset to CITL in dealing with the librarians that we must maintain contact with as well as the everyday issues that the executive board has worked through this year.

It’s often said that every chess master was once a beginner. Likewise, our organization was once barely walking on its feet, but we are now on the road to greater things. I believe that together, with our collective, organized efforts, CITL has many bright days to come, and I hope that, by serving CITL as Vice President, I will continue to be graced with amazing experiences and good times with the wonderful people in this organization.

Yours Sincerely,

Kevin Wu

2011-2012 CITL Treasurer Candidate: Mike Ivanov

2011-06-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

Below is what Mike wrote for his campaign. He has given me permission to post it on my blog. :)

Vote Mike Ivanov for Treasurer of Chess in the Library!

Hi everyone! My name is Mike Ivanov and I have been volunteering for CITL at the North York Central Public Library since last September. In that time me and a few other volunteers developed our program to be a great way for people of all levels and ages to learn and play chess. Personally I taught chess at my branch to any newcomers and promoted our program as much as possible to the point where we regularly have around 10-15 visitors come to our program. Our team of volunteers is very proud of our efforts and hopes to do even better next year.

I have always wanted to help chess in Canada grow and prosper which is why I joined CITL in the first place. I believe that by becoming the treasurer of Chess in the Library I will be able to help much more people in Canada become chess players which can and will change their lives for the better. It will also get me experience working with a wide variety of people which will surely be useful in my future. I am also a tournament player and a part-time teacher which will help me take a bigger role in CITL as I am fairly familiar with the Canadian chess scene.

I think that I am highly capable of being the treasurer of CITL and maintaining CITL’s finances having dealt with raising money and finding sponsors for organizations before. I’m also very dedicated to expanding our organization and raising awareness for it across Canada and I will try to pass on these values to anyone I work with while I’m treasurer.

If I get to be treasurer of CITL I’ll do my best to improve it by doing things like attracting sponsors to our program and maintain good relations with our current sponsors and organize fundraising events with the idea that in order for CITL to expand it will need more resources and publicity. Also I’ll do my best to promote our organization wherever possible and with enough publicity, interest and sponsors we should be able to expand our great program and help people of all ages learn and play chess in all 10 provinces!

John F. Kennedy once said “think not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”. In our case I think it means that to promote chess in Canada you can’t complain that the government isn’t doing it, you have to take that responsibility in your own hands and do it yourself. I believe that in order for Canada to have a strong chess community we must unite and work together to expand CITL. If that means me taking a bigger role in an organization that wouldn’t be possible without volunteers like us than I will gladly do so and encourage others to do the same since any organization no matter how big in the end started as a small group of people with a common goal. Lastly I sincerely hope that at one point in my life I’ll be able to say that I’ve helped hundreds if not thousands of kids and adults alike start the journey that I’ve been on for over 10 years, the journey of chess. It will give them memories and virtues that will stay with them and contribute to their everyday lives and in my mind that’s what chess is all about!

2011-2012 CITL Vice President Candidate: Gal Gross

2011-06-20T13:52:00.001-07:00

Below is what Gal wrote for his campaign. He has given me permission to post it on my blog. :)

Good evening everyone!

My name is Gal Gross and I’m a Mathematics and Computer Science major at U of T.

I’ve been a member of the Youth Advisory Group at North York Central Library for over two years now, and ever since I started, I’ve been lobbying for a chess club at NYCL, but to no avail. Things only started to get going when Yuanling and Chess in the Library offered to start a program there. Backed up with positive feedback from other librarians, suddenly the chess club seemed like a possibility. But that possibility still lay in the future. Room booking at NYCL is done 15 months in advance. At least six different departments compete for space, and getting a spot is very hard to do – getting a regular one almost impossible. After many months of patient prodding, we finally got our chance and I’ve been with CITL ever since.

North York Central, being the largest library in the city (excepting maybe the Reference Library), was and remain the ideal candidate for the hosting of CITL Annual Festival. I’ve had the pleasure to help out with this event both this year and last one–when an article I’ve wrote about it was published in the August 2010 issue of Canadian Chess News (see attached). Unfortunately I cannot attach the document; however, if you are a CFC member, do check out the August 2010 issue of the CFC e-magazine!

Since I joined, we voted in a wonderful and dedicated group of individuals in our first elections. Thanks to their efforts our organization has flourished and we can now boast over 20 locations in Toronto, and several locations throughout Canada. Chess in the Library is an organization I’m very proud to be part of.

While being wildly successful, we remain fragmented. We each volunteer in our own clubs, largely without feedback or support from other members. I think the stage is set and the time is ripe to advance CITL to the next level. The challenge we are facing is building a strong community.

There is power in numbers – we all know that. People are forever looking to connect with other people; banding together for a common cause or a shared interest. In Chess in the Library our mission is to promote the majestic game of Chess across Canada, but how? What is the best, most efficient and self-sustaining way to promote it? Look around in the countries where Chess is a much more popular pastime – look around and you will found a strong community of players.

The Annual Chess in the Library Festival is the only opportunity we had so far to get together, and it has proved to be a wonderful experience, showing us the potential of the chess-playing community. Why won’t libraries in the same region do field-trips to one another’s clubs? Send representatives to hold regional tournaments, sanctioned by CITL? Why not bring chess into the open, and have family picnics and chess-related activities while the weather permits? Why not hold workshops, and give chess lessons to promising players? Why not have more collaboration between club leaders, exchanging ideas about how to make our clubs bigger, better, more well managed?

Amidst all of these events, we should also have a reliable and easy way of communication. The forum on our website is not so much dead as never even having had the chance of being alive. And while we have a beautiful website, it is largely out of date factually, which means that people visiting it are not likely to return or get helpful information. Our website is our front, the face we show to the world. It should be a hub, buzzing with activities. We should have news; forge electronic alliances with other major chess organization in Canada – and with our sponsors! We should display the latest updates from executive’s blogs, have banner for events. We could also create a Facebook and Twitter groups. Most importantly, we have to do it together.

These simple ideas can help us grow into a movement, when we think big we’ll grow big too. Word will travel, people will get interested in activities, and we’ll promote our organization and everything it stands for while having fun.

I think I can help us grow in this direction, but I know you can. While I’m running for the role of Vice President, and I see everything I’ve described as part of the mission, no single person can build a community or grow a movement. Whether you’re running for a role in the current election or not, I know you have something to contribute. Maybe you’re an expert Facebook user and could manage a CITL page; maybe you’re a person of the great outdoors and know the perfect spot for a chess-related activity; maybe you have experience as a tournament director and would like to help with those regional tournaments; maybe your just enjoy writing in an online forum and can help us make ours more lively; and maybe you have some other brilliant idea that could really make things that much better. Whatever you think you can do, do it! Let’s make CITL into a nation-wide movement!

Yours Faithfully,

Gal Gross

Upcoming 2011-2012 CITL Executive Board Election Details

2011-06-20T13:32:00.000-07:00

So last year's executive board election was held a few days before school started and the voting process was done through emails, which wasn't a very good idea because the votes would not be anonymous. We also decided last year that this year's election would happen on the same day as the annual festival. Since the festival is happening on June 25, 2011 from 11:45am-4:30pm, we will do our election at the NYCL study hall from 9-11am.

This year, the executive board proved to be quite useful. We had several meetings with the TPL manager in charge of our partnership with them and we put together several documents such as the CITL Handbook, CITL Volunteer Contract and recently, the CITL Volunteer Application Form. All of these will be available online soon. I'm sure that other than me, the other 2 executive board members Michael and Kevin enjoyed the process as well. It's was quite a successful year for all of us!

Anyways, if you feel that you want to be more involved with CITL than just simply volunteering at the library, then this is your chance to give yourself an opportunity to learn to become a true leader. Show us what you can do! Don't wait until graduation from university to start experiencing these things - the earlier the better!

Last year we only had 3 positions because we didn't know how things would go. However, now that we've got a taste of democracy, the executive board has decided to add 2 more positions. The 5 people elected will be representing CITL when meeting with our partner (TPL) or any potential sponsors:

President
- sets a typed agenda in consultation with other executive members for all formal CITL executive meetings
- acts as the leader and primary spokesperson of the CITL executive
- responsible for tracking all volunteer hours
- responsible for contacting potential locations to host the program (expansion)
- evaluates annually the performance of the organization in achieving its mission
- maintain a blog with posts on a bi-weekly basis

Vice-President
- fills in for the President when the President is not available
- acts as the secondary spokesperson of the CITL executive
- sets dates for all CITL executive meetings (once a month or once every 2 months), annual festival and otherwise
- responsible for contacting medias when needed & any written documents (excluding the constitution & volunteer hours letter)
- maintain a blog with posts on a bi-weekly basis

Treasurer
- responsible for contacting potential sponsors and donors
- manages finances of the organization
- directs any fund-raising activity/tournaments/events
- maintain a blog with posts on a bi-weekly basis

Director of Communications
- is aware of all events occuring in the organization and maintains the website accordingly (www.chessinthelibrary.com)
- check and replies to all webmails (info@chessinthelibrary.com) at least 2 times a week
- works with the Art Director to ensure that the website is visually appealing and user friendly
- maintain a blog with posts on a bi-weekly basis
*eligibility - must know how to code a website

Art Director
- responsible for designing all forms of posters, advertisements, flyers, invitations, etc that involves creativity and graphics
- works with the Director of Communications to ensure that our website is visually appealing and user friendly
- maintain a blog with posts on a bi-weekly basis
*eligibility - must know the basics of graphic design and must display at least 1 piece of past artistic work at the election

The 5 people will get together every month to two to discuss CITL issues & innovations. The 5 will vote to settle important decisions that are best for the organization. The list of responsibilities above doesn't indicate everything they do, but it is their main job. Eg. VP can also help with expansion (President's job) while President can help with financing (Executive Director's job).

How the election works:
In order for you to become a candidate in this election and run for a specific position, you will need to write a few paragraphs on:
-what you have done for CITL already (if you don't have any it's okay)
-why you want to get the position
-what makes you the best candidate for this position
-how do you plan to make CITL better

Please do read the list of responsibilities and consider carefully if you are willing to commit to it. Again, it's a wonderful opportunity for anyone who wants to increase their leadership abilities. The deadline for candidate submission is Thursday June 23, 2011 at midnight. All candidates will have 2 minutes to speak in front of everyone on the morning of the festival. Then, ballots will be distributed and the voting process will begin on site. Only those who are present that day and have volunteered at CITL in the past/present/future are allowed to vote. The current executive will make sure that an uninterested party counts the votes. We will announce the election winners at the closing ceremony of the festival.

CITL 2nd Annual Festival Pre-Registration List

2011-06-18T18:01:00.001-07:00

We have received 52 registrations with one week to go before the festival begins! The North York Central Library has not sent in their registrations yet, along with some minor changes from other branches. Here is the list so far:

Open Section

Team	First Name	Last Name
BB	Eno	Masha
	Vlad	Bardalez
	Tonia	Tong
FV	Yang	Ji
	Newton	Xu
HW	Mann	Parekh
	Niruthika	Puvaneswaran
	Avni	Kaur
	Gaajen	Sivarasacumar
	Tina	Vo

Grade 6 & Under Section

Team	First Name	Last Name
BB	Jonathan	Zhao
	Dylan	Chen
	Jonathan	Chan
	Cassidy	Wang
	Henry	Li
	Jaden	Wang
DV	Melalee	Gordon
	Minhyun	Hwang
	Seonghyun	Hwang
	Bradley	Ho
	Adesh	Leaver
	Joshua	Jorda
	Yvan	Nguyen
FV	Edmund	Rong
	Victor	Rong
	Helen	Chen
	Bruce	He
	Erkhes	Bayan-Altai
GE	Callum	Denault
HW	Jaanani	Sivarasacumar
	Anjan	Gnanatheevam

Grade 3 & Under Section

Team	First Name	Last Name
BB	Tiffany	Yan
	Benjamin	Lin
	Maxwell	Tong
BRW	Jennifer	Zhang
	James	Gao
	Alan	Li
DV	Julianne	Jorda
	Diana	Lin
	Edward	Hidalgo Lopez
	Jeremias	Campos
	Ba Son	Nguyen
FV	Calvin	Pan
	Anthony	Chen
	Anar	Bayan
	Evan	Liu
	Brian	Xian
GE	Aydin	Kachra
	Benjamin	Lemke
	David	Teresi
HW	Kevin	Johny
	Alen	Johny

CITL 2nd Annual Festival

2011-06-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

Doesn't time fly? It's been already 2 years since the establishment of the Chess in the Library program in June 2009!

To celebrate Chess in the Library's 2 years of existence, the 2010-2011 CITL Executive Board and staff members have been working hard the past month to bring you our 2nd Annual Festival. The main event will be an exclusive CITL tournament, where representatives of different CITL locations gather together to complete for the best team prizes. Other side activities include puzzle competitions, chess jokes, a fun chess facts quiz, a "You think you know Chess in the Library" quiz and finally, the most exciting of all, activities with a GIANT CHESS SET! :)

Aside from all the activities available to all the students, much emphasize will be placed on the opening ceremony of the event. I'm pleased to announce that so far, with the help of Bob Armstrong, Fairchild TV and WIGUP TV will be covering the event. Also, we will be playing a short video clip composed of various flashbacks of CITL in the 2010-2011 year. The winners of the Chess in the Library Volunteer of the Year award will be announced and presented by GM Mark Bluvshtein! Thank you for supporting us, Mark! :)

Last but not least, Maurice Smith, one of the program's main donor, will be our special guest speaker at the opening ceremony. We hope that Denise, the librarian that made CITL possible 2 years ago will also be present to say a few words to the crowd; however, this has not yet been confirmed. I want to take a moment here to thank Maurice as well as all the CITL's sponsors and donors for everything they've done for us in the past year. Without them, Chess in the Library wouldn't have been as successful as it is today.

Everyone is welcome to come to the festival but the tournament is only open to CITL participants. Check out the details below:

When: Saturday, June 25^th, 2011 from 11:45am – 4:30 pm

Where: North York Central Library, Auditorium (5120 Yonge St, Toronto, ON)

Style: Individual & team competition: you will be representing team <>. To form a team in a given section, there must be a minimum of 3 players representing the same library.

Rating: Unrated players are all welcome. All games will be CMA rated.

Sections: Grade 3 & Under, Grade 6 & Under, Open (for everyone & students Grade 12 and Under)

Event Schedule:

11:45am – 12:15 pm Check-in

12:15 pm – 1:00 pm Opening Ceremony

1:00 pm– 4:00 pm Tournament Games

4:00 pm – 4:30 pm Closing Ceremony & Awards

Entry Fee: Based on donations (see * below)

Registration: Submit completed entry forms (attached) to your local librarian by June 11^th(deadline)

Info: Contact your local librarian first, and then email info@chessinthelibrary.com if necessary. Also check out our website www.chessinthelibrary.com for information on side events

Prizes: There will be trophies, medallions and chess books given out to top three individuals and top three teams in each section. A large annual trophy will be awarded to the top team in the Open section.

*PLEASE NOTE – Chess in the Library is a non-profit organization that operates based on donations and volunteers. Without them, this program wouldn’t have been possible, let alone this wonderful festival that we are now hosting. All prizes and rating fees come from generous donations from people who care. Although it is not mandatory, we ask you to please make a donation on site if you like what our organization is doing. Even a small donation such as $5 will make a big difference! Thank you!!

Hope to see you all there~ :)

CITL Spreads to A New City

2011-05-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

Guess what? CITL has now expanded to Barrie, Ontario! Yes, I know it's only a small city near Toronto but it shows that the program is starting to capture interest in places other than Toronto. Here are the details for the program in Barrie:

Barrie Public Library
60 Worsely Street
Barrie, ON
L4M 1L6
705-728-1010

Open from 1-3pm every Saturday.

I'd like to thank Michael Zaghi for taking this intiative and putting all his efforts into getting the program started in Barrie. We've only communicated through email so I've really never met him before. However, one day, I hope to pay a visit to Barrie and meet Michael as well as all the chess enthusiasts there. :)

CITL's First Location for SENIORS

2011-05-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

Chess in the Library is always a program open to all ages, however, it is most often necessary to set a target age range so that the library can promote it in a specific department. As a result, our program has always been targeting children and teens, with a side note saying "everyone is welcome to join".

It was our 18th location that broke this record - the DEER PARK branch! :)

The librarians approached us and specifically requested to startup a chess program for seniors only. Since we've never done this before, my team and I faced a few challenges in deciding how the program should run. Certainly, we can't treat seniors the same way as teens, now can we? So after a meeting with your Vice-President Michael and the librarian in charge of the program, we agreed upon a few modifications such as shortening the program time to 1.5h, focusing more on the teaching sessions, etc.

Last Saturday was our very first session and thanks to our Executive Director Kevin Wu and former volunteer Xiaohan Du, the program went really well. For a detailed report on that, check out Kevin's latest blog post here.

So to all seniors and adults out there who would like to enjoy some chess on a fresh Saturday morning, come down to the Deer Park Library for some chess! If you have no clue on how to play the game at all, no worries! We'll teach you all the basic rules and principles!

For more details on the location, scroll down on our list of locations at www.chessinthelibrary.com

2011 CITL Volunteer of the Year Nominees

2011-05-13T17:25:00.000-07:00

The Chess in the Library (CITL) organization would like to honour and recognize the best volunteers at our program for their continuous hard work throughout the past year. Without each and every volunteer, our organization would not have been as widely recognized as it is today. Thus, the executive team decided to create an Annual CITL Volunteer of the Year Award, which consists of 3 separate recognitions: Most Dedicated, Most Innovative and Best Instructor.

Only CITL locations that were open for more than 6 months and have non-staff members running the program were invited to participate in this event. All the librarians in charge of our participating locations were asked to nominate one non-executive volunteer who has contributed the most to the CITL program at their library during the past year.

We came down to a total of 7 nominees, of which one wishes to remain anonymous. Those to came to the CITL Party sometime ago got to vote for the 3 winners out of the 7 nominees. Results will be announced at the opening ceremony of the 2nd Annual CITL Festival on June 25, 2011 (more details on the festival will be posted soon~).

Below is the list of nominees along with a detailed "reason for nomination" written by library staff involved in the program.

Gal Gross

North York Central Library

"Gal's enthusiasm and dedication, have kept this club going here, especially after Elsa left. His approachability and friendliness make people in the club feel comfortable and this is one reason that I think people come every week. His knowledge and gentle approach encourages those that are beginners to think outside the box, challenge themselves and their opponents, but most of all to have fun."

- Tom Maragos, North York Central Library Society and Recreation Dept.

Jesse Feng
Brookbanks Library

"Brookbanks would like to nominate Jesse Feng for his exceptional dedication, punctuality, concern for the smooth running of the programme and clarity of communication with the branch. Jesse is even tempered and has grown in leadership together with CITL. We appreciate his organisational skills too and his willingness to be openminded to any changes that the branch needs to ask of him and the progrmmae!"

- Denise Drabkin, Brookbanks Branch Head

Mary Xu
Bridlewood Library

"Mary is a very responsible, patient, and hardworking volunteer. She came to Bridlewood since the beginning of the club and was never absent. She is very friendly with the kids and takes care of them in every aspect. Bridlewood is a very busy branch and we have a big group of kids participating in the program. Mary is doing an excellent job at Bridlewood and we are really proud of her."

- Leo Wong, Bridlewood Branch Head & Angela Wong, Bridlewood Senior Libary Assistant

Stefan Whittaker-Lee
Bloor/Gladstone Library

"Stefan has been wonderful at keeping the program running when our local teen volunteers have not always been reliable. It's nice to have someone responsible that you can depend upon!"

-Alice Moore, Bloor/Gladstone Children's Librarian & Raymond Lam, Bloor/Gladstone Librarian

Yolanda Zhang
Fairview Library

"Yolanda consistently attends the program and does her most to help the program succeed. She is very knowledgeable about chess. The kids in the program find her very approachable. She is always ready to help out participants who need her assistance. We are very lucky at Fairview to have her as a volunteer."

-Paula Costa-Kuswanto, Fairview Youth Services Librarian

Yuan Dai
Pleasant View Library

"Yuan was there almost every week except for exceptional circumstances when he couldn't make it, since the re-starting of the branch. He always pays attention to the children and often teaches children who are less able at playing."

-Karen Knott, Pleasant View Branch Head

And finally...we have a nominee who wishes to remain anoymous:

Anonymous Volunteer
Humberwood Library

"xxx is dedicated, committed and goes above and beyond the role required of a volunteer. He shares his passion and knowledge of the game by pioneering learning strategies for beginners such as the Whole Brain Chess method. He also coaches and donates resources which enable the program to grow immeasurably. His love of the game and dedication to the Chess in the Library program has resulted in increased numbers and enthusiastic players. Humberwood is thrilled to have him."

- Vivien Canning, Humberwood Branch Head & Eunice Rodrigues, Chess Coordinator

Congratulations to all the nominees! You all deserved it! However, if you were not nominated this year, it doesn't mean that you weren't a great volunteer. In fact, many librarians expressed to us how difficult it was to make this decision! On behalf of the executive team, I'd like to thank everyone for all their time and effort put into this program in the past year. Perhaps you haven't really thought about this before, but what you're doing for this really program changes the lives of many children out there. We all really appreciate what you're doing every week. We really do.

Toronto Observer Features an Article on CITL

2011-05-08T17:59:00.000-07:00

Here is the second article, published by the Toronto Observer on April 22, 2011. This article was just as good as the one published by Inside Toronto! I'd like to thank the journalist, Alex, as well as the paper for helping us spread the word about Chess in the Library to all those in our local communities.

Here is a link of the article: http://www.torontoobserver.ca/2011/04/22/scarborough-chess-star-expands-games-dominion/

Scarborough chess star expands game's dominion

Alex Kozovski
Published 22 April 2011

Yuanling Yuan (second from right) gives the chance for kids like Julia (middle) to showcase their chess talents through Chess in the Library. (Courtesy Chess in the Library)

Yuanling Yuan is quickly becoming the star of Toronto’s chess scene.

The 17-year-old chess prodigy is Canada’s top female chess player, was the youngest Woman International Master ever and is now spreading the game of chess throughout the city and beyond.

Chess in the Library, a program run by student-volunteers, was founded by Yuan in hopes of spreading the game across the GTA.

At least to start.

Yuan has had a specific goal in mind since starting the club in June 2009.

“The goal is to expand the program to every province in Canada,” said Yuan, a student at Victoria Park Collegiate Institute.

Already in 17 Toronto libraries, Chess in the Library has expanded to libraries in Calgary, Alta., and Victoria, B.C.

The program is designed to promote chess through casual games for the beginner and Chess Federation of Canada-rated games for the experienced.

“It’s a really fun and unique program,” said Andrew Loughlin, who learned about the program last year. “Not many people play chess, but for the people that do, this is perfect: free games, good practice and people actually willing to play.”

Thanks to the Saturday chess sessions, players not only battle one another, they also get to know each other.

“These kids see each other every week,” Yuan said. “The fact that they see each other often makes them … almost one big family.

“It’s become something more than just chess.”

Though Yuan has great designs on the future of Chess in the Library, it’s a different story when it comes to her own future in the game.

“I don’t want to become one of the top players in the world and play chess for the rest of my life,” she said. “It’s not like that.”

Yuan still practices at least an hour a day, she said, but doesn’t play as much chess as she used to. Instead, she’s been focused on advocating the game to anyone who enjoys flexing their intellectual muscle.

“It’s fascinating to me because of the complexity [of the game], and I’m someone who loves to use logic and deduction,” Yuan said. “I like using my brain, and just figuring out solutions to the problems and challenges.”

The second-annual Chess in the Library Festival, hosted by North York Central Library, is set for the last weekend of June. Yuan said she’s optimistic it will help chess gain even more steam in the GTA.

Inside Toronto Captures CITL's Diversity

2011-05-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

I know,I know, it's been a while since I last blogged... :(

So much has happened recently that it's going to take me a few posts to cover everything in the next few days. To start off, I'm proud to announce that in the past month, a cover story on the Chess in the Library program was featured in 2 local newspapers. The first one, made possible by Inside Toronto was published on March 27th, 2011.

In order to speak to a diverse group of people attending our program, the journalist, Michael, decided to visit the Brookbanks, Bloor/Gladstone and Humberwood branches - 3 libraries that form a snapshot of our city. He and his fellow photographer spent a tremendous amount of effort on the interview process as they took a of the city in a single day.

From left to right: Photograper Daniela, me and Journalist Michael :)

The piece turned to be amazing! Michael did a fantastic job of capturing the views and perspectives of all the different kinds of people involved in the program, whether they are members of the executive, TPL staff team, volunteer team or even simply the chess club itself. Check out the article! Here is a link of the article: http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/local/article/972074--checkmate-chess-is-much-more-than-just-board-game

Checkmate: Chess is much more than just board game

Chess in the Library sees success in Toronto's branches

Checkmate: Chess is much more than just board game. Left to right, Stefan, Claudio Garcia-Espejo and Niraq, show focus, fun and fearlessness at the Bloor/Gladstone Library chapter of Chess in the Library. Courtesy/Daniela Muller-Shapiro

By MICHAEL GREGORIS
Mar 27, 2011

If your notion of chess involves a scene with two elderly gentlemen slowly exchanging strange-looking objects on a checkered board under a blanket of deafening silence, then it's time you adopt a more modern understanding.

Enter Brookbanks Public Library in North York, the birthplace of Chess in the Library - a weekly program created by Canada's youngest female International Master, Yuanling Yuan, 17. The library is where young chess players gather to play and learn.

Already two years in, Yuan's idea has been a tremendous success. Chess in the Library now spans across 12 Toronto libraries, and has more than 40 volunteers. The program also operates in three libraries in Ottawa, and one library in Victoria, BC and Calgary, Alta.

One rainy Saturday morning the hysterical howls of children emanate from an undisclosed quarter fill the library.

"Stop throwing the pieces," echoes down a corridor.

Though many players are at the age where they can count their age on one hand - in some cases two - and their knowledge of the game is basic at best, in this program lurks an undeniable sense of enrichment.

Vivek Chachcha, 16, who volunteers at Brookbanks, is particularly grateful for having a chance to assist in the program's weekly operations. A self-described novice, Vivek recently started playing chess last summer because it was the only game on his computer and has been playing ever since.

A friend he made at the club has seen great improvements in his skill, he said.

"I remember when Vlad Bardalez came in, who was an average chess player, and over several months of playing and growing, he's beating me now," said Vivek. "When you see something like that you feel good."

Bardalez, 14, quickly became a familiar face around Brookbanks. His efforts have earned him a certain sense of notoriety from his peers, something given only to those who have demonstrated their dedication in the wake of adversity.

"I played in the past and then quit. I wasn't very good," Bardalez said. "But my weekends were open so I came in and tried it again, and kept coming back. Earlier this morning I beat someone who I've never beaten before; it's nice to get that checkmate."

The 'checkmate' is simply the tip of the iceberg.

In essence, Chess in the Library is designed to boost social and intellectual development. Chess demands the expansion of math and literacy skills and the emotional capacity to learn how to win and lose. But more importantly, these skills help prepare participants for the challenges which lie ahead as they transition through elementary school to middle school, to high school and beyond - something not offered by today's digital mediums.

Although video games do offer entertainment, there's limited emphasis on engaging one's intellectual faculties.

"Instead of just hitting buttons, you have to decide how you want to play and consider the consequences of your actions," said Kevin Wu, 15, executive director of the program. "Chess is a parallel to life - cause and effect."

Wu started playing when he was seven years old after his parents bought him a book on chess. Since then, he's been completely absorbed by the game. Following in Yuan's shoes, he's now a Candidate Master.

"Concentration is important, especially when you're in a half-hour game - multitasking is the new thing, but in chess you're focused on one thing and one thing only," added Vivek.

Chess is as challenging as it is revealing. Each player has their own style based on their unique personality. As they become more accustomed to the conventions of the game, their style of playing becomes more complex.

"When you play someone you have to adapt to their style," said Bardalez.

He notes that younger, more inexperienced players tend to be reckless and aggressive. It's just in their nature. But the longer they play and more mature they become, they tend to abandon those tendencies and think things through.

Feedback from parents has been exceptionally positive.

"They're very excited because their kids are around that age where they tend to stop coming to the library and reading books; their curiosity is changing directions," said Denise Drabkin, branch head of Brookbanks District Branch library. "This shows them the library is a relevant place for them."

Amber Daugherty, 21, who moved here from Listowel, Ontario, volunteers at Humberwood Library in Etobicoke, where they recently held a chess tournament over the March Break. She sees this program as an opportunity to connect with other members of the community.

"I live close to Humberwood, so I decided to go check it out - I love chess," says Daugherty. "I immediately adored all the kids who attended, and loved that it allowed me to get to know some people I wouldn't have otherwise gotten to know in the area."

Nonetheless, the program faces challenges relating to sustainability. The operation has grown considerably, including a board of elected executives, a website, and numerous chess-related blogs, and a budget, which Yuan notes, can use some donations.

"My long-term goal was to spread this program across Canada with a program in every province," says Yuan. "So far it's working, but we need people to help run it."

Gloria Jacobs, branch head of Bloor/Gladstone District Branch library, whose library recently included the Chess in the Library into its public programming, acknowledges the need for more assistance.

"We're not as developed as Brookbanks or other branches," says Jacobs. "We're going to need more time to attract and grow our audience, but as with anything, it takes time and effort."

The most dedicated players will eventually become volunteers to help mentor the next wave of players.

"We need their help to sustain the program and help it grow," says Drabkin. "They build their public speaking skills and their leadership skills. In the end, everybody wins."

For more information, visit www.chessinthelibrary.com

2011 Humberwood Spring Tourney

2011-03-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the Humberwood branch in Etobicoke held its very first official chess tournament and it was surely a great success! For the entire afternoon, young players ranging from 5 to 16 year olds battled their wits over the chessboard.

tournament site

From left to right: Kevin, Vivien, Julia (winner), me & Eunice

From left to right: Kevin, Mann (winner), Amber, me and Vivien

group photo of the winners~ SAY CHESS!! :)

Your fellow Executive Director Kevin and I made a gruesome trip across the city to support this event. It was definitely 200% worth it! I've been hearing from the librarians Vivien and Eunice the amount of enthusiasm the players bring to the Chess in the Library program but until I've actually seen it with my very own eyes, it is hard to imagine that chess would shine so brightly in an area so desolated. Vivien, the branch head of Humberwood was thrilled to see such an amazing turnout and at one point, she was jumping up and down exclaiming: "Finally, after 3 years, I've accomplished what I wanted!"

The other Chess in the Library staff coordinator at Humberwood was Eunice, of whom I was previously not too familiar with. However, throughout the event, she told me many stories of the program at Humberwood. She said, "Some of these kids, including my daughter, never even knew how to play chess at all until last October, when we restarted the program. They learned and improved slowly from the volunteers and now look at them - they are just so enthusiastic about the game! If it weren't for you, I would have never had the slightest thought about being an ardent chess promoter and all these kids wouldn't be having the time of their life! You're a true inspiration."

For the very first time in my life, I was told personally that I was an inspiration to the librarians, the volunteers and the kids. In the past perhaps I've heard similar comments or I simply assumed that I inspired others, but for some reason, it was completely different this time. At that very moment when I heard those words, my heart leaped and I couldn't help smiling. This is exactly what I hoped for from the very beginning - to inspire other people, especially those who had no previous connection to chess at all, to start promoting chess. I've known that an individual like me will not be able to accomplish much, however, if 100 people join in the team, then the impact that we create must be 200 times greater than the impact I create.

It was unfortunately that I did not get to meet Kevin Burda, a senior who not only volunteers at the program, but also contributes greatly to it. His creation of Whole Brain Chess (a method of teaching beginners with only half the board) and financial support of the entire 2011 Humberwood Spring Tourney, including prizes, medals, ribbons, rating fees, etc was critical to the program's success. On top of that, Eunice also told me that Kevin B. is willing to give it his all to help the program succeed in Humberwood. I am just utterly amazed at how there are so many people in this world that are willing to support this game unconditionally.

Luckily, I got the chance to meet Amber, another active volunteer of the program at Humberwood. Amber is very sweet girl and she is amazing with the kids. Since chess is a male dominant game, I love to see girls involved in the program, regardless of whether they play the game or not. Amber says that she she isn't so great at the game but nonetheless loves to watch the action and help out the club.

Amber and I

Thanks to Amber, who studies journalism at Humber College, the tournament was able to attract some publicity from the Toronto Star and the Etobicoke Guardian. The photographer from the Star took some really awesome photos, to the point that I have an urge to make some CITL posters with them! Check out the Toronto Star Photo Blog by Richard Lautens: http://photogallery.thestar.com/956891

Photo by Richard Lautens. Caption: Kevin Johny, 6, reacts.

At the end of the game, I am just overwhelmed by the amount of surprises showered upon me. Vivien, Eunice, Kevin B. and Amber, all of you have touched my heart deeply and I thank you all for making this day a forever memorable one.

An Aesthetically Appealing Invitation

2011-03-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

It's human nature that we're attracted to pretty things, nobody can deny that. Although the common sayings of "don't judge a book by its cover" is a good lesson to be learned, most often "what looks good will be good" is reality, especially with the psychological effect intertwined.

Now suppose there are two newly opened burger stores with no previous reputations of any sort. While the quality of the burgers in both stores are the same, store A has better sales, customer reviews, etc. Reason? Well, store A's flyers are much more professionally done, in way that anyone who sees the flyer would want to rush to the store and gobble down the delicious looking burger immediately. Well, you may say that I'm exaggerating a bit, but in reality, that's true, isn't it? Plus, if the owner of store B spent all his time complaining about why his burger business wasn't as prominent, you would think that he is foolish.

You might wonder why I am suddenly interested in burgers. Isn't this a chess-related blog??? Of course...I'm getting there! It was some time ago that I had received a printed invitation by mail. Never in my life had I seen such an aesthetically appealing invitation...for chess! It was simple, elegant and quite professional looking. Check this out:

As an ardent promoter of chess, I am crying of joy at this sight. This invitation is special because I can tell that the organizers have indeed spent a lot of effort and time into it. This is the positive attitude that everyone should have about chess. Perhaps many Grand Masters in Europe have seen much better invitations, but right now, right here, within our geographic boundary is a country called Canada, a place where chess isn't so important at all. Considering the circumstances, this piece of paper seems like a miracle. Perhaps to many people, this invitation will create no effect, just as if the burger flyer went into the hands of a vegetarian. However, to me it signals something - hope. Again, in this country, that is a feeling you'll rarely get when dealing with chess.

When I mentioned the burger example, it seems so obvious that a better flyer and better sales are positively correlated. The funny thing is, people don't seem to realize that this model can be used on chess. It's true that compared to hockey, this game isn't so popular. However, if everyone would just put some effort into changing this fact, then in a few decades, we might be able to see things turn around. Perhaps the owner of burger store B could spend his time on redesigning his flyers. With Chess in the Library, I am trying to create a model that can be duplicated easily. A model that promotes chess with low costs and some volunteers.

I simply must praise the organizers who sent me this invitation for doing such a wonderful job. One day, I shall frame it as if it is a delicate piece of art. As much as I would like to support this event with my participation, the upcoming months of April and May are critical to my academic studies. Nonetheless, I hope that this will turn out to be a very successful event!

Chess in Calgary Follow-Up

2011-03-12T09:08:00.000-08:00

The very first session of the CITL program in Calgary was as successful as it could be. The club attracted a large number of participants, ranging from those in elementary school to those in university! Take a look at some pictures below (photo credits goes to Avelino Angelo Tolentino):

Very pretty CITL poster!

This stand was placed on a small table full of chess books

GIANT CHESS SET! :)

Alberta Women Champion Nicka Kalaydina

Thanks to the Calgary Chess Club, the program is able to provide chess clocks~

Chess in action!

There were quite a few volunteers there to help out

To see the complete album, visit my web album here.

Thanks again to Simon Ong and his fellow volunteers for doing such an outstanding job! When Simon sent me the pictures, I was quite surprised to see Kalaydina among the crowd. She is one of the top female chess players in this country and I remember playing her a few years ago at the Women's Zonal. I'm just really glad to see more and more strong juniors join this program, whether as a volunteer or participant. Kalaydina's presence was definitely enlightening for me, as seeing a fellow top female player in this field join CITL to promote chess is not a frequent sight. In fact, she is the first.

Humberwood Prepares for First Tourney!

2011-03-11T20:06:00.000-08:00

Other than the CITL Chess Festival that we host annually, the program has never hosted an "official" chess tournament. The word "official" refers to rated games, prizes for winners and most importantly, serious players. In the past, thanks to the Chess'n Math Association, we were able to rate some weekly tournaments. However, it was mainly casual chess that the kids played and rarely did we ever give out prizes. If we did, it would be chess books donated by one of the many kind-hearted CITL supporters out there.

Well, I'm pleased to announce that the Humberwood branch in Etobicoke has decided to take the initiative and organize a legit chess tournament. There's always a first time to everything, right? Here's some information on the tournament:

When: Saturday March 19, 2011, 1-5pm
Where: Humberwood Library (check chessinthelibrary.com if you don't know where that is)
Rating: All games will be both CMA and CFC rated
Sections: Players will be grouped according to age, and rating if they have one
Prizes: There will be lots of medals, ribbons and book prizes for the winners! The top finishers will also represent the Humberwood branch at the annual festival this year.
Entry Fee: $0 (the purpose is to promote chess, remember?)
*Pre-registration at the Humberwood branch

Shiny medals and ribbons for prizes~

Close-up look at the SHINY MEDALS! :)

This tournament would definitely not have been possible without the help of 3 ardent CITL promoters, Eunice R., Vivien C, and Kevin B. Kevin is a volunteer at the Humberwood branch and the main sponsor of this event! Without his contributions, it would definitely be impossible for us to provide all these awesome prizes and pay the rating fees! Thank you so much Kevin!
So what are you waiting for? Sign up for this tournament now by calling the Humberwood branch (again, check our website for their phone number)! :)

CITL in ALBERTA!

2011-02-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

Since the very beginning of starting up this organization, my goal was to open up a CITL location in every province of our beloved nation. It was only a few weeks ago that the executive board had decided to work on spreading the program to Alberta and Quebec this year and yet, 50% of our new year resolution has already been completed!

Thanks to the Calgary Junior Chess Club, the Chess in the Library program will host its debut session in Alberta very soon! Here's the info:

Country Hills Library
11950 Country Village Link NE
Calgary, AB
T3K 6E3
403-260-2600

Open from 1:30 to 4:30 on Saturdays, on the following dates: Feb 26, March 26, April 23, May 21, June 25, July 16, August 27

So if you live in Calgary and needs a venue to play chess, then come on down to the Country Hills Library on Saturday Feb 26th for some chess lessons and mini-tournaments!

A big shout out to Simon Ong, NM Roy Yearwood, Angelo Tolentino and Richard Canal for taking this initiative to promote chess in Canada! It is really people like all of you that keep me going because knowing that I can inspire others to join me in promoting chess is simply an indescribable feeling, in a good way of course.

Bridlewood Branch Reopens

2011-02-13T21:47:00.001-08:00

After several months of renovating, the Bridlewood branch in Scarborough has finally reopened! According some librarians, it usually much longer to finish renovating a library than what was originally planned. So when this branch was about to close down for renovations, I was told that it would reopen in 3 months. My first reaction was: "Oh no! The kids in Scarborough won't be able to play chess until next summer!" You see, I was totally prepared for that library to keep renovating for an extra 6 months. Just like science labs, it is very important to include uncertainties! In this case the uncertainty would be plus or minus six months. :)

Anyways, I'm glad that everything was completed on schedule, although the library doesn't really appear to be a "library" anymore at the first glance. I visited the branch last Friday and got lost trying to locate the library in the mall. It totally looked like a furniture shop to me when I first walked past it! You can tell that it's a library from my pictures below but seriously, when you're outside the glass window and throw a sideways glance at the library, it will look nothing like a library!

After renovations, the library become much bigger!

This high-tech system allows people to check out the books by themselves!

Anyways, I just wanted to tell everyone that the Chess in the Library program is once again running at the Bridlewood branch every Friday night from 6-8pm. Just don't get lost when you're going there like I did! :)

First Executive Meeting in 2011

2011-01-30T19:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the CITL executives gathered at the NYCL for the first meeting of the new year. There were many things to be discussed so we had to get straight down to business the moment we arrived. One of the most important items on our agenda was our new year resolution. What will our goals be in 2011? How do we plan to achieve that goal?

From left to right: VP Michael, Executive Director Kevin & me

Below are the minutes for this meeting:

1) Expansion
- current situation: 12 locations in Toronto, 2 in Ottawa & 1 in Victoria
- regional goal: 20 locations in Toronto by the end of 2011, which is 20% of all TPL branches
- national goal: start-up in two new provinces, namely Quebec and Alberta by the end of 2011

2) Volunteer Training Package & Handbook
- contract & basic handbook are already completed
- volunteer selection & training procedures are to be added

3) Website
- our Webmaster Yutong Luo, who has been with us since the beginning of this project will soon retire from this position
- our Executive Director Kevin Wu will temporary undertake this position until a new Webmaster is found
- google maps are to be integrated on our home page

4) Volunteer Banquet
- planned for sometime during March Break
- location, budget are to be confirmed
- invitations will be sent out no later than Feb 26th, 2011
- possible "Volunteer of the Year" award will be given (method of selection has yet to be determined)

5) CITL 2nd Annual Festival
- a few possible locations are considered, will be confirmed soon
- date will be Saturday, June 25th, 2011
- annual trophy (sponsored by the Southam family) will be purchased
- media will be contacted well in advance this year
- invitations to players & special guests will be sent out no later than March Break
- 2011-2012 CITL executive election details will be announced soon

CITL Promotional Sessions: Learning How to Become a Salesperson

2011-01-27T13:34:00.000-08:00

My mid-terms are finally over (*cheers!*) but when it comes to Chess in the Library, promoting chess is never over.

For the past two weekends, I helped to conduct 2 promotional sessions for the program - one at Fairview, another at North York Central. These promotions are conducted on a frequent basis, for the purpose of enlarging the Chess in the Library club at a given branch. As the president of this organization, it was my responsibility to be present at these important events, especially if it meant bringing more Canadian citizens into the world of this wonderful game.

However, I was inclined to be there for another purpose- teaching my fellow teammates the most efficient way of selling a product. In this case, that would be peoples' registration for the program. We would set up a table around the entrance of the library along with a few chess sets. Next to the sets were a stack of flyers and a registration sheet with a pen lying on its side anticipating a chess enthusiast or two to pick it up and scribble their names. When conditions allow, we have the luxury of using a large poster or demo board to attract the public's attention.

I did not take any pictures for the Fairview promotion but luckily I remembered to bring my camera along for the one at NYCL.

The lobby of NYCL with people flowing in and out on both sides - perfect place to situate a chess table here!

Actually we only had chairs on the other side of the table, where volunteers sat and handed out flyers. But then all of the sudden two guys came along and challenged our volunteers to two serious games of chess! As a result, they got themselves two chairs from the Teen Zone and blocked the public's view of the demo board (you can see only half of it here).

The What's On heading is a must for all Toronto Public Library flyers. With a stand to hold the flyer up, it does look pretty neat, eh?

I still clearly remember the very first time that I did this kind of thing. It was for the opening of our very first location - the one at the Brookbanks branch. I was walking around handing out flyers outside of the library and I was honestly scared to death. Never in my life had I felt so little confidence in myself. Each time I gave a flyer to a stranger, it took a great deal of self-reassurance and courage. And rejection was the most embarrassing thing yet. However, after a year and a half, I have practised, practised and practised countless times. Now I feel like a decent salesperson who is confident and not afraid of the word "no". It was Chess in the Library's numerous promotional sessions that gave me the opportunity to overcome this psychological disorder, of which I believe many people possess.

So I know exactly how the volunteers feel when they are introducing the program to strangers. The timidness and shakiness in their voice says it all. However, having a buddy beside them for mere encouragement is simply not enough. They also need a mentor who can help them become a great salesperson. That's the role I perform at CITL's promotional sessions nowadays. I truly believe that my fellow teammates, the ones who have conducted promotional sessions in the past will one day completely overcome the fear that was once inside them through this program. Secretly watching their entire learning process, I inevitably feel the joy that teachers do when their students improve.

New Year Present

2010-12-31T20:48:00.001-08:00

On behalf of the Chess in the Library team, I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year! Thank you so much for supporting Chess in the Library in 2010 and may the new year bring us all good fortune!

CITL received a big present a few days ago - something that means a lot to us all. Want to take a guess? :)

Well, our story has now expanded to Italy! How exciting is that, right? :) Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the program has physically expanded to Italy itself, haha (I wish...). An Itaty based chess blogger Giovanni Ornaghi has made 2 posts about Chess in the Library, a brief introduction and another full length interview. Below are the links:

http://blogchess.blogosfere.it/2010/12/yuanling-yuan-porta-gli-scacchi-in-biblioteca-1.html

http://blogchess.blogosfere.it/2010/12/yuanling-yuan-intervistata-da-blogchess-sul-suo-programma-chess-in-the-library.html

If you understand Italian, then you're in luck! You get to read the article without any problem, unlike me, who has to use Google Translate. :)

Well, if you don't have time to use Google Translate and would like to read the interview, Giovanni has uploaded an original English PDF version of the interview for your convenience! Here is the link: http://blogchess.blogosfere.it/images/Blogchess%20-%20Yuanling.pdf

This has to be the best New Year present ever! Thank you so much Giovanni for spreading the word about Chess in the Library in Italy! I sincerely hope that people can be inspired by our organization and perhaps start doing something similar for their country. Now if you're hesitant about it, feel free to email us at info@chessinthelibrary.com and we'll do our best assist your project in any way we can! My oh my, this is starting to become the promotion of chess worldwide and not just in Canada!

Happy New Year everyone~

Just the Kind of Spirit

2010-12-05T08:06:00.000-08:00

When you hear the words "chess spirit", what is the first thing that comes to mind? For some, it would be the good sportsmanships in the game itself or even the perseverance in achieving a master title. Others might believe that chess spirit is about the amount of people who play chess in a given community or show up at a certain tournament. The list goes on as the true definition of "chess spirit" cannot be defined - everyone has his own perspective when it comes to vague terms like this one.

Recently, I encountered a few people that demonstrated two unique chess spirits. The former is more of a group effect as it was the entire family that participated in this "chess spirit". I was able to take a picture with the daughter and mother but not the father. Take a look at the picture below:

Left to right: little girl's mother, little girl and me!

Now take a look at the shirts we are wearing. Mine isn't any special at all but if you pay close attention to the red and white one, you'll be amazed at the words written on it! The little girl's shirt said "Grand Master in Training" and her mom's shirt said "Chess Mom" (yes, it's a little covered up)! As I mentioned earlier, I didn't get the chance to take a photo with the father but his shirt said "Chess Dad". Isn't it adorable? :) Oh and I forgot to mention that this photo was taken at a chess tournament where the little was playing in. So the entire family wore chess T-shirts to support their daughter! AWESOME chess spirit!!

The second person that I'm going to introduce is John Granger, a chess enthusiast living in one of the best cities to play chess in Canada - Toronto. In Toronto, we have the greatest number of local tournaments plus the largest turnout rates. Wouldn't it be natural for chess devotees to play in a local tournament or a club at the very least?

me and John

Well, the truth is, before I met John, I thought that the amount of people who are really passionate about chess is limited to this little chess community that we've established in Toronto long ago. Those who play in clubs, tournaments and other chess events are the same people and after a while, every face will seem familiar. However, John's story is very much different from the people in this so-called"chess community".

A few weeks ago, I received an email from John regarding donations for Chess in the Library. He had read the article that was published in the Toronto Star and offered to donate a few boxes of chess books to our organization. I was undoubtedly delighted to hear this great news but after sending a few emails back and forth, I realized that his donation was beyond what appeared on the surface.

It was his chess spirit that touched me deeply. John had a collection of about a hundred chess books but never played in a single rated tournament or club match! Being a curious cat, I sought for an explanation. Below is what I received as reply:

"Truth is I much more enjoy walking through great games, and reading about great players, than studying theory. I did learn enough theory to avoid basic mistakes but I tended to avoid deep learning of opening lines. That way almost all my games were new and exciting (for me at least). (But it also meant that I would likely never develop into a high level player! :)

And yes - I only played for fun - never got a ranking.. I think I got so much enjoyment out of playing with friends and studying the game that I didn't look for more."

I read these lines over and over, staring at them in awe for quite some time. His passion for chess is so great that simply enjoying the game itself could be so self-satisfying. Many people play chess for the rating and the titles that they can achieve once their rating gets to a certain point. However, in John, I saw a true appreciation of the game and nothing, absolutely nothing else could become a factor of his penchant for chess. I truly admire John's chess spirit; although the spirit he processes is not something physical (like the first one above), not many people are able to see it, but once you do, the effects are so much greater than those who show it physically.

So thank you John, for generously donating your trove of chess books to Chess in the Library and for unconsciously reminding us all the reason to why we love this game so much.

New Year Resolution Completed 1 Month in Advance!

2010-11-28T11:31:00.001-08:00

"Our new year resolution for the program is to build the team larger, perhaps we will form an executive board and expand the program to 15 different locations in total (10 more than what we have now). I personally have lots of faith in my team and I believe this goal is definitely achievable."

Does this quote sound familiar? Well, to all those supports that reads my blog often, I'm sure it does! I wrote this in a post in January this year called "2010 - New Year, New Changes". At that time, CITL had only 5 locations in Toronto since the establishment of this organization in June 2009. Thus, I gave myself and the rest of my teammates a goal, and that was to build an executive board along with the expansion of this program to a total of 15 locations by the end of December 2010.

Our executive board was elected at the end of August, as I mentioned in an earlier poster. If you don't remember, then here are the board members:

President - Yuanling Yuan
Vice-President - Michael Kleinman
Executive Director - Kevin Wu

Our VP is current organizing a volunteer banquet that will be held next weekend and our Executive Director is currently contacting a new location in Scarborough - the Woodside Square branch. And I'm just doing what I always do, the usual management stuff. As the organization grows, the three of us will just get busier and busier...

One by one, my teammates and I worked hard to introduce the Chess in the Library program to new public libraries. Each and every one of them took effort as planning, promotion and operation were essential to the program in each location. From 5 locations to 6, from 6 to 7, 7 to 8...slowly, we were closer and closer to our goal - 15 locations. Today, I'm pleased to announce that we finally confirmed our 15th location - the North Gloucester Library in Ottawa! Here's some info about the CITL program there:

North Gloucester Library

2036 Ogilvie Rd.
Ottawa, ON
K1J 7N8
613-748-4208

Open from 1:30pm to 3:00pm on Saturdays, starting from January 22nd, 2011

I'm sure that by now, you all know who is our project leader in Ottawa. That person is none other than one of Canada's young masters - Joey Qin. He was the one who discussed the details of this new location with the local librarians and make sure that everything was going go smoothly. Joey has even made a complete training plan for the program there! He showed me a list of the materials he will be covering during the session and on specific dates too! I won't be giving anything out because I'm sure that Joey would like to share this awesome plan with you on his own blog. :)

Another person that I must thank is Gerry Litchfield from CFC. The librarians first contacted him about the possibility of having a chess program at the North Gloucestor branch and he was the one who forwarded us the information. Without both Gerry and Joey's involvement in this, our new year resolution would've still been incomplete.

Actually, my original plan for this year was to expand the program to 10 more locations in Toronto, and focus of the rest of the country next year. However, we already have 3 locations outside of the city that makes us officially a nation wide program (2 in Ottawa & 1 in Victoria, which was completely unexpected! Thus, with the help of Brian Raymer & the Victoria Chess Society, Joey Qin and all the other volunteers invovled in this program outside of Toronto, we haven't just completed our goal for 2010, but exceed expectations!

Our next step is to expand the program to at least 1 library in each province in Canada. So if you live outside of Toronto and would like to lead the Chess in the Library project at your local library (like Joey and Brian), please do contact us! I know that in our beloved country, there are so many people out there that are very passionate about the game and would like to see chess in Canada become super popular one day. I understand that the current situtation doesn't look very appealing but I believe that one day, dreams do come true. Nothing is impossible - keep that in mind! CITL's 15 locations will become 16, 16 becomes 17, 17 becomes 18...and one day, we might even reach 100! By then, think about how many extra chess players we'll have in the country! These kids will eventually go on to play in CMA or CFC tournaments (many do at the moment), which will contribute to everything chess related here. We need your help! Email us at info@chessinthelibrary if you want to help make Canada a better place for those that love chess. Thanks!

Opening of the CITL program at Bloor/Gladstone & North York Central

2010-11-21T18:00:00.000-08:00

The last two Saturdays in October were big days for the CITL executive team, which comprises of me, Michael Kleinman and Kevin Wu. Now why were those Saturdays so important to us? Well, it was the opening of the Chess in the Library program in two new locations! What makes them even more special is they are two of the largest branches in Toronto. We've been trying to introduce the CITL program to them for a really really long time now and finally it's come true! Here they are:

1) Bloor/Gladstone Branch in downtown Toronto

The brown and glass building in the background would be the Bloor/Galdstone branch. It's so gorgeous inside! Never in my life seen a library so beautifully constructed. No wonder it took 3 years to renovate!

There is a long story of CITL and this branch. When I first founded the program last summer, it became so successful that we've received requests from people regarding the startup of such a program in other libraries. Bloor/Gladstone was one of them. So I called the branch and told them about this request, hoping that the program would be accepted. Who knew that the branch just finished a three year renovation and it's rooms bookings are as popular as ever! With no rooms available to run the program, the librarians had no choice but to reject us. It was completely understandable too. At that time, I just moved on to seeking other libraries that might be interested in having the program there. I've always had a very strong faith in the program so thanks to that, being rejected by the Bloor/Gladstone librarians didn't kill my confidence. I was just a little disappointed, that's all...

Sometimes fate is just fate and things that are meant to be are just meant to be. A few months ago I received an email from a Bloor/Gladstone librarian (a different one compared to the one that I first contacted), Raymond, who was very keen on getting the chess club started at Bloor/Gladstone. Interesting how it comes to a full circle, eh? Well, here I want to give a big thank you to Raymond for making CITL possible at one of the most beautiful and high-tech libraries in Toronto! Although I've never met him in person, I can tell that he is surely one of the nicest guys out there! Another library staff to thank is Alice, the lady that took care of the volunteers and helped out with the club on Saturdays. :)

For the opening week, about 15 excited participants showed up at the program. Michael, Kevin and I were there to train the new volunteers Yeo-Jeong Kim and her brother John Kim. Welcome to the team guys!

2) North York Central Library on Yonge St. , Toronto.
This library is officially the second largest one in Toronto, ranked behind the Reference Library in downtown. It has 5 main floors in total excluding an underground one as the public study area. They are one of the branches that currently uses the self check-out system. Very user friendly, I must say! These self-serve machines are getting more and more popular that perhaps in 10 years, everything that we buy will be self-serve.

Like the Bloor/Gladstone branch, CITL and this branch has some history as well! I started contacting the youth service specialist Elsa since the beginning of this year and finally we were able to get it started! Thanks again to Elsa for all of hard work in this!

I'd also like to welcome a few new volunteers to our crew: Mike Ivanov, who will be representing Canada at the U16 Olympiad very soon and Stephanie who was retruited on the library's behalf. Of course we cannot forget about the returning ones : Stanley Su and Gal Gross. Thank you all for supporting CITL in North York Central! :)

Here are two pictures of the volunteers playing chess along with Michael and Kevin.

Although not many people showed up the first week of the program, I can happily announce that the proceeding weeks after that one were much better once we did some more promotion. Keep up the great work guys!

Toronto Star Features an Article on Chess in the Library!

2010-10-31T11:38:00.000-07:00

Two Saturdays ago, the a Toronto Star photographer Rene J. came to the Brookbanks Library to take some pictures of the Chess in the Library program and the newly elected executive members - me (President), Michael Kleinman (Vice-President) and Kevin Wu (Executive Director). It was a completely democratic election as we have 20 of our active volunteers vote for who they believe is the best candidate for each position. About 8 people in total were running for the 3 positions and it came down to the 3 of us.

When the Toronto Star journalist Dan R. called me one day about the article, I was extremely excited! Not only because it's Chess in the Library's first major publicity, but also because the media is finally talking about chess! He asked me which library the photographer should go to for the pictures and without even thinking, I said: "Brookbanks." The Brookbanks branch was our very first location and it had always been our headquarters. When I go to that library now, it doesn't feel much different from home. The branch head Denise had been extremely supportive of us so both her and the Brookbanks location are major components of the CITL program.

Before we take a look at the article, I just want to thank ALL of our past and present volunteers, ALL of our library liaisons as well as ALL of our donors and sponsors for making CITL possible. A special shout out goes to Yutong Luo, our hardworking Webmaster, Mr.Usprech, my IB guidance counsellor and finally my fellow executives Michael and Kevin. Without each and every one of your support, we couldn't have done it. The article is dedicated to you all and I strongly believe that you all deserve credit for this article!

I hope that this article will help us with expansion and finding corporate sponsors and other funds. Long live Chess in the Library!

Chess champ spreads her passion for the game

Published On Sun Oct 24 2010

Dan Robson Staff Reporter

Yuanling Yuan, 16, is a world-class chess player who has set up chess clubs in libraries across Toronto.

RENE JOHNSTON/TORONTO STAR

Yuanling Yuan, 16, centre, with Kevin Wu, 15, left, and Michael Kleinman, 16, at her library chess club.

RENE JOHNSTON/TORONTO STAR

Yuanling Yuan is a relentless chess champion.

The precocious 16-year-old from Victoria Park Collegiate Institute recently spent a couple weeks in Russia as a member of Canada’s team at the World Chess Olympiad.

She ranked 27th out of 564 female players — the highest a Canadian has ever finished. And when she’s not busy being a remarkable chess whiz on the board, she’s busy championing the game off of it.

In today’s digital world, chess may as well be lawn-bowling to many young people. At least that’s what some people think.

Yuan, however, is set on proving those people wrong.

Two years ago she founded Chess in the Library — a smart-sounding club for smart-sounding people. The kind of people who travel to the library (that ancient bastion of knowledge) to play chess (that game that old, wise people play).

“I just wanted to do something to promote chess in Canada,” she said of the day in spring 2009 when she walked into Brookbank Library and told head librarian Denise Drabkin that she wanted to start a chess club.

“She came in here and she said, ‘Hi! I'm really, really keen on starting a chess in the library program’ and I said ‘Wow, lets talk,’ ” recalls Drabkin, who admits she was skeptical at first. “The rest is history.”

Less than two years in, Yuan’s idea has turned into a weekly ritual for people young and old across Toronto. Chess in the Library now operates in 12 Toronto libraries, and has more than 40 volunteers.

The program also operates in a library in Ottawa, and recently expanded to a library in Victoria B.C.

Each library has between 20 to 30 participants coming to learn and play chess every week — that’s more than 250 people.

Most are teens, but some are as young as 5, while others are senior citizens. Experienced players face off against each other, while beginners can get lessons and tips.

“I think chess is a game for people of all ages,” says Yuan, who started playing with her father when she was 7. “As long as they can sit at the table and move the pieces, they should be allowed to play.”

Chess in the Library is not a pawn of an operation. It has a website, an elected executive, and a budget — which, Yuan notes, can use some donations.

“One person can’t really achieve much,” she says of the volunteers who’ve helped make the program a success. “It takes teamwork.”

Yuan enlisted the help of Sheldon Usprech, a teacher who coordinates the International Baccalaureate program at Victoria Park, to get students at the school involved. They are able to complete their community services requirements for graduation by volunteering with the program.

“For a kid her age, what an astounding accomplishment,” said Usprech. “What an incredible program she's created. It's something that people much older would be very proud to put on their resumé.”

And, no doubt it will be on Yuan’s resumé as she applies for business school in a few years. One day she hopes to master commerce the way she’s mastered chess.

Even then, she’ll continue to champion the game she loves.

That’s because, for Yuan, Chess in the Library is more than just a game on Saturday mornings.

“It’s become a group gathering event. It’s beyond chess,” she says. “They make friends there. They talk about — well — I don’t know what they talk about.

“But it’s more than just chess.”

Where Have I Been? At 39th World Chess Olympiad!

2010-10-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

To all of my blog readers, you must've all realized that I haven't posted anything for almost a month! Well, it's not nothing happened in the past month, but rather TOO MUCH that had happened. To start off, I was away in Russia for 3 weeks to represent Canada at the 39th World Chess Olympiad held in Khanty - Mansiysk, Siberia. This was my second time representing Canada at the Olympiad, the first time being in 2008 when I was 14. However, this year I played on board 1 and took the responsibility of leading the entire women's team.

As for results, our team didn't perform exceptionally well nor exceptionally bad. We started off the tournament well but ended up around at our starting rank, being an average team. I, myself did pretty good and scored 7.5/11, finishing 27th of the 564 best female players in the world according to rating gain. Nevertheless, I was quite proud of my team because after all, we are the youngest Canadian women Olympiad team ever in history! :)

Upon my return a week and a half ago, my desk got piled up with huge stacks of homework to catch up on. Now you know why.

Anyways, something really really REALLY awesome took place yesterday at the Brookbanks branch here in Toronto but I'd like to save that story for later. Feeling the suspense yet? :)

The Olympiad reminds of why Chess in the Library ever existed. After my games, I would walk around and carefully observe all the other 150 countries. Team uniforms alone reflects how that country treats chess. Let's take a look at some pictures:

Team Netherlands

Team Turkey

Team Barbados

Team Malawi

Team Nigeria

Team Denmark

Team Italy

Team Cuba

And there are only a small portion of teams that showed team spirit! If the Canadian Team goes to the Beijing Olympics with EVERYONE where a red and white uniform, then why shouldn't the Canadian Chess Olympiad team members? Both competitions are at the world's highest level so why should there be a difference? Well, it is clear from the pictures above that not all countries differentiate in attitude between the Summer Olympics and the Chess Olympiad. As for Canada, there is sure a big difference!

Team Canada at the 2010 Beijing Olympics. What a team, eh?

Canadian Women Team at the 39th Chess Olympiad in Russia. From left to right: Dalia Kagramanov, Liza Orlova, WIM Dina Kagramanov and WIM Yuanling Yuan (me!).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the lack of uniforms for our chess teams (although having them would be nice), but rather reflecting upon the situation. Let's face it - chess in Canada is a lot less popular than many countries in the world, especially Europe. So why do those countries have uniforms? Because they either they've got a lot of government or corporate support. Now why would they receive such a support? Because chess is a popular game in that country and it is regarded as no different than other Olympic games. It's that simple.

Therefore, in order for Canadian chess to receive the same amount of support, we've got to make chess more and more popular here! That's exactly why I started Chess in the Library last summer - to promote chess and nothing else.

Officially a Nation Wide Program Now!

2010-09-20T03:07:00.000-07:00

I would like to make a quick announcement about the excellent news I received a few weeks ago. It was a long story because the original email that was sent to me from Brian Raymer somehow ended in my junk folder. It wasn't until 2 weeks later when I was checking my junk mails that I saw a message about Chess in the Library in Victoria.

My first reaction was - WHAT!??????? I honestly couldn't believe my eyes. After all, I really didn't contact anyone in Victoria about this at all. Was it magic?

So I opened my email and I saw a short message from Brian Raymer saying that the Chess in the Library idea has spread to Victoria and a local library there called the Juan de Fuca branch will be hosting a chess program starting in late September. They hope to call it "Chess in the Library" and Brian asks me if I mind.

I was so thrilled to hear this news that I read the email 10 times to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Making the program nation wide was my ultimate goal for CITL and now it's coming true a few years ahead of my expectations.

Here is some info of the program in Victoria that is also listed on our website:

Juan de Fuca Library
1759 Island Highway
Victoria, BC
V9B 1J1
250-391-0653

Open from 6:30pm to 8:00pm on Wednesdays, starting on September 29th, 2010. Session ends October 20th. If you live in Victoria, please support the program by spreading the word about this!

On behalf of my team, I want to give Brian Raymer and the Victoria Junior Chess Society a HUGE THANK YOU for doing all of this. They are the ones organizing the program there but the fact that they also want to join the Chess in the Library network is just incredible.

I know that the idea was originally mine and I founded the Chess in the Library organization but in the end, the program and the organization belongs to ALL of us because the one thing that pulls us together is our mission of promoting chess in Canada. That's all it matters.

I know that there are many other chess clubs in Canada that are ran in public libraries. If anyone would like to join or network, we welcome you will open arms! The power of a team is much greater than an individual. If you want to promote chess, why not do it together with us?

As of now, CITL has 14 locations in total. 12 in Toronto, 1 in Ottawa and 1 in Victoria~ For a complete list of locations with detailed information, please visit our website at www.chessinthelibrary.com

Milestone: 100% Going Provincial Wide

2010-09-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

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~ ^_^

The Day We've Been Waiting For - NYCL Confirms!

2010-09-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you who lives in Toronto and visits the public libraries on a regular basis, you must know how large and busy the North York Central Library (NYCL) is. There are always a group of people playing chess against each other on the tables outside, but it had never been a formal program.

I've been talking to the Youth Service Specialist, Elsa at NYCL about starting up the chess club since the very beginning of this year. The starting date was first settled for May 1st, then due to tight room bookings and all sorts of problems, we had to push it back to the end of October.

Actually, during this period of time, the teen zone at NYCL is undergoing big renovations. We don't even know when it will be complete. However, thanks to Elsa, we're still able to run the program there before renovations end. The only problem is that we'll be moving around a lot, in different rooms each week. We'll have weekly sessions that runs each week plus a monthly session that runs once a month (weekly sessions will be cancelled on those days). Weekly sessions can hold up to 15 participants while monthly sessions will be accepting 30 people.

If you want to register for the program at NYCL, make sure to read the schedule below carefully!

North York Central Library
5120 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
M2N 5N9
416-395-5535

Open from 1:30-4pm every Saturday on the following dates:

October 30- Room 2/3 (weekly)
November 6- 3rd floor, SR (weekly)
November 13- Room 1 (monthly)
November 20- 3rd floor, SR (weekly)
November 27-3rd floor, SR (weekly)
December 4- Room 2/3 (weekly)
December 11- Room 1 (monthly)
December 18- Room 2/3 (weekly)

Hope to see you all there on October 30th! What is a better way to celebrate early Halloween than to play some chess at NYCL? :)

Once Again, the Southam Family Brings Good News

2010-08-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

As you all know, Chess in the Library couldn't have been possible without the help of our generous donors and sponsors. Among all these heart warming people, there is one family that has always been particularly special to us - the Southam family.

Elsa, Peter and David Southam were the first ones to contribute chess items to CITL. In July 2009, my fellow teammates Michael and Yutong joined me on a trip to visit these lovely people. I've blogged about it last year and if you didn't see the post, I've linked it here. They donated to us 20 chess trophies, a few chess books, sets and the money for engraving the plates.

A few weeks ago, I was honoured the opportunity to pay the family another visit. They brought back from the US more things to donate to Chess in the Library! Among the huge bag of items were a few very new chess books, 2 chess clocks and 2 large recreational chess/checkers/backgammon sets. There was one book that really caught my eye:

Disney's Chess Guide! Learning chess with Donald and Mickey is so cute ^_^

Just a random page in the book. This one explains how to move a Bishop!
Notice the colourful disney pictures used here~

There is also a comic section in the book about "chess land". Absolutely adorable!

Well, the Southam family doesn't just bring us those good news. There's one more! They've agreed to fund the annual trophy that will be given to the library team that wins the Open Section of our CITL Annual Festival each year! Isn't that exciting? The annual trophy would be placed in that library for a year and then transfered to the next winning library the year after. Branch names will be carved on the plates and it will certainly provide extra excitement to our festival!

So thank you so much Elsa, Peter & David! Words alone cannot express my appreciation for everything you've done for us. You guys not only made our dream come true, but also the ones of our little chess enthusiasts . :)

A Typical Friday Night at the Bridlewood Branch

2010-08-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

\The first thing I did when I returned from the Explore French program in Three Rivers was to visit the Chess in the Library program at Bridlewood. Last time I went, I didn't take a picture of the awesome chess display they had on their shelf. It's AMAZING!! Check it out:

this is the shelf that lies behind the check-in & out counter at Bridlewood

According to the program organizers Stanley Su, Linda Fu and Mary Xu, an average of 18-20 kids show up every week to play chess in the library. All the little chess enthusiasts in the pictures below were beyond excited to play the game for 2 hours straight! :)

Room overview

program co-leader Stanley (first on the right) teaches the kids how to play

organizer Mary (last one on the left column) explains the rules of chess to the younger girls

Bridlewood's Chess in the Library program has been running smoothly since the first day it started. New members are still trying to join the club each week, but then again, the space is limited. Well, first come first serve! We hope that after Bridlewood's success with the program becomes more solid, more branches in Scarborough will join the network.

Introducing the Program Leader in Ottawa - Joey Qin!

2010-08-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

I found an interesting article on the Your Ottawa Region newspaper today titled "Chess champ cleans up at Open". Guess who's it about? Joey, our new program leader in Ottawa of course! :) Check out the article below (the last few paragraphs are about Chess in the Library! ^_^) :

Chess champ cleans up at Open. Chess sensation Joey Qin poses with his chess board in his home. Joey placed seventh overall in the Canadian Open Chess Championship.

Joey Qin is 14 years old and heading towards his first year of high school. In his sport of choice, it’s not uncommon for him to compete against athletes more than twice his age – and win.

First introduced to the game when he was seven, Joey Qin is a rising star in the chess world and he just keeps getting better.

Gordon Ritchie, a pillar of the Ottawa chess community, used to play Joey before he became too strong of a player. Now Ritchie refuses to play him because the teen’s calibre of chess is too high.

“He could beat 90 per cent of chess players in the country,” he said. “Joey is an outstanding chess player.”

The last tournament Joey competed in was the Canadian Open Chess Championship. The international tournament draws the best players from across the world.

Joey placed seventh overall in the nine day tournament and cleaned up in his age division.

Joey attributes his success in the chess world to studying past games – with the help of his dad – and knowing how to read his opponent.

“We look at their playing style and what to be aware of and what to target,” he said. “Their opening can tell a lot about them.”

Despite the wins, it’s the love of the game that keeps Joey staring down the chess board.

“I like concentrating on things and solving problems. Chess is everything glued together that I like,” he said.

In between tournaments, Joey is trying to give back to the community in a way that’s meaningful to him – chess lessons at the local library. The program is called Chess in the Library and is a volunteer based program that is currently only available in Toronto.

“Chess really is a great game and I want to share my experience with others,” he said.

The program is for players of all ages and strengths who want to come out and learn the game.

Only one library – the Ruth E. Dickinson branch – will be offering the program to start but Joey maintains hope that once people show interest, more branches will come onboard.

“It’s time for him to give back to the community,” said Lily Qu, Joey’s mother. “That’s why I’m glad (Marilyn Shanks) is giving him the chance to promote chess.”

The program will run Saturday afternoons starting in September.

Credits to Jamie DoggartC. Source: http://www.yourottawaregion.com/news/local/article/855419--chess-champ-cleans-up-at-open

More details about the Chess in the Library program in Ottawa will be posted soon. Any support you would like to contribute to the program in Ottawa is very much appreciated. :) Thank you!

Expansion to Ottawa in Progress

2010-07-12T18:21:00.000-07:00

From the very first day that I founded the Chess in the Library program, I've set myself and my team the goal to expand this program to other cities and provinces. Although I do live in Toronto right now, my hometown is actually our national captial - Ottawa. If we do host this program at another location outside of Toronto, Ottawa would be our first target. Last month, I was overwhelmed to recieve an email from Joey Qin, a young master with a CFC rating of 2340 while only in grade 8! It was about his interest in expanding the Chess in the Library program to Ottawa. :)

Welcome to the team, Joey!

Joey has already confirmed the program with the counselor in Ottawa and the proposal is currently being reviewed by the librarians in Ottawa. I hope that everything works out and we'll be able to see the program in action by September.

Since we're expanding to a new city, we need to buy more chess sets. The previously donated 100 chess sets are pretty much all distributed among the libraries in Toronto (there are 10 locations). I hope that everyone can support this new innovation by making a donation to the fund for the Chess in the Library program in Ottawa! Contact me if you would like to make a contribution. Thanks! :)

Chess in the Library 1st Annual Festival Awards Ceremony

2010-07-04T18:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not uploading photos for the past 2 days...Our french camp went on a field trip each day for the past 3 days. So I didn't get the chance to touch a computer until now...

Grade 3 Section Individual Champion: Catherine Li

Grade 6 Section Individual Champion: Jonathan Chan

Open Section Individual Champion: Magas Yusuf

Grade 3 Section Team Champion: North York Central Library

Grade 6 Section Team Champion: Brookbanks Library

Open Section Team Champion: Fairview Library

Complete Set of the Grade 3 Section trophies

Complete Set of the Grade 6 Section trophies

Complete Set of the Open Section trophies

Close up Picture of the Open Section 1st Place Engraving

There is a trophy for the top 3 individuals in each section. They were presented by David Southam, the representative of the Southam family who donated their trophies to us. The old engraving plates were taken off and replaced by new ones. I personally think that it's a really good idea to redistribute one's trophies to the next generation if they are no longer in use. I know that they are people who treasure their trophies because they bring back old memories displays their accomplishments but on the other hand, I also know people who just keep their trophies in their closets. It is not easy for the Southam family to give away Todd's trophies and because of that, my team and I were really touched when they made such a decision.

If there is anyone who would like to redistribute their trophies through the Chess in the Library program, we would honour your contribution by engraving the plates with your name on it. ( e.g. Middle line: Todd Southam Award). Message me if you're interested! :)

Team prizes were presented by the referees for each section. Medals were given out to the top 3 teams in each section. Each team consisted of 3 players so we bought 27 medals using the donations. A big thank you to our donors!

Chess in the Library 1st Annual Festival Speeches

2010-07-01T17:13:00.001-07:00

The opening ceremony was the favourite moment of the entire festival. Below are all the people who made a speech, excluding me and Elsa (there`s a picture of her in the report). Below are the description of each speaker with their photos underneath.

David Southam, representative of the Southam family who donated Todd`s trohpies to us. The Southam family is one of our first donors and it really means a lot to our entire team. The trophies are really nice - mostly marble based and ìf you want to see all of them, you`ll have to wait a few days. Thank you so much for coming David, and a BIG THANK YOU to the entire family for their support.

Magas Yusuf, past leader of the Brookbanks Library. The Brookbanks branch is our very first location and after I left to expand the program to other locations, it was Magas who took over the big responsibility. As of the first participants and volunteers of the program, Magas`s support will always be remembered.

WFM Hazel Smith who played an important role at the Pleasant View Library before last September when she had to go to university in Waterloo. Hazel organized the puzzle competition at the Pleasant View branch and became a role model for the kids there . Having another Olympiad member on our organization team is truly an honor.

Kevin Wu, present leader of the Pleasant View Library. After Hazel left, Kevin took over and currently, that branch has one of the highest participation rates. Being only in grade 9 (the youngest member of our team), Kevin has demonstrated everything required to be a leader. His speech during the opening ceremony was one of the best prepared.

Yolanda Zhang, current leader of the program at the Fairview Library. Being one of the few girls involved, Yolanda had done a lot to encourge he Fairview players to come to the festival despite the fact that their current session has ended (next session starts in Septemeber). One by one, Yolanda called the top 10 players on the list and succeed in convincing most of the players to join the celebration

Michael Kleinman, oh boy, I could write a whole page on this description. Chess master + leader. Michael was the second person to join the team after me. He always wanted to do something like this to give back to his community so Chess in the Library was perfect for him. We`ve went to meetings together, picked up donations together and right now, he`s leading the program at the Northern District. Michael has contributed so much to the program and I really, really appreciate everything he`s done for the program since the very beginning.

Kostya Golovan is the program leader at the Maria A. Shchuka Library. He is honestly one of the most responsible guys I know. I was informed by the librarians that Kostya NEVER missed a single chess club meet. Now that`s something incredible!

Alexandru Florea, another top junior chess player in Canada. He is currently leading the program at one of the farest TPL branches in Toronto - the Humberwood Library. It seriously took me 2 hours on bus just to get there one way! We`ve been always wanting to do the program there but until Alex came along, the only barriers we had were volunteers. I`m pretty sure that without Alex, CITL at Humberwood wouldn`t be possible.

Xiaohan Du, a pure math genius. Taking grade 11 IB math while in grade 10 is truly something rare. Anyways, Xiaohan is not in the organizing team anymore, but he was one of the first ones to join us. He also tried to open up the program at the Deer Park Library but due to the demographics there, we didn`t get enough participants interested in chess. Nonetheless, Xiaohan still came to celebrate the anniversary with us and I`m sure that he`ll always be a part of the program a bit here and there.

Bridlewood`s Grand Opening

2010-06-29T17:11:00.000-07:00

Guess where I am right now? Three-Rivers, Quebec! :) This has nothing to do with the title above, but I thought that I might as well share the awesome news with everyone. I`m there for a french program called Jexplore and it`s such a wonderful place to improve your french. Si vous êtes seize ou dix-sept ans avant de juin 2011, vous pouvez inscrire pour le programme l'été prochain! :)

Anyways, back to the main topic - Bridlewood`s Grand Opening. Last Friday, June 25th, 2010 was the day that the Chess in the Library program officially became a part of the Bridlewood Library in Scarborough, Toronto. It was a huge success as our maximum capacity was reached (24 spots) and there were 4 more kids who waited for their turn.

I mentioned a few months ago that our next project would be to make a kid-friendly brochure that explains the basic rules of chess. Due to the craziness of the past few weeks (culminatings, exams, CITL festival, packing for Jexplore, etc) we only managed to create a handout. This handout was given out to all the particpants and their parents to enhance the learning experience. I clearly remember that there was one little girl who kept telling her opponent that the Rook was a strong piece because the handout said so. She was soooo cute! :)

Our volunteers and future leaders of the program at Bridlewood are Stanley Su, a 1500-1600 CFC chess junior who will be going into grade 9 next year and Mary Xu, an IB student of Victoria Park C.I. Stanley had his first experience of teaching a public group and although he wasn`t confident leading the group at first, time helped him to adjust his comfortableness. There is always a first time for everything and I strongly believe that one day, Chess in the Library will help Stanley become a great public speaker. Stanley and Mary, welcome to the team! Bienvenue à l'équipe!

Overall, everyone had a great time at the program and it seems like at Bridlewood, we don`t need to worry about participants, we need to worry about space! :)

Chess in the Library 1st Annual Festival Report

2010-06-28T17:52:00.000-07:00

The Chess in the Library 1st Annual Festival was held at the North York Central Library on Saturday June 26th, 2010. The event was a huge success for our program as it attracted more than 50 participants representing each oof our 10 locations plus one - the North York Central Library.

The festival kicked off with a grand opening ceremony in which 11 people spoke on behalf of the Chess in the Library organization in one way or another. Being the host of the event, I spoke first behind a podium and welcomed everyone to the festival. David Southam, brother of Todd Southam, whose trophies were redistributed in the tournament was the second one to address the audience. He spoke of Todd`s story and proudly explained why their family chose to donate to us. Next was Elsa Ngan, the Youth Services Specialist who spoke on behalf of all librarians that are involved with the Chess in the Library program. Elsa is also one of the organizers of the festival and without her, nothing would have been possible.

Then followed my favourite moment of the festival - the speeches of the Chess in the Library program leaders at each library. They are Magas Yusuf. WFM Hazel Smith, Kevin Wu, Yolanda Zhang, Michael Kleinman, Kostya Golovan, Alexandru Florea and Xiaohan Du. Each little story of theirs made me simile. I was honestly really touched when they spoke of how and why they joined the organization team for Chess in the Library. It made me feel that we`re truly a team that shares the same passions and visions, not just them volunteering like they would at a school cafeteria just for volunteer hours. To those names that I mentioned above, I just want to thank you so much for everything you`ve put into this program since last June. Your speeches will always be in my heart and I will forever cherish that moment. Words alone cannot describe how touched I was...

The main event of the festival was a individual and team chess tournament. There were three sections: Open, Grade 6 & Under, Grade 3 & Under. The system was an invidual swiss, but team scores were totalled in the end to see which library was the best in each section. Unfortunately, we only had the time to play 3 rounds because the library had to close at 5pm (we started the games at 2pm). Nonetheless, that did not affect the participants as each one of them fought hard for their team. Although the games are CMA rated, the tournament site was not even close to being as loud as scholastic tournaments should be. Thanks to the availibility of another meeting room nearby, we kept the parents and kids waiting for the next round busy with our side events - a puzzle competition and a giant chess set activity. Both side events were extremely popular and 3 book prizes were handed out to the the best puzzle solver in the end.

Mostly everyone stayed for the awards regardless of how did they in the tournament. The atmosphere was filled with excitement and anticipation. The top 3 individual finishers in each section received a trophy and the top 3 teams (consists of 3 players each) were awarded with medals. Book prizes (random draw by Elsa and Gal) were also given out to 5 lucky winners! When one team won, all members from that library would cheer for the winners. It`s been a while since I`ve heard that much cheering for chess! A big thank you goes out to the Southam family and other individuals who donated the trophies and book prizes for this event. Finally, a special shoutout to Erik Malmsten, the Greater Toronto Chess League Secretary for sending out a news release for the festival. Unfortunately, all reporters were taken by the G20 and G8 Summit, but I really apprecaite the effort. Next year, we are determined to have news reporters on site! :)

To all the volunteers, librarians, sponsors and donors who are involved with the Chess in the Library program for the past year, THANK YOU!!!! Thank you for the contribution, the support, and most importantly, your faith in us. Happy 1 year anniversary, Chess in the Library!

--------------------------------------------------
Tournament Results:
Open Section Individual Winners

Magas Yusuf
Steven Xia
Calvin Tang

Grade 6 Section Individual Winners

Jonathan Chan
Jeffrey Li
Jaden Wang

Grade 3 Section Individual Winners

Catherine Li
Benjamin Lin
Colin Ruan

Open Section Team Winners

1. Fairview Library (896.0) - Cnt: 3 6.0

Keith Tang (1046) 2.0
Calvin Tang (922) 2.0
Tariq Haji (720) 2.0

2. North York Center Library (810.5) - Cnt: 4 5.5

Steven Xia (970) 3.0
Mario Umana (unr.) 2.0
Alexander Kim (651) 0.5

3. Brookbanks Library (782.5) - Cnt: 3 5.0

Magas A Yusuf (906) 3.0
Sayanthen Sathyakumar (659) 1.0
Tonia Tong (unr.) 1.0

Grade 6 Section Team Winners

1. Brookbanks Library (826.7) - Cnt: 7 8.0

Jonathan Chan (992) 3.0
Jaden Wang (712) 3.0
Kevin Kang (776) 2.0

2. Pleasant View Library (697.5) - Cnt: 4 7.0

Jeffrey Li (964) 3.0
Catherine Lu (431) 2.0
Robert Wang (unr.) 2.0

3. Gerrard/Ashdale Library (0.0) - Cnt: 4 5.0

Bao Tian Fu (unr.) 2.0
Michael Kwan (unr.) 2.0
Callum Denault (unr.) 1.0

Grade 3 Section Team Winners

1. North York Center Library (644.7) - Cnt: 4 7.0

Catherine Li (659) 3.0
Mathanhe Kaneshalingam (753) 2.0
Jonathan Hong (522) 2.0

2. Pleasant View Library (696.0) - Cnt: 3 4.5

Benjamin Lin (696) 3.0
Kalan Raven Samaroo (unr.) 1.0
Tian Yu Zhang (unr.) 0.5

3. Brookbanks Library (491.0) - Cnt: 3 2.5

Alex Hu (611) 1.0
Hao Yang [liana] Liu (371) 1.0
Maxwell Tong (unr.) 0.5

Congrats to all the winners and I hope to see you all at the CITL 2nd Annual Festival! :)

CITL Chess Festival is ONE Week Away!

2010-06-21T18:30:00.001-07:00

Pre-registration list below (41 players so far):
Still waiting for more forms to come in....

Open Section

Team	First Name	Last Name
BB	Magas	Yusuf
	Tonia	Tong
	Sayanthen	Sathyakumar
	Jonathan	Chan
FV	Calvin	Tang
	Keith	Tang
	Tariq	Haji
PV	Devon	Chung
PV	Linda	Fu
HW	Jagdev	Kondal
HW	Rishit	Patel
NYCL	Mario	Umana
	Steven	Xia
	Kim	JoongSeob
	Alexander	Kim

Grade 6 & Under Section

Team	First Name	Last Name
BB	Enes	Spahiu
	Dylan	Chen
	Cassidy	Wang
	Saishankar	Sathyakumar
	Kevin	Kang
FV	Steven	Gou
	Jerry	Yang
	Flaviu	Trifoi
DV	Vanyel	Prosak
DV	Adesh	Leaver
HW	Jagdeep	Kondal
	Sukhveer	Sahota
	Gurveer	Sahota
NYCL	Amy	Lee
NYCL	John	Lee
GE	Bao Tian	Fu
	Michael	Kwan
	Callum	Denault
	Andy	Zng

Grade 3 & Under Section

Team	First Name	Last Name
BB	Alex	Hu
	Haoyang	Liu
	Maxwell	Tong
	Evan	Wong
FV	Colin	Ruan
FV	Benjamin	Lin
NYCL	Aarabhi	Krishnakumar

10th Location Confirmed: Bridlewood Library

2010-06-19T21:09:00.000-07:00

I've been blogging about how the North York Central Library is going to run the program for a while now. Unfortunately, we cannot start the program there until this fall due to internal renovations. Now that's the bad news. We always start off with the bad one, right? :)

The good news is, we have a NEW LOCATION!!! It feels like ages since our last location opened, eh? Starting from next Friday, the Chess in the Library program will run at the Bridlewood Library from 6-8pm. I went to the library to do some promotions today and within only 2 hours, 20 people signed up! I must say that the people there are very enthusiastic about chess because when I told them that only 24 spots are available, some even called their neighbours and asked them to join! Incredible! :)

Instead of the usual set-up of a table with chess sets and flyers on display, this time we used a "mobile truck". Yeah, it sounds weird, doesn't it? Well, it's basically a short shelf that has rollers on the bottom so we can push it around. The librarians usually use it to store books and move it around the library. I thought that it was quite cool! Too bad I didn't bring a camera...I would've taken some pictures of the nice display we had there. Anyways, if you live near the Bridlewood library and would like to join the chess club, below is the info:

2900 Warden Ave.
Toronto, ON
M1W 2S8
416-396-8960

Hope to see you all there! Remember, there are only 24 spots available...

CITL 1st Annual Festival Pre-Registration List Updated

2010-06-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

Some more entries in the past two days. 21 players and counting... Below are the library teams:
Brookbanks (BB)
Fairview (FV)
Downsview (DV)
Gerrard/Ashdale (GE)
North York Central (NYCL)

Open Section
Magas Yusuf (BB)
Tonia Tong (BB)
Sayanthen Sathyakumar (BB)
Saishankar Sathyakumar (BB)
Baotian Fu (GE)
Michael Kwan (GE)
Elliot Kwan (GE)
Mario Umana (NYCL)

Grade 6 & Under
Jonathan Chan (BB)
Enes Spahiu (BB)
Dylan Chen (BB)
Cassidy Wang (BB)
Kevin Kang (BB)
Steven Gou (FV)
Adesh Leaver (DV)

Grade 3 & Under
Alex Hu (BB)
Maxwell Tong (BB)
Evan Wong (BB)
Haoyang Liu (BB)
Joel Rodas Gutierrez (FV)
Colin Ruan (FV)

CITL 1st Annual Festival Pre-Registration List

2010-06-13T18:04:00.000-07:00

Team Brookbanks (BB) just sent in their registration info for the tournament! Also, a few from Fairview (FV) that handed their forms to me in person today when I was at the library~ 15 players and counting...

Open Section
Magas Yusuf (BB)
Tonia Tong (BB)
Sayanthen Sathyakumar (BB)
Saishankar Sathyakumar (BB)

Grade 6 & Under
Jonathan Chan (BB)
Enes Spahiu (BB)
Dylan Chen (BB)
Cassidy Wang (BB)
Kevin Kang (BB)
Steven Gou (FV)

Grade 3 & Under
Alex Hu (BB)
Maxwell Tong (BB)
Evan Wong (BB)
Haoyang Liu (BB)
Joel Rodas Gutierrez (FV)

We are expecting 50-70 playing to show up for this tournament. We will be updating this list of participants regularly until June 26th If you really want to play in this tournament (and you are gr12 & under) email librarychess@gmail.com with some basic info of yours and we'll add you to team North York Central (their chess program hasn't started yet)!

Breaking News! Chess in the Library 1st Annual Festival

2010-05-30T10:27:00.001-07:00

It's been almost 1 year since our organization has been established so on behalf of my team, I want to give a big thank you to everyone for their support! Without all of our supporters (volunteers, librarians, donors, sponsors, others who gave us words of encouragement) the Chess in the Library program wouldn't have gone as far as it is today. It's not just our chess program that you sponsored, it's a hope. A hope that chess in Canada would not die off (it seems to get worse), or even a hope that this game will become very popular one day.

We currently have 9 libraries hosting this program and 4 more are in contact. The program is growing at a very quick pace. Our goal by the end of this year is 15 locations in total, as I mentioned in my new year resolution!

During the past year, we've been receiving requests from librarians wanting a cross-library chess match. Thus, we've decided to celebrate our 1 year anniversary (by the end of June) by hosting a grand tournament in which the top 10 participants from each library will come together and compete to see which library does the best. The tournament information is listed on our website (the Events page) at www.chessinthelibrary.com.

We've been receiving many donations of chess-related materials (trophies, books, magazines, etc) so we'll be giving out a lot of prizes at this tournament. Also, it will be CMA rated because many of our kids only have that rating. The entry fee, as stated in the flyer, is technically free, but we will be accepting donations. Perhaps this is the first large-scale rated tournament that doesn't force the participants to pay at all! Are we making history or what?

Also, we really really want to get a permanent trophy for the top library to keep and bring back to this tournament every year. You know the ones that are big and you can keep sticking plates on it? Although both individual and team prizes will be given out, the tournament emphasizes the team spirit. Teamwork is an important factor in everyday life, no matter what you do, it's impossible to accomplish something big without teamwork. Just like the Chess in the Library organization. You might always see me posting on chesstalk, but in reality, theres are tons of people working for our organization behind the scenes. You don't see them, but they are there, and without them, CITL would be nothing. Thus, my team and I would really appreciate it if someone kind could help us out with this permanent trophy!

Other than the main event, we also plan to get some media coverage (if anyone of you have media contacts, please help me out) and host a few side events. That would include activities with our giant chess set, a puzzle competition and someone to teach the rules of chess to the waiting parents so that they don't get too bored!

If you know anyone that wants to play in this tournament (gr12 and under), it is important that they become a member of the chess club at a library first! We welcome everyone to come out and celebrate our 1 year anniversary with us on June 26th, 2010 from 1-5pm at the North York Central Library (stated on flyer).

Again, thank you all for your support during the past year! We've certainly gained lots of experience and enjoyed this journey so far. If you'll like to make a donation,email me at yuanling_1@yahoo.com!

Chess in the Library New Logo!!

2010-05-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

Ever since my team and I started expanding the Chess in the Library Organization, we've been always working hard on the logo for our organization. Many people help us out with the design and below is the logo-designing process:

Designs by CITL Webmaster Yutong Luo:
The original idea was to incorporate the word "Library" from the Toronto Public Library logo to the CITL logo. Yutong did a good job with capture the whole idea, but when we put everything together, it just didn't seem right.

Designs by Artist Rachel Ng:
Rachel is the artist in my school, haha. She's an awesome designer and worked really hard to create 3 different versions of the logo. The second one was really nice and professional but unfortunately, my team and I are concerned about the library copyright issues as it looks way too close to the actual TPL logo!
Designs by former Pleasant View Library CITL's organizer Yuan Dai:
By the time Yuan knew about this logo designing thing, it was already 8 months since the first design. We've tried again and again, but nothing seems to stand out. However, it's Yuan's design that finally brought us hope! Take a look at the 3 versions of the CITL logo below. The very first model already blew me away and after suggesting some changes, we have finally created a satisfying logo (that would be the very last picture in this post)! :)

I want to take this opportunity to thank all three logo-designers: Yutong, Rachel and Yuan! Regardless of whether we actually use your logos or not, I know how much effort you've put into it, and we will forever remember you guys and your logos. With the previous logos, there wouldn't be a final product at all. A special shout-out goes to Yuan Dai for designing a successful logo! Congratulations!!

Come to think of it, famous scientist Thomas Edison failed 2000 times before inventing the light bulb. This journey was nothing compared to that! I never failed to believe in us once during this process, and even if one after one failure, I would still tell myself that I cannot give up. I will find someone who will design the perfect logo. And guess what? Not so long after, we've created the official CITL logo!! All I want to say is that no matter what obstacles you meet in school, work, or just life in general, NEVER GIVE UP because obstacles are just nature's way of showing us what we can do. The path to success is always paved with mistakes, just like all the logos that we designed before the final one! :)

Black Creek Library Settled and Ready to Go

2010-04-17T09:06:00.000-07:00

I visited the Black Creek library last Saturday and discussed a few things with the branch head there. Since the Chess in the Library program will be an after school program at that branch, none of our volunteers would be able to attend (high school students are busy busy busy :)

The staff will run the program and they hope to do some teaching. Recently, other than teaching on a demo board, we also taught some beginners the basic rules in a group (view my last post about the Humberwood library). It's really awesome to see such a great interest in chess from those who never touched the game before! However, explaining the basic rules of chess each week is getting a bit repetitive for the volunteers. Teaching something different every week is totally fine, it's just that we get new members each week coming in and telling us that they don't know how to play chess. Thus, our next project is to create a children-friendly brochure that explains the rules of chess. It's a good idea, isn't it? :)

Also, I taught the librarian how to use our pairing sheets as well as the structure of the program. She was definitely a quick learner! Everything is now set for the Black Creek library and all we're waiting for is the day in which the program commences! Oh and if you're uncertain of which day I'm talking about, it's May 6th (check out the side bar that lists all the locations ------------------------------------------>

CITL's Expansion to Etobicoke - Humberwood Library

2010-04-03T08:41:00.000-07:00

I'm proud to announce that the Chess in the Library program has now officially spread to a new area of the city, Etobicoke. Last Saturday, March 28th, 2010 was the day that we celebrated this ecstatic event. Kids anxious to play chess rushed into the Humberwood branch while an overwhelming number of volunteers were getting ready to commence the program. I was definitely astonished by the amount of interest for chess at the Humberwood branch, especially volunteer wise. I want to take this chance to welcome all these volunteers to our team, notably Alexandru Florea, a strong junior with a CFC rating of 2080 (I'm sure he'll be 2200+ in no time :). Alexandru will be leading the program at Humberwood.

Alex and I discussing the way the program will run

Speaking about the volunteers, I must mention how friendly and approachable everyone was. Some participants were a bit unclear about the rules of chess but were eager to learn. A few of our volunteers were very enthusiastic about teaching the group of kids. In about 1 hour, these kids were ready to join the others in a mini-tournament. These volunteers must have been extraordinary teachers!

the teaching group :)

The turnout was fantastic for the opening day of the program at Humberwood. If my memory serves me right, we had almost 20 participants and 8 volunteers. Without a doubt, I can imagine a harmonious chess club at the Humberwood branch in the future. It will be like a one big blithesome chess family!!

Can you sense the lively atmosphere in the room?

North York Central Library Almost Ready!

2010-03-09T16:12:00.000-08:00

As one of Toronto's largest libraries, the North York Central branch is almost ready to join the Chess in the Library network. One small piece of the project needs to be filled in before we can announce a firm "yes" to everyone supporting and following the program.

However, do not be disappointed because the librarians, volunteers and I have all made a tremendous progress in regards to the program at the North York Central Library since my last update about the program there.

If all goes well, the Chess in the Library program will run weekly in a slightly smaller room and monthly in a larger room due to the following formula. :)

The formula works this way:
large library = many rooms + tight bookings = must book the rooms early

I want to take this opportunity to thank the librarians and volunteers at the North York Central Library for working so hard during the past few months to get the program set up.

Stay tuned for updates on the program at NYCL!!!

New Library Alert!

2010-03-09T16:01:00.000-08:00

Chess in the Library is expanding to another location - Humberwood Library!! The librarians and I started talking about chess club possibilities at the Humberwood branch for half a year now, and finally it's going to start running! Isn't that exciting?

We've confirmed to start the program there on March 27th, 2010. That's only 2 weeks away! We will still need to do some advertising, however, the volunteers are already all in place and ready to go.

The Humberwood Library is located on the far west end of Toronto. We are definitely spreading this program in all areas of Toronto!

We welcome you to come on down to the Humberwood Library to play some chess on our opening day - March 27th. The program will run every Saturday from 2-4pm. Below are the details of that branch:

850 Humberwood Blvd.
Toronto, ON
M9W 7A6
416-394-5210

Downsview Library Joins the Network

2010-03-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

A while ago, we received an email from a librarian at the Downsview Library asking for support from the Chess in the Library team. Their chess club has just started and they hope to teach the kids not only the basic rules, but some "advanced techniques" as well. Hearing this news, the Chess in the Library team was most definitely willing to provide aid.

Since we have many volunteers that are chess masters, we have no problem with teaching the kids. As a matter of fact, we're already started doing some teaching within our own system after receiving the demo boards donation. Thus, we've decided that one of our volunteer will go to the Downsview Library to teach the kids once in a while. We'll also provide support with one of our demo boards, which is essential to teaching chess.

Although this case is a bit different - we're providing aid instead of helping to start up a chess club, it doesn't mean that the Downsview chess club is an outsider to our organization. Since we will give them our full support, the chess club at Downsview is now a part of our Chess in the Library network!! Downsview chess club, welcome to the big happy family! =)

Please support the Chess in the Library program by coming down to the Downsview Library to play some chess! Here's the info:

Downsview Library
2793 Keele St. (*Closest major intersection: Keele St. and Wilson Ave.)
Toronto, ON,
M3M 2G3
416-395-5720

Chess club opens on Monday nights from 6:30-7:30pm for now and 7:00pm-8:00pm starting from April 5th, 2010.

A Dream Come True

2010-02-19T20:12:00.000-08:00

Everyone has their own dreams, and I do too. I have different dreams for different aspects of my life, and as for chess, one of my dreams is to own a giant chess set one day. I dreamed of taking the set and placing it in the middle of the mall or in a park for kids to enjoy the game of chess with 100x more fun! It's also really big, so getting people to notice that chess actually "exists" in Canada wouldn't be a problem!

Guess what? This dream came true already! A generous person has donated a giant chess set to our program after listening to me talk about my dreams. It was a huge surprise for me too - I never expected it to come true so early in my life! I want to take this opportunity to thank this person for supporting chess in Canada, for giving me hope and most importantly, making one of my dreams come true. Once spring comes, I will try to make arrangements with some shopping malls to place the giant chess set there, and just promote chess in general! I also plan to host a 2010 Grand Chess in the Library Tournament at the North York Central Library (they have a huge room!) sometime this summer and place the giant chess set there. I'll post details regarding this tournament once everything is finalized. WOW, this is really exciting!!

I absolutely LOVE the set!!! =D

Recently, we've also received a few other donations:

from Bob Armstrong - 1 box full of chess magazines
from Wilf Ferner - 3 used analog chess clocks
from the same person who donated the giant chess set above (as well as 100 chess sets to get our program started) - some endgame books + 3 used analog chess clocks *This person contributed the most to our program so far!*

I represent my team to thank you all for caring about "what chess in Canada will look like in 25 years" as well as supporting our program. I know that many people are watching us and with each touching donation that we received, I get more and more motivated.

With every event/situation in the society, there are supporters and there must be people who go against it. Perhaps to some people (I hope not), my teammates and I are still considered "a bunch of teenagers that aren't trustworthy", and they are suspicious of us using the donated items for personal purposes. Of course, everyone has the right to doubt others, but honestly, I would feel heartbroken if someone says that to me. I can swear that I would never use the donated items for anything else other than our program or the promotion of chess in general. Everything that has been donated so far will be use in a proper way for the benefit of others. I add this paragraph to my blog post today because I actually did hear someone doubting the uses of the donated items. Honestly, I have put countless hours and efforts into this program, I don't get payed for this (neither does anyone else in my team), so why on earth would I waste so much of my time just for the sake of using the donated items myself? I had one and only one intention when I started the program and I hope that everyone will always remember it- to promote chess in Canada.

Bright Posters - A Great Promotion Tool

2010-02-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

Since the beginning of this year, I had done promotions with my teammates for the program at three different libraries: with Jesse at Fairview; with Kevin at Pleasant View; with Kostya at Maria A. Shchuka.

Jesse and I originally created a poster that had a very general title with an information sheet that was removable and could be replaced by another anytime. That way, we would be able to do promotions at other libraries with the same poster and all that is left to do is to change the information sheet.

The story goes on as I brought the same poster to Pleasant View to promote the program with Kevin. After the promotion, the branch head suggested that we keep the poster in the library so that us, the volunteers, won't need to be at the library physically to promote the program. A week later, I visited the Pleasant View library and saw our poster right on top of the check-in/out counter! Beside it was the registration sheet for the program. Indeed, the bright orange poster was attracting a lot of attention! More people signed up for the program because of that.

Now, the purpose of visiting Pleasant View was actually to get the poster for the Maria A Shchuka promotion in the following week. Realizing how influential the poster was, I finally decided that this poster would be kept at Pleasant View and I would sacrifice a few more hours of my life making another for the Maria A Shchuka promotion! =)

The second poster that I made. I forgot to take a picture of the first one...:(

Enlarged removable information sheet. It's being taped onto the poster so it's easily removable.

I think the poster took me about 3 hours to make since I had to cut out all the letters and design them. Although I love art, a major reason to why I stopped taking art in school was that it was way too time consuming. If you know me well, you would know that I'm a "perfectionist" as I like to make everything 100% perfectly. Thus, I thought about having one of these bright posters at each library and I do encourage the leader at each one of them to make their own!! We are a team, and if we all pitch in a little bit of our time to make these posters, we would be able to see way more kids playing chess! That was the main purpose of the program, wasn't it?

Our First Library in Downtown Toronto!

2010-02-16T19:52:00.000-08:00

Let's welcome the Gerrard/Ashdale Library that will be joining our organization starting from April 24th, 2010! I've always wanted to get the program started somewhere in downtown. Last year I tried the Bloor/Gladstone Library that just finished its 3-year renovations. Unfortunately, things didn't work out for us.

Although the Garrard/Ashdale branch is not even half the size of the Bloor/Gladstone branch, it now definitely has something that the Bloor/Gladstone branch doesn't have! Yes, of course, I'm talking about the Chess in the Library program that will open there in two months.

I have not yet personally visited the Gerrard/Ashdale branch but from what the librarians say, the space that we're going to use for chess is quite small. If my memory serves me right, I recall that the librarians said something about fitting up to a maximum of 16-20 players. However, that's not the main point. What's important is that chess is starting to spread to a new community!! Isn't that exciting? =P

Some info of the Gerrard/Ashdale Library:
1432 Gerrard Street East
Toronto, ON
M2N 5N9
416-393-7717

The program will run from 2:00pm –4:00pm on Saturdays, starting from April 24th, 2010. Please support us by coming down to play some chess!!! =)

Exams Finally Over, Time for Chess

2010-01-29T21:46:00.001-08:00

I'm sure everyone knows the feeling of finally finish writing some important exams. No matter how well you did, you feel relieved because you got it over with! Well, that describes my emotions right now. =D

In high school, you hardly ever get to relax for a long period of time, especially for me, since I'm in the IB program. Winter and summer breaks are always piled with things to do. It's the mental stress that kills it all. Perhaps my mind can rest for a day ( actually not even, haha ) and then the next day when I wake up, I usually start worrying about this and that, and trust me, there's always more and more things to do! Although my exams are over, I cannot relax as I have a busy weekend ahead of me. Tomorrow morning, I will head off to the Pleasant View library to do some promotion of the program. I just finished making the poster ( it looks quite decent to me :) and we'll be playing a simul to promote the program. "We" as in - me and Kevin Wu. Kevin will be the new leader of the program at Pleasant View due to Yutong departure, as he moved to a land far far away. Yutong will remain as our Webmaster and of course, his contributions toward the program will always be remembered.

Well, hope the promotion goes well tomorrow! I need some sleep now... :)

CITL Entering Toronto's Second Largest Library - North York Central Library

2010-01-27T08:37:00.000-08:00

For the program, different library sizes have their own advantages and disadvantages. With larger libraries, we don't need to worry about promotion since tons of people go in and out of the library each day. However, the downside of larger libraries is that room bookings are tight because it is first come first serve. The bigger the library, the longer you'll have to book the rooms beforehand.

Yesterday night, I went to a meeting at the North York Central Library (NYCL) to discuss the Chess in the Library program with the Youth Services Specialist, Elsa as well as our future leader of the program at NYCL, Gal. Since the NYCL is Toronto's second largest library, the room bookings there are just plain crazy. According to Elsa, in order for us to have a large room booked weekly for the program, we'll have to wait until 2012. In 2010, we are able to get a very small room (can fit about 12-16 people for playing chess) on almost every weekday night and only the large room (can fit about 30-40 people for playing chess) once a month on a weekday night. Saturday room bookings are even tighter than the ones on weekday nights. Perhaps the program at NYCL will be the first one that will not run on Saturdays. Well, it's always nice to try out new things!

We are still currently in discussion and once we finalize the starting date and the time period we will run the program there, I'll let you guys know!

Opening Day at Northern District and Fairview

2010-01-24T18:32:00.000-08:00

The opening of the Chess in the Library program at Northern District took place last Saturday. Thanks to Michael and his team of volunteers for making it possible! Welcome to the team Steven Barnett and George Wan! Of course, I couldn't forget Brent Zhang, who couldn't make it to the opening day but will be volunteering at the program in the future. Please visit Michael's blog for an upcoming full report and lots of great pictures (the playing site was huge)!

The opening of the program at Fairview was just yesterday and it was a huge success! All I'm going to say is that we had a total of 50 (that's right, 50!!) participants including many adults. Jesse Wang is the leader of the program at Fairview and he did a lot of work to make everything go smoothly. He even brought a laptop to record the results!! Round of applause to Jesse for showing initiative! :) Of course, if you want to hear about all the juicy details of the program at Fairview yesterday, visit Jesse's blog for an upcoming "interesting article" (that's what Jesse calls his written work) and loads of awesome pictures!

Well, if you can't wait for Michael's and Jesse's posts to come out, take a look at a few of my pictures below (teaching chess at the Fairview's program yesterday):

Me teaching :)

As you can see, I was teaching the names and values of the
pieces to kids who knew nothing about the game

A few of my audience - notice how they are girls! Who said girls can't play chess?

I'd also like to welcome a few more volunteers to our team: Yolanda Zhang and Arsalan Beg-Menhaj who will be volunteering at the Fairview library as well as Jesse Feng who will be volunteering at the Brookbanks library. Also, speaking about the Brookbanks library, we've got some news that might interests you. Want to find out? Check out Kevin's blog!