10th Location Confirmed: Bridlewood Library

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

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

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

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!!

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

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

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?