5th Practice

“Of chess it has been said that life is not long enough for it, but that is the fault of life, not chess.”
– Irving Chernev


If life isn’t long enough for chess, certainly the chess season isn’t. We find ourselves halfway through the season, with our fifth Burroughs Chess Club practice this Friday (Feb 12th) at 2:55 in the Burroughs lunchroom. Below you’ll find details about it, but feel free to send any followup questions to BurroughsChess@Gmail.com.

NEED VOLUNTEERS ON SHORT NOTICE FOR THIS WEEK
I’m late in getting this setup, but if you can help at practice, please sign up at:

http://www.mysignup.com/burroughschess0212

Thanks!

OUR PREVIOUS PRACTICE
THANKS to all our volunteers and especially to Mike Dietrich who led the chess lessons last week. I was out of town but it sounds like everything went really well. (And after entering well over 100 chess game results, I can confirm there was a lot of chess played!)

OUR FIRST TOURNAMENT – Saturday Feb 13th
You can still sign up for our first tournament. You’ll just need to register in person that morning, starting at 8:30 AM. You can find out more info about the tournament HERE. Last I saw, we had at least fifteen kids signed up across all grades. And don’t forget to wear your Burroughs clothing.

If you think your child is interested in eventually attending a chess tournament, I can’t encourage you enough to try this first one. The “Check It Out” tournament is BY FAR the friendliest tournament for beginning chess players. Is isn’t a School Chess Association tournament – it’s just sponsored by the Mpls Public Schools, and so there are a lot more beginners than there are at any other tournament. It’s also free and lunch is provided free too. Finally, it’s the only tournament where kids don’t need their own chess sets.

But it is a long day. The kids play seven rounds of chess divided into K-3 and 4-6 grades (I think). Each round lasts about a half hour, and then they have long breaks in between to socialize, play with each other, play Nintendo DS, etc. Registration starts at 8:30 and my experience is that the awards ceremony ends around 5:00.

OUR NEXT TOURNAMENT – Saturday Feb 20th
Our second tournament of the year will be next Saturday, the 20th. I’ll get you the information around this within the next day or so, but put it on your calendar now. It is the only grade level tournament, meaning it is the only tournament where your child is assured of playing only kids in their grade, and awards are also given by grade.

CLARIFICATION ON PICKING UP KIDS
Please come into Burroughs to pick up your kids. We’ve noticed several kids running outside as our club ends, and we want to make sure everyone finds their parent safely.

THANKS again for your participation and we’ll hopefully see you on Friday.
Sincerely,
John