Okay, it's been a week since the Chess Challenge, why am I still tired? Just not as zoomy as I used to be.

We had a great time this year, despite some personnel changes at the top, which had Karen Demers running from hall to hall, taking care of everyone. Think of it as an exercise program, Karen.

We were pleased to welcome retired principal Don Brown as a volunteer, and Don proved to be excellent, getting stuck right in and doing a ton of work, which left me free to eat cookies. Also new were Lawrence Lamoure and his son Carl, and Sue Recker.

Both Monday and Tuesday, we were a little late getting started; the weather was excellent, but there was construction on Walker and North Talbot. The important process of scorekeeping was really helped by a bus load of volunteers from Kennedy Collegiate Institute, who came each day, and helped with enthusiasm and maturity. A big "thank you" to Kennedy, the teacher Tami Hawkins, and the school board for providing the bus.

Unfortunately, there was delay in getting the results. The Computer Guru was working 16 hours a day at his real job, but collected the score cards and scanned them after midnight, such dedication.

On Wednesday, overflow day, we had an even better time. With all eight grades in the same room, there is potential for mass confusion, but in fact everything went so well that we took a long lunch, and still finished early. We were pleased to welcome 17 volunteers from F. J. Brennan high school, who came with their teacher Lisa Burke. The Brennan volunteers were excellent - when I went to the school, it was remarkable how attentive the students were.

One feature of having new volunteers is gaining some ideas for improvements for next year, and Karen and I will be working those ideas out. One thing is... no overflow day next year... we gotta cut the numbers from each school, we can't have 80+ teachers racing to register, when we have space for only 65 schools with the present team sizes.

The Chess Challenge has been booked for February 28th and March 1st, 2011. Only days to go!

March 3rd, Wednesday nite-nite
Wednesday Results!!
We had a great time at the overflow day on Wednesday March 3rd. There were students from 15 schools, and everyone arrived early, not delayed at all by the construction. We started early, took a long lunch, and finished early.

Everything went very well, helped out by the 17 students from Brennan high school, who volunteered for the day.

The Wednesday schools are not eligible for the "Champion" pennant... the conditions are too dissimilar, with fewer schools, smaller sections, and the traditional powerhouse schools register early. However, I will get a trophy specially for the "top Wednesday school"...

The winner was A V Graham, with 67 points, out of a possible maximum of 80. Second was St William, with 66.5 points, yes it was that close, and I spot-checked at least half the cards, to make sure the computer can add. Third was Anderdon with 59.5.

I'm tired. Nite-nite indeed.

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March 2nd, 11.59 pm
Results!!

Once again, the thundering herd of the Bellewood Bisons, led by their younger players, trampled all over longtime chess powers to lead all schools at the Chess Challenge with an incredible 75 points from their top 10 players. (The maximum possible is 80 points.) Many-time champions First Lutheran Christian Academy were second, with 72 points, and St. Gabriel were third with 69 points, just ahead of Forest Glade (68½) and Southwood (68) Watch out for the youthquake.

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March 1st, 11.30 pm
Results from Monday...
Here they are: ????? Now you know as much as I do.

The Guru has the scorecards, and presumably knows the results, but he won't tell me. Knowledge is power. In the course of zooming from hall to hall, I didn't see much of what was going on. It seemed to me that First Lutheran was doing well, and also Talbot Trail.

I also notice there's not as much vroom in my zoom as there used to be. Old age isn't for the weak.

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Sunday, very late,
Shakespeare had Henry V say, on the morning of the battle of Agincourt "All things are ready if our minds be so!" This is especially true for chess... and it helps if the van is stuffed with chess sets...

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Thursday, February 25th
Scorekeeper Assignments are now uploaded, look yourself up here!

And it's not even 8.00 pm, what am I going to do with myself for the next four hours. Hmmm... maybe veg-out in front of the TV.

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Wednesday, February 24th, even later at night
oops! A BIG oops! I just knew things were going too well, I just discovered that I made a mistake assigning Halls for Tuesday, and all the Grade 3s and 4s were wrong. Easily fixed, and I've re-uploaded all the school pages for Tuesday. Check them out here.

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Tuesday, February 23rd, very late at night
Construction detours might make your drive to the Ciociaro Club "interesting"... or lengthy, anyway. My favourite back-street via 8th Concession is closed, and the "front door" route via Howard/Walker/North Talbot is also being worked on, or so I hear. Check it out here.

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Tuesday, February 23rd, very early in the morning
Player assignments and room layouts are all done, it's late at night, and I might be spending all day tomorrow making corrections. See the links at left.

I've got a dentist appointment first thing, I'll probably fall asleep!

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Monday, February 22nd, very late at night...
Player assignments and room layouts are done, or semi-done.click here.

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Sunday, February 21st

Player list... in alphabetical order, but otherwise unformatted, un-fixed, un-anything, is here!

Email me cc-registration@cogeco.ca if you must, my hair couldn't get any greyer.

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Thursday, February 18th

Deadline for changes to player lists is Friday February 19th. Tomorrow! You can still name volunteers after that, probably till next Tuesday. And of course, you can still mail the cheque, if you haven't already.

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Wednesday, February 17th

The medals have arrived!

Early for once, 500 medals in shades of gold, silver and bronze, all 60 lbs of them, arrived courtesy of UPS, which will do anything for money.

Hmmm... a little brighter than I expected, everyone start humming "O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree..."

One of the fun parts of this job is looking thru catalogs, spending money.

Now I gotta go order trophies for the playoffs...

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Saturday, February 13th, 12.01 am

No new players! The deadline for registered schools to name their players was Friday, midnight, and at 12.01 I hit the switch to freeze the numbers of players. Teachers can still make minor adjustments to their lists, until Friday 19th.

Good news for the four schools on the waiting list, there will be enough space for them to have small teams, I will be emailing those teachers tonight. Sleep is for wimps.

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Thursday, February 11th

The deadline for registered schools to name their players is Friday, February 12th.

Then I can do the room layouts. Teacher can make MINOR changes to their lists until February 19th, after which the room layouts are finalized, and printing of scorecards and nametags can begin.

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Thursday, January 28th

Essex Invitational chess tournament

The chess club at Holy Name elementary in Essex, led by the energetic Lori Market, hosted 114 students from five schools for a 8-round (!!) chess tournament. I'm too lazy to list individual medal winners, but the school results are here:

School Gold Silver Bronze Holy Name 3 2 6 Holy Cross 2 1 2 St.Gregory 3 5 3 St. Louis - 1 1 St. Pius X 3 4 3

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Monday, January 25th

Registration Closed to new schools

Sorry, folks, it's never happened this early, but we've had to close off registration. Schools that have already registered can (and must) access the online registration system to list their players, name their volunteers, print themselves an invoice, etc.

As well as the usual schools, we have some new faces this year: welcome to H.D. Taylor, Roseland, and St. James. Welcome back to St Pius X, and St Anne, after a hiatus. Old faces at new schools include Barbara Gaspard at Our Lady of Lourdes, and Paul Naim at St. Louis.

Schools that didn't make it in this year can email me at cc-registration@cogeco.ca

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Friday, January 22nd

Mr. Softy's Back!

Several schools have been waiting for additional space, and in addition there are nine schools that played in 2009 that are maintaining an unnatural silence.

I am pleased to be able to tell you that I have managed to book space at the Ciociaro Club for Wednesday, March 3rd. The online registration has been re-opened, but only for that date, both Monday and Tuesday are full.

Don't tell Karen, okay. She thinks I should develop a spine and just say "no".

We have to fix this, we can't have 80 schools racing eachother to fill 65 places.

Preliminary plan for 2011: reduce the team sizes, to allow more schools to play. I'm thinking of 24 players for large schools, and 18 players for smaller ones. The Guru is thinking of 24 and 16. Karen is thinking of moving to South America.

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Wednesday, January 20th, 11.00 am
There has been a rush of schools registering, we are now at capacity for Monday and Tuesday, based on teachers' estimates. Here is the list.

This is a problem we have to fix for 2011, we can't have 80 schools racing to fill 65 places.

So, the "big event", at the Ciociaro Club on Monday March 1st and Tuesday March 2nd is full... maybe. Why only maybe? Well, we are going by teachers' estimates of how many players they will bring, and estimates have been known to be wrong.

Teachers, if you haven't yet registered, and still want to play, please email me your estimated number of players at cc-registration@cogeco.ca and then cross your fingers.

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Tuesday, January 19th Late evening: Monday is now 83% full, Tuesday is 100+% full, and overall we are at 92% of capacity, so if you are planning on entering, now is the time. About 23 of the 2009 schools have not yet entered, and we don't have room for all of them. Counting down... For 2011, we are going to have to cut the numbers from each school, in order to allow more schools to play. Still 23 days to go to the theoretical close of registration, and we are 92% full??

Space and scarcity (they ain't making any more of it)

Contact cc-registration@cogeco.ca if you have any registration questions.
Contact webmaster@chesschallenge.ca if you have any technical problems.

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Saturday, January 16th
Well, that's all, folks. All for Tuesday registrations anyway. Three more schools registered this morning, don't those teachers know it's Saturday? Tuesday is now at 103% of capacity, though there is still space on Monday (only 68% full). Please note these numbers are based on teachers' estimates of the number of players they will bring, and those estimates may not come to fruition.

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Friday, January 15th
Registrations coming in thick and fast, Tuesday is now 91% full (based on teachers' estimates of the number of players they will bring). Yup, let's hope the Ciociaro Club builds an extension really soon, or else all the Tuesday players are going to have to go on a diet. Monday is "only" 53% full, so far.

I've been bugging the Computer Guru to put the registration stats on the front page, no doubt he will get around to it after we run out of space. Sigh, I think my nagging skills have declined.

Thursday, January 14th
We now have 40 schools registered, and the teachers' estimates of the number of players indicate we are about 2/3 full. However, so far, Tuesday is more popular than Monday... Tuesday is 83% full, so if you MUST have Tuesday, it would be prudent to get your school registered soon.

Check out the list of registered schools here.

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Sunday, January 10th
In the week since online registration opened, about 30 schools have registered, and two have even listed the names of their players. The process is running smoothly, and everything is on track. So far, Tuesday is slightly more popular than Monday.

The first practice tournament was held yesterday, 31 players, a decent crowd. There were lots of volunteers, including Dan Passador, Linda Deforest, Craig Robinson, and Brendon and Melissa Lee. As usual, I drifted around with a coffee, and even played a little chess. Next practice tournament is January 23rd at Riverside Library. Click here for practice tournaments

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Sunday, January 3rd
Welcome back after the holidays... I hope you are all pleasantly egg-nogged-out.

The Computer Guru got married a couple of years ago (on 7-7-7, who would have thought a man of science would also be a numerologist). Since that happy event, the computing team has become Guru and Girl, and the addition of a baby to the process will surely make all previous challenges seem trivial, by comparison. The online registration will be ready on January 4th, says the Guru, while the babe was babbling happily on his lap.

For information on the online system, click here
or
Go straight to the secure registration

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Practice tournaments
We will be having four practice tournaments prior to the Chess Challenge. So many kids play only their friends at school, at it is a major surprise when they have to play new people. Also, a player who does well at two practice tournaments qualifies for the playoffs, even if he/she has a bad day at the Chess Challenge.

Click here for Practice tournaments

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New for 2010
In July 2010 we will be hosting the Canadian Youth Chess Championship the Windsor Hilton. This event will attract about 150 players from across Canada, and winners in each category will represent Canada at the World Youth Championship in Greece in the fall of 2010.

Winners at the Chess Challenge playoffs will be invited to play in the Canadian Youth Chess Championship. Previous CYCCs were held in Victoria (2009), Quebec City (2008), Ottawa (2007), etc, and so this is a great opportunity for local hopefuls to play in a national event, without the expense of travel. Check out the CYCC website

Features for 2010

All chess equipment is provided. Please do not bring your own chess sets.

A two day event... Monday March 1st or Tuesday March 2nd. Choose which day for your school. (Schools entering at the last minute may not have a choice.)

Each school sending ten or more players will receive a pennant.

The top school will receive an annual trophy, to be held for one year.

Team T-shirts are optional but recommended.

Karen Demers from GECDSB will be co-ordinating the volunteers.

Robert Bierer, an Information Technology manager, will be processing registrations.

On-line registration is compulsory. You cannot enter by fax or email.

You can enter as an individual player only if there is no "official" team from your school.

We have a written snowday plan in the (unlikely) case of bad weather.

The playoffs will be held on the weekends after March Break (not during school hours)

All games at the playoffs will use a chess clock. The playoffs are to select players for the Canadian Youth Chess Championships, where clocks will be used. We will have about 40 clocks available for the playoffs.

The maximum number of players per school remains the same as 2009. Unfortunately, because we have a limited amount of space, we have to limit team sizes:

Most schools (up to 600 students): 24 players overall, not more than 8 per grade
Large schools (over 600 students): 32 players overall, not more than 8 per grade

Please note there are now TWO separate deadlines....

-- 5 February for the T-shirts. Shirts have to be ordered, printed, and delivered.

-- 12 February for the player lists. We have to make sure we have enough chess sets (about 400), and get more if necessary. We have to order the pennants, all hand made. And, yes, we have to rent tables (the Ciociaro Club has mostly round tables- no good for chess, unless you have very long arms).

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Any questions? E-mail us at

chesschallenge [AT] cogeco [DOT] ca