Big Island Chess Club moves

[birdmove]

We shut down the Saturday Big Island Chess Club meeting at the Pahoa Neighborhood Facility. We had 4-5 die hard members that showed up all the time, and a few very irregular players that came once in a while. We have moved the club to the Hilo Library. We are still meeting every Saturday from 9:00 am till 1:00 pm. We are meeting in the kids area for now. We have myself (Jon) there to teach beginners, and we have Burt there for anyone that wants advanced training. Burt had a high USCF rating of 2550, which is chess grandmaster level, but he never completed the steps to actually become a grandmaster. Burt is an awesome player.

The club is free of charge. We had originally been meeting at the Keaau Market. When we moved to Pahoa, we lost some good members from Hilo, Mountain View, etc. Many of these people are back with us again.

All players are welcome, beginner, advanced, whatever. Bring your set and board if you have them. The Library has bought some tournament legal sets and boards, the club has some, and I try to bring two sets and boards (and my chess clock).

I am now teaching three after school classes at E. B. Desilva Elementary in Hilo also.

I hope to keep chess alive in the area, and teach kids to play this great and challenging game. I would be totally happy to teach adults that have never played also. You are never too old to take up chess. There is also evidence that playing chess may help people keep their minds sharper as we age, even preventing Alzheimer's disease.
See http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117588.

Jon in Keaau/HPP

[unknownjulie]

Awesome club! Thanks for doing it!

[unknownjulie]

Is the club going to have tournaments? What kind of prizes are there? Thanks

[birdmove]

We may eventually. We have had maybe 5-6 in the past. Jim Lee has given out trophies in the ones we've had. I think he wants ttaught them the basics see how many new adults we get into the club. I met an adult couple today, about my age (60) who had never played chess before, so I went through the basics and played them a game (both against me). I thought it was pretty cool that they came in to learn the game. They had read about it in the paper they said. I also worked with about 5-6- kids to get them up and playing.

Jon in Keaau/HPP

[taropatch]

I think its great that we have Jon working to get chess established in the schools here. Chess and academic improvement has been well documented in the past. Washington Middle School on Oahu did some major damage at the Nationals last month:

http://www.hawaiichess.com/wms-chess-tea...mpionship/

[Carey]

We have a guest that will be visiting, do you allow one time guests, and are these timed rounds?

[csgray]

Jon,
Any chance of trying to get some youth chess activity going at the Hui here in HPP this summer? There is literally NOTHING organized for kids to do in this neighborhood in the summer.

Carol