www.chessinschools.co.uk | Issue No.9

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The 10th London Chess Classic sign up now!

The 10th London Chess Classic will run from 9th - 17th of December. Click here to enter the side events or buy tickets to watch the Grand Chess Tour finals. Schools events will be online soon.

Starting the festival from Google HQ in Kings Cross proved to be a great success last year and we are fortunate to be able to do so again. Our thanks go to Demis Hassabis of DeepMind, creators of AlphaGo and AlphaZero. This year's festival will be spread between two venues, with 4 days at Google and 9 days at Kensington Olympia, making it our most ambitious Classic yet.

Last year's Masterclass at DeepMind

DeepMind will be hosting the ProBiz Cup on the 10th and the 3 semi-final rounds of the Grand Chess Tour on the 11th, 12th and 13th. Meanwhile Olympia will host the FIDE Open, the schools events and then the GCT Final over the last three days on 15th, 16th and 17th. We are adding new events all the time, please see the schedule here. We are pleased to announced a new sponsor for this year's London Chess Classic, this year we are generously supported by the Lohia Foundation.

Grand Finale

The top four players in the GCT standings will contest the finals. After a last gasp play-off victory over Wesley So at the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, last year's London Chess Classic winner Fabiano Caruana will join Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the battle for the lion's share of the $300,000 prize fund.

Summer Tournament Success

After classroom lessons in over 300+ schools were completed, CSC tutors were busy running tournaments around the country, the highlight of which was the end of year tournament in Liverpool at which over 400 children attended and Mayor Joe Anderson gave out the prizes as well as adjudicating a game! Click here for a full report:

Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson adjudicates the last game of the tournament

South Wales

On the 3rd of July, Chess in Schools and Communities Chief Executive Malcolm Pein visited the Merthyr Tydfil tournament where 100 children from six schools competed. You can read the full report here.

Councillor Clive Tovey makes the ceremonial first move of the tournament

Teesside

Our Teesside chess tutors not only ran tournaments for their pupils, but in Park End Primary school's case for the teachers as well! More here 

 Schoolteachers working hard to stay ahead of their students

Lincolnshire

Two pupils from St.John's Primary School in Spalding reached the Gigafinals and one won the county U9 championship! Read CSC volunteer Paul McCarthy's full report here.

Newham

Community Chess Tournament 20th October The third edition is part funded by Newham Borough Council and takes place at the grand Old Town Hall. The event boasts a £1500 prize fund and there is free entry for Newham residents. Enter here:

The grand venue of the Old Town Hall Newham

Prisons

CSC has begun regular sessions in HMP Wandsworth. Working in prisons present new challenges. There is a real hunger for chess among inmates and places are oversubscribed. A recent piece in the Guardian has led to many more enquiries.

Join us we’re growing!

The charity was featured recently on Sky News and Channel 5 This generated great interest and this academic year we ran more tutor training days than ever before. To sign up your school click here or to become a tutor click here.

                                               

Your Support

If you'd like to learn more about how you can help the charity, then please feel free to call us on 020 7935 3445, or e-mail us at [email protected].

YOUR SUPPORT is key to ensuring the work of the charity continues, and that we keep bringing the benefits of chess to our schools and communities. Please do pass on this newsletter to your contacts and help to spread the good word! If you, your organisation, friends or acquaintances wish to make a donation to help the charity then please read more and remember to Gift Aid the donation, if possible.

Thank you!