You're Invited

Some of you may remember last year when Frank Love Chess Club reserved the meeting room at the Bothell library and invited another chess club to join us for an afternoon of chess.  We decided to try it again this year.  We have invited Kenmore Chess Club to join us and it should be a lot of fun.  Please remember that this is not a drop off event.  All students must have an adult with them.  We would love to see more parents, grandparents and other family members play some games too.  It's Sunday December 2 from 2-4pm at the Bothell Library.  (The Seahawks play at 10 and should be over by 1! )  Hope to see you there!

The free trial month for Chess Club has ended.  The $40 yearly fee was due last week.  If you have not turned in your check (payable to Frank Love PTA and can be sent to the office) by our next meeting on November 29th, we will assume that your student has decided not to continue with chess club and your student will no longer be allowed to stay after school for meetings.  If you haven't already done so, please send your $40 check (made payable to Frank Love PTA) to school.

We will be ordering T-shirts this Friday.  Every student signed up for chess club will be getting one.  If you have not already selected a size  or wish to order additional shirts, please contact me. 

Our Beginners have learned the basics of chess and will be ready to play with other students.  Starting this week we plan to have an in-house tournament.  Attendance is critical for this to work properly.  If your student will be absent, please contact Mr. Adams or myself so we can change the pairings in advance.

Our volunteers have been wonderful!  Thank you to all of the parents who have helped at the meetings so far this year.  Last week we had so many games going, that we ran out of boards.  We have 10 new boards now and shouldn't have that problem again.  So keep coming!  If you haven't already signed up to help at one of the meetings please let me know.  There are many empty slots in January and February.

Frank Love Chess Club Starts with Record Numbers!

Chess club is off to a great start this year! As of today we have 83 students signed up. That breaks last year's record of 76.

We had a successful parents meeting last Thursday. Thank you to everyone who came out to support chess club and volunteered to help at the meetings. As we've said before, you don't have to know how to play chess to help out at the meetings. But having some people who do know how to play is very valuable. While there are more volunteers, the number of chess-playing volunteers is still low. So if you know how to play chess, or if you have a grandparent, or older sibling who can play and has a free hour on Thursday afternoons, we'd love to see you at a meeting!

At the parents meeting we reviewed the Student agreement that each student signed. These have 3 main points. First, that the student wants to join chess club and will do their best to attend meetings on a regular basis. Second, that while at chess club they will play chess and not do other things and last that they will practice good sportsmanship at all times. If you haven't seen your student's signed agreement, please let me know. I'd be happy to forward it to you.

We also handed out a parent agreement. The agreement makes sure parents are aware that the $40 yearly fee is non-refundable after the first month free trial. The form includes a place to select a size t-shirt for your child, a place to let us know what level of chess player your child is in (With 80 kids in chess club it takes a while for individual evaluations and we need a place to start.), and permission to post pictures of your child on our website and bulletin boards. If you did not get one, you can pick one up at chess club or I can email you a copy.  These are due with your payment on November 7th.  You can make checks out to Frank Love PTA.  Scholarship forms are available at meetings on Thursdays.

Anyone ready for tournaments??  Chess4life already has some Beginners tournaments and even some State Qualifiers posted on their website.  There is also a Blitz tournament at the Crossroads mall in Bellevue on November 10th.  We'll start to see an increase in tournaments around January.  Then there should be more hosted by various schools including some closer to Bothell.

I've had a few parents asking for suggestions to get students playing more chess at home.  Of course, you can play with siblings or on the computer.  My son has a yahoo account and sometimes plays with his grandfather in Virginia.  You can also rent Lego chess from the Bothell library.  There is usually a waiting list for it, so you need to reserve it.  King County library also has a variety of chess videos, including those by chess4life.  Again, you will probably need to reserve these materials.  Zynga makes a free Chess with Friends game.  You can select someone at random or select an opponent you already know.  If you want to challenge me, my screen name is Cookie_789, but I have to warn you that I often get help! 
 
Mark your calendars for Sunday December 2nd! From 2-4pm, we have reserved the meeting room in the Bothell library for a chess club open house. Some of you may remember that we tried this last year and had positive feedback, so it's back by popular demand! It is open to Frank Love chess club and family members. We plan to invite students from neighboring chess clubs to come out and play our students again. It is a great chance to play chess against people outside of our regular chess club meetings. I'll post more details as December approaches. Hope to see you there!


 

Chess Club Starts Thursday October 11th!

That's right!  Frank Love Chess Club starts again on Thursday October 11th after school in the library. Chess Club is open to any Frank Love student in grades K-6 who is interested in learning how to play chess or already enjoys playing chess. Check your October 5th Friday folder for your permission slip.  All permission slips are due back by Tuesday October 9th.

There are few exciting changes to chess club this year.  First I would like to introduce our newest Chess Club coach, Sensei George Ahearn.  You may already know Sensei George from Evergreen Karate school in downtown Bothell.  He and his wife own Evergreen Karate and Sensei George teaches many classes there.  Sensei George is also a registered nurse and a serious chess player.  He has over 30 years of experience playing chess and has competed in and won numerous tournaments.  We are excited to have his expertise to share with our club. 

Mr. Adams, Coach Travis and myself, Coach Dawn, will continue to coach at chess club meetings and look forward to working with students again soon.  Last year chess club consistently had close 60 students at our weekly meetings.  We still need parental help.  We are requesting each parent to volunteer for at least one of the 21 meetings throughout the year.  There is no chess knowledge needed to volunteer.

The meetings will remain on Thursdays after school in the school library from 3:10-4:10.  The first meeting is October 11th.  On October 18th, there will be NO meeting after school.  Instead there will be a parents meeting at 6pm in the library. 

Chess club will cost $40 per year to join.  Scholarships are available through the PTA.  There is no fee for the first month.  We want to let your child have a chance to try out chess club and make sure it's a good fit before committing.  So if you're unsure or have questions about what chess club is like, come and check it out.  The $40 will be due November 8th and can be paid all at once or in two installments with the second being due on February 7th.  A chess club T-shirt will be included in this price.  If you have more than one child joining chess club, the fee for each additional sibling is $20 per year.

We are looking forward to another great year of Chess Club!

Frank Love Represented at Nationals!

From Biju:

As some of you know, after the state chess, Rohan and Roshan participated in the 2012 U.S. Elementary Chess Championship (May 10^th – 13^th) @ Nashville, Tennessee, USA. All games held at Gaylord Opryland Resort and we stayed there itself for convenience. Finally we are all back in Seattle last night after the 4 day long games..

Good news is that, both the Kids won few prizes…

A) Rohan (5^th Grade) won FIRST Place in the speed (Blitz) chess tournament in K-6 U800 category.

B) Roshan (2^nd Grade) won all games except one and came 5^th position out of 380 played kids from all over US in the regular tournament under K-3 U800 Category

C) Rohan (5^th Grade) won all games except one and came in as 13^th position out of 374 played kids in the regular tournament under K-5 U900 Category

Please find the attached photo with their trophies. Thanks for the support and the great time they had at Chess club in the past year !!

Thanks for the update!  That is exciting news!  Congratulations to Rohan and Roshan!

2012 Washington State Elementary Chess Championship

This Thursday, April 26th will be the last meeting of chess club for the school year.  There will be no more chess club meetings after April 26th.  We are planning to play kids vs. adults and celebrate the results of the state championship and all of the many accomplishments from throughout the year.  But don't mention it to the kids, tell them that there will be a final exam at our last meeting.  

Travis, the chess club's official photographer, has taken many pictures from the tournaments.  If you would like a copy, please bring a thumb drive on Thursday.   Please do not send a thumb drive with your student.  If you can't make it, and would like the pictures, please contact me. 

Thursday is a fun day for chess club and all parents are welcome and encouraged to join. 

The Washington State Chess Championship was held on Saturday, April 21st, in Pasco, Washington.  17 students from Frank Love attended.  One more was scheduled to compete, but was sick (hope you're feeling better, Liam!). 


The night before most of the Frank Love Chess Team met up at the hotel for a pizza dinner and a night of swimming in the pool and soaking in the hot tub. 

Early the next morning, we met for breakfast.

We arrived before 8am at the tournament ready to play.

We waited for the first round to start.

And we waited.

About 90 minutes later, round 1 started.  With two wins and one loss, our kindergartners were off to a great to start.  Out of the remaining 15 players, our team only had 5 points.  It was a dismal forecast. 

In round 2 the Frank Love chess team became more serious and walked away with more wins than losses and continued a steady improvement from there.

After round 5, 3 of our players won 4 out of 5 games.  Congratulations to Rohan, Kenney and Roshan!  Roshan won 10th place for second grade!!

Liam S. got a score of 3.5 in his division and won second place.  Congratulations Liam!

4 students earned 3 out of 5 points.  That includes all 3 of our kindergartners...  again!  Congratulations to Alex V., Austin, Hayden and Curtis!

Dylan D., Henry, JazMinh, Alexander J., Cameron, and Kobe all got 2 points and Tyler, Lakshey and Cooper came through with 1 point. 

All of those scores contributed to our team scores.  There were over 150 schools represented in the tournament.  The top 25 teams won trophies.  Last year Frank Love just squeezed in at 25th place for grades 1-3.  We didn't even have enough players in grades 4-6 to even be considered a team.  This year Frank Love Chess Team won 17th place for grades 1-3 (wish they would count the kindergarten scores!) and 14th place for grades 4-6!  We beat out some of our rivals and ran up on stage.  It was a fantastic finish to an amazing day and a great year of chess club!  One thing I learned, is not to promise that your child can attend the Elementary Chess National Championship in Tennessee if they win 5 out of 5 games in the state tournament.  They will come as close as they can just to scare you!

Frank Love Kindergarteners Lead the Way at Shelton View Tournament

March 31st was an amazing day for the Frank Love Chess Club Team.  24 students represented Frank Love at the Shelton View Tournament.  Previously the most students we had at any given tournament was 13.  It is great to see so many kids representing our school.

Going into the last round 10 of our students needed to win (or in one case tie) their last game in order to qualify for the state tournament.  I think the parents were more nervous than the players.  The players walked out of the tournament room one by one with mostly smiles.  7 out of those 10 won their last match.  7 new players from Frank Love have now qualified for the state tournament on April 21st.  That makes 19 students total who have qualified.  Congratulations to Alexander J., Cooper, Henry, JazMinh, Lakshey, Liam R., and Zach!  It was especially heartwarming to see our second grader walk out of his game singing "Walked him down the board," putting to song a chess strategy that Mr. Adams had reviewed at one of the meetings. 

In addition to our new state qualifiers, a few kids who had previously qualified for state, did it again.  Aidan L., and Dylan D., won 4 games out of 5! Kenney and Tyler both had 3.5 points! Cameron had 3 points. Congratulations to all of them!

Liam R., also won the good sportsmanship award at the tournament and went home with 2 trophies.  This is a very prestigious award as it is only given to one or two players at any given tournament.  It makes the whole school proud to have him on our team.  Congratulations Liam!

Some of you may remember that Frank Love has won first place in the kindergarten section at this same tournament in previous years.  This year we topped that.  We had 2 kindergarteners competing.  Alexander V. won first place with 4.5 out of 5 points.  Hayden won second place in the kindergarten section with 4 points!  Congratulations to both of them!  Alexander V was the highest scorer on our team.  Frank Love Kindergarteners led the team in points and swept the kindergarten section.  Amazing! 

We had 9 players at this tournament who competed in their first ever tournament.  Congratulations to Alex K., Andres, Cooper, Drew, Ethan D., JazMinh, Josh, Kai, Lorenzo, and Rileigh.  It is wonderful to see our team growing so much!

All of our players' hard work and tough games came to a grand finale.  Frank Love won the second place team trohpy!

If your student has not qualified for the state tournament and would like to try again, there are some "last chance" state qualifiers on Saturday April 7th.  At least 2 of our players have signed up for the Seattle Last Chance State Qualifier.  You can register online at www.chess4life.com or contact Mr. Adams with any questions.

If your student has qualified for the state tournament you can register at http://www.chesschampions.org/2012.php and contact Mr. Adams or Long Duong for hotel information.

Chess club will be ending for the year after the state tournament.  Our final chess club meeting will be Thursday April 26th.  That's the Thursday after spring break.  Mark your calendars!

More Tournament News

Frank Love Chess Club is continuing to make itself known at local tournaments.  On March 3rd, at the Mountlake Terrace Spring Fling 11 kids represented Frank Love.  It was Zach's first time ever competing in a chess tournament.  Curtis had 4 points (3 wins and 2 ties, making him undefeated), Cameron had 3.5 points and Kobe earned 3 points.  All 3 qualified for the state tournament next month.  Tyler earned 3 points also, which made him qualified for the state tournament for his second time this year.  Congratulations to all of our players! 

On Saturday March 10th, Cedar Park Christian School hosted a tournament.  Six students from Frank Love represented our team there.  Hayden, Dylan and Liam R competed in their first ever chess tournament that day!  Hayden is in kindergarten, but since there were enough kindergartners at this tournament, he played in a K-3 section.  He won his first two games and qualified for the state tournament in April.  He is our 3rd kindergartner to qualify!  Dylan and Kenney won 3 games in their sections and also qualified for the state tournament.  The most exciting part of the tournament was when the last of the awards were given out, the team trophies.  Frank Love won 3rd place!  We were the only public school to receive a team trophy.  Once again, Congratulations to all of our chess players!  The trophy will be in Mr. Adams' room this week until chess club on Thursday when it will be placed in the (starting to get crowded) chess club cabinet in the library.

If you haven't made it to a tournament yet and would like to, Shelton View is hosting a tournament on March 31st.  It will be at Lockwood elementary (NOT at Shelton View)  8 kids from Frank Love have already signed up and I know more are interested.  You can register online at www.chess4life.com and click on tournaments on the left.  It is best to register early.  The price goes up by $7 a week before the tournament.  This tournament is only open to Northshore School District Students.  Last year our team won second place and this year we're hoping to give our rival another good day of competition.

If you have qualified for state, it's best to register early.  The price goes up as the tournament comes closer.  Long Duong has made a group reservation for us at the Holiday Inn in Richland.  Please contact Long Duong or Dawn Furukawa for more information on how to join our group. 

This week will be the last week for our club chess tournament.  Rohan is the only person with 5 wins out of 5.  Alex K is also undefeated with 3 wins and 2 ties.  We have a few more that haven't lost yet, but none of those have been present for all 5 weeks.  If you know in advance that your child will be absent from chess club, please let us know.  It affects our pairings, lessons, number of copies needed and things like that.  Also, please do allow your child to leave before being dismissed by Mr. Adams.  There is a sign out sheet if you really must leave early.  Chess club is over at 4:10.  We need all students to stay until the end to help clean up boards and listen to the announcements.

Our last chess club meeting is scheduled for Thursday April 26th. There will be no meeting the week before because of spring break. That means there are only 6 club meetings left and we have started to think about next year. We would like to set up a survey to get parents' opinions about what is going well and what could use some improvement with chess club. We would also like to get a good feel about how many students we can expect in the fall. Last year we had about 40 kids and this year we jumped to 76 the first month. We currently have about 55 who come regularly. If you have any ideas, suggestions or would like to volunteer for next year, please contact Dawn Furukawa or Mr. Adams.

Every week Mr. Adams and I continue to see changes in our players.  One first grader who used to stack the rooks on the board is now focused  on his game and concentrated on his opponent during the games.  We're seeing more good sportsmanship like when a 4th grader was asked to play one of kindergartners and couldn't believe what a tough game it had been for him.  Every week they make us proud.  I think all of Frank Love Chess Club is looking forward to the Shelton View tournament on March 31st.  Hope to see you there!

Tournament Results

February 11th was an exciting day for the Frank Love chess team.  13 chess players represented Frank Love at the Heritage Christian Tournament.  That is the most players we've had a single tournament.  Our team was competing against at least 10 different schools, and mostly private schools with private chess tutors.  Frank Love has a great hard-working team, but once again, Frank Love was the underdog of the tournament.  These 13 Frank Love representatives made our school proud. 

Both of the kindergartners, Austin and Alexander, qualified for the Washington State Championship in April.  Austin also won the Good Sportsmanship award for helping another player after the match.  He left the tournament with 2 trophies! 

Frank Love's chess team didn't stop there.  Overall, 7 kids won 3 or more games making them eligible for the WA state championship this April.  Congratulations to Roshan, Aidan, Alexander, Tyler, Austin, Rohan and Kenney!  Frank Love also had 3 players compete in their first ever tournament.  Congratulations to Alexander J, Alexander V, and Lakshey!

Our players weren't just competing as individuals, team trophies were also awarded.  There were two categories, one for grades 1-3 and another for grades 4-6.  Frank Love won a trophy in EACH category!  We won 4th place for grades 1-3 and 3rd place for grades 4-6.  No other public schools received a team trophy and only one other school received 2 team trophies.  This is quite an accomplishment and something the whole chess team and all of Frank Love can be proud of.   The trophies will be in Mr. Adams classroom and the office until chess club on Thursday.  We'll go over all of the tournament results again and then the team trophies will be placed in the chess cabinet in the library.  So check them out and don't forget to congratulate our teammates!

If you missed the Heritages Christian tournament, you can always attend a tournament in the future.  There are several local upcoming state qualifying tournaments.  You can view the entire list at chess4life.com.  Shelton View is hosting a tournament on March 31st.  If you can only go to one tournament in March, this is the one to go to!  Perhaps we'll set a new school record with more than 13 kids attending.  Last year our team won 2nd place at this tournament.  Will it be first place this year??  This tournament is only open to students in the Northshore school district.

If you want to qualify for the state tournament, going to just one tournament, puts a lot of pressure on.  There are other tournaments in the area.  Cedar Park in Bothell is hosting a state qualifying tournament on March 10th.  And there is the Mountlake Terrance Spring Fling on March 3rd in Lynnwood.  For kids who have a rating over 800, these are great chances to play in a U900 section for 1-3 and U100 for 4-6.  The Mountlake Terrace Spring Fling also has a Beginners section for kids who have competed in 3 or fewer tournaments.  The beginners section is NOT a state qualifying section.  No one has to sign up for the beginners section.  If you want to try for the state tournament and it's your first tournament, sign up in the U900 section if you are in grades 1-3 or the U1000 if you are in grades 4-6.  Mountlake Terrance Spring Fling also has a girls only section that is a state qualifying section.  We'd love to have some girls representing Frank Love!

Last year Frank Love had several students compete in the Team championship.  Frank Love won second and all of the kids who competed last year were anxious to do it again this year.  This year that tournament date is the same day as the Shelton View Tournament.  I know at least two kids who would rather go to the Shelton View tournament.  We'll be discussing if we have enough players who are interested in the Team tournament.

We're off to another exciting year of Chess Tournaments!

New Tournament Style Chess Club

This week at chess club we made a few changes.  First we took a break from the "challenge room."  Then we started a chess club tournament.  Students were paired up in assigned games, based on official ratings (if they have one), grade, and experience.  Students were asked to report who won and who lost.  Next week, we'll make new pairings based on the results, just like a real tournament.  This will give the kids good practice for tournaments as well as help us coaches to get a better idea of who needs more help and who needs more of a challenge.  This is also a great way to break the routine of playing the same few friends every week.

In order to do this kind of tournament, we need to prepare the game pairings in advance.  If you know that your child will be absent or needs to leave Chess club before 4:10, please let us know, so that we can plan accordingly.

Next Saturday, February 11th, there is a state qualifying tournament at Heritage Christian Academy in Bothell.  So far we have 8 students signed up to represent Frank Love at this tournament.  It should be a lot of fun and with so many people participating on the Frank Love Chess Team, we stand a good chance of earning a great team score.  You can sign up at www.chess4life.com .  Then click on tournaments on the left.  If you questions, feel free to contact me.  dawn.furukawa@gmail.com

This week we also reviewed the "Chess Puzzle of the Month" for January that had been hanging up in the library.  This one proved to be a challenge for most kids (and some of us adults!).  See if your child remembers the answer.  White to mate in two:

 

There is a new puzzle up for February.  We'll go over the answer at the first meeting in March.  Black to mate in two: