Friday, December 18, 2009

December Before Christmas

During this month and the last two Saturdays, it was different, not completely but unusual, for the good of it. In the first week of the month, kids were a bit late and made us think that we would have just about 5 kids so we considered closing early. It was at about 12:30 when all of a sudden, about 15 came simultaneously and 4 new kids came. We had a pack of volunteers again, at least 5 so we were able to somehow keep everyone in and play and learn chess. It was as if it was a deja vu of the second week in Maria A. Schuka even though we didn't have as many as we thought we had because of the euthusiasm and competitive spirit the kids had. The next week, we had half the number of kids but still had the same interest. Everyone was playing from the beginning till the end. After some time, I decided to introduce double chess just to bring something new and encourage them to play more aggressive. As I thought, they enjoyed although some were getting bored and wanted to play a tournament. Since some didn't want to and it was near Christmas, we had instead our first match play, Job vs. Tacuma. It lasted about 30 mins. but in the end, Job was victorious with 4 quick wins. Tacuma, however, when the match ended, was lectured and played a bit by a chess instructor. I forgot his name but he did teach a few things especially the technique Job used, the Scholar's mate (Bc4, Qh5/f3, Qxf7#). So, for tomorrow, we will have our first short lecture about openings and the chess fundamentals. This will a trial to see how the kids would like the idea of teaching. That's it for now. Hope to see you all tomorrow and may you all have a wonderful Christmas!

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