CHESS CLASS AT BASIS March 17th, 2010

BASIS WAS GREAT TODAY - JUST WHAT I NEEDED!

Today I had a great class at BASIS - I got to fill in for my friend Liulia Cardona who is a Woman's FIDE Master. She is originally from Cuba and has quite the background in chess - quite the resume you would say. She called me to sub her class - I suspect I was the first person that she called - and I jumped on the opportunity.

I didn't have either of my afternoon schools today as both Chandler and Kyrene school districts have break this week so you better believe that I jumped on the opportunity to work with some of my former students - some of the best players in Arizona : Tony, Bryce and A.J. They graduated from MISSION MONTESSORI into the BASIS fifth grade class - most of my MISMON kids end up at BASIS by fifth grade.

We had a lot of fun today - I had them in stitches at points during our lesson and then during the play period! This club has 15 players in it - a nice sized chess club with lots of very strong players. The largest club that I have right now has 30 kids in it while I have one that only has 5 youngsters enrolled - every school chess club is different and unique to the kids that define it at that particular time. Every school and every school district is different too, also the various Parents will have their differing expectations of what chess club should mean to their children. Give it a year and the club will change as students come and go over the course of time.

Today was a good day - I look forward to more of these - THANK YOU LIULIA! - Chess Coach Sean Tobin.