Training Day Tour 2021-22: Online Day

Yesterday brought our third CSC Training Day in a week.

Following the success of our London and Manchester dates, this time we delivered the training online.

Online training days were, of course, a 'forced move' caused by the COVID pandemic, but they continue to offer a valuable addition to our methods of delivery. Indeed, online delivery made a big difference to our schools during the lockdowns too.

We had 13 delegates, spanning from my own area of Teesside all the way to India.

What we lost in terms of the physical capacity to play our mini-games and other challenges, we gained in being able to use a multitude of online resources, including Acorn Chess.

Chris Fegan and Dan Staples of CSC both joined us to address the delegates.

More dates will be added to the tour soon, so please keep an eye on this page.

Training Day Tour 2021-22: Manchester

Our new Training Day Tour continued this week, as we followed up the inaugural date in London with a return to Manchester.

This was our first training day in Manchester since November 2018. The venue was the Cedar Suite of the Broadoak Community Centre in Ashton-under-Lyne, which is also the venue of David Hardy's chess clubs.

My excellent friend David, was of course, instrumental in helping the Manchester training day move from idea to reality and he was there all day, making absolutely sure we all had plenty of tea and biscuits.

Staying with culinary matters for the moment, we must make note of Catherine Lloyd's magnificent contribution of cakes, which deserved their own stand.

.

We had an excellent set of delegates, all of whom worked very hard throughout the day.

Chris Fegan, the Chief Operating Office of Chess in Schools and Communities, joined us to address the delegates and to take questions.

It was a good day to be working inside, as we we experienced all manner of weather over the course of the day, including thunderstorms and monsoon-like rain. Nevertheless, the sunny disposition of the delegates ensured a fine day was had by all.

Our gallery shows the day in action.

If you enjoyed the Manchester Training Day just half as much as I did, then I must have enjoyed it twice as much as you.

More tour dates will be added soon, so keep an eye on this page.

Training Day Tour 2021-22: The Return to London

.

Our CSC Training Day tour was derailed in early 2020, for very obvious reasons.

Now we are back on track, starting with yesterday's return to London for the first time in almost two years.

It was very good good to be back at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, which is a perfect venue for our days.

We had a bumper collection of delegates, who worked hard all day on various tasks, including learning how to teach and play the famous chess mini-games.

We also broke our own training day record for our youngest delegate, thanks to the participation of 13-year-old Andrei, who is already wanting to give something back to the chess community. This beat our previous record, set on a beautiful day in Glasgow three years ago, by one year.

Matt Piper and I both enjoyed working with everyone and we were also very pleased to see our friends Nevil Chan and Chris Fegan call in to support the day.

Thank you, everyone, for supporting our event.

More dates will soon be added to the Training Day Tour, so please keep an eye on this page.

Here is a gallery from our busy day in Hammersmith.

Thornaby Library Update

Well done Brian Whitaker for getting the Thornaby Library chess sessions back on track and for securing publicity in the Thornaby Pride publication.

26th Yarm Team Chess Championship: Gallery

Here is the companion gallery to yesterday's tournament report on the 26th Yarm Team Chess Championship, depicting the start of the day, the unveiling of the flapjacks, the opening remarks, the games in action and the prize-giving ceremony.