This is one of my favourite games. It is quite recent, and it is so beautifully done.

Kingscrusher covered it in two videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTyZ5XtJUl8 (starts at about 9:12)
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOPyOXkdreg&NR=1

Any chance you'll still post some of your games? I'm certainly interested.

How popular is chess among kids these days? My daughter's school started a chess club, where instructors from a local chess shop will meet with the kids and teach them the finer points of chess.

Only 3 kids showed up the first day. The rest of the sessions were canceled for lack of interest. It may have been the cost, which was something like $90 for 9 weeks.

I started a chess club at my small school this year. I had 36 students the first meeting, but I've whittled that down to about 20 now. I think they like going to lunch early once a week, though. No cost, except to buy a cheap set and pieces from USCF.

It definitely seems to me that if you're looking to start a chess club at the scholastic level, it should be something you're doing as a volunteer, out of a love for the game. Charging (especially right from the start) seems like a great way to kill a program. Most kids who are interested will probably only be somewhat interested, and probably won't care enough to really nag their parents to the degree necessary to get parents to shell out that kind of cash.

My high school chess club (which was open to elementary and middle schoolers as well) was pretty top notch for the area (placed second at nationals the year after I graduated), and it was always free to attend.

The few programs I've helped with charged the school a pretty reasonable fee and I don't think any of that cost was directly passed on to the students who attended.

Completely agree. Charging is a big nono. Attracting people to chess is hard enough as it is because of social stigma (not so much at a younger age but as teenage years approach).

That's fine imo as long as it's not the kids parents that fork out the money, but the school.

I teach after school in four different primary (elementary) schools, it's part of a bigger business where my boss probably has ten people doing this. That's purely for profit, the kids pay something like $10/hour for ten weeks or so.

That's pretty much the standard model for after school activities here, on a different day there might be French or tennis or ballet, which are run in the school but by private teachers. Maybe it's different in the US.

I'm also involved informally with my old high school which has a great chess tradition, that is totally voluntary and the kids don't pay anything. The school doesn't arrange formal coaching but occasionally forks out for equipment/teacher's expenses on a trip to a tournament/entry fee to the schools league, etc.

IMO a chess club should be just that, a club where kids meet and play chess. Lessons are something different that might come later.

Where are you teaching that isn't the US but that pays in $$? Or is that a loose conversion estimate?

I remember my school (in the UK) having a chess club that was woeful because there was no instruction at all; kids were mostly keeping out of the rain on wet dinner breaks. I was prepared to take an interest but I soon gave up as there was no guidance and no one seemed to be any good. Without the modern-day internet resources I think that learning at a decent rate without book material or decent tuition was basically impossible.

Yeah, if it's formal lessons then charging makes sense. If it's just a "chess club" then it should be free to attend imo.

i heard some guy named Marty on Survivor claims he's a GM lol

In Ireland: they pay in euro of course but it comes to about $10

certainly, didn't have time to get to it. I did not want to just post a PGN without my thoughts.. Will do at least some of them today

hi der McLovin, long time no see

maybe I missed it but how did the last round go?

Last round in what tournament? If you are talking about 2+2 championship, I think all results are in it's own thread.

Probably asking about the tourney you were discussing earlier ITT. I had also been under the impression that there was another round you hadn't posted about yet, until just now when I went back and re-read your last post about it, lol.

I didn't originally read "Won both games today, against 2200 USCF and 2260 USCF, so 4.5/5. Tie for first guaranteed, but hopefully the guy who can catch me does not win and I will have clear first hehe" as meaning the tourney was over.

yeah I thought the same that there was a 6th round

A friend showed me this last night. I thought it very nice. White to play and win.

is it Qd8

I think that Qd8 does not work because of Nf4+. I might be wrong though :/ Can't find a solution so far, spent like 3 mins on it, this is starting to frustrate me!

That Nf4+ messes up every single line I came up with :/

which line? 1. Qd8 Nf4 2. Kc3 looks playable

Oh wow, this is sick, I think I got it after all. Lemme re-check because this is almost too sick to be true!