Author: Alex Huang

SJN Schedule Term 3 Created, New Format Explained.

Hi everyone, for many years we ran the junior club as a very casual-play style event where players just came and played for an hour or 1.5 hours at the very beginning. It attracted a lot of attention and our junior players throughout the years got stronger. Some went up to the Monday Nights and played there instead. However, as we ran it more and more, I found that newer players often felt discouraged when they came to the event when they lose their first game. Sometimes they don’t come back again. It’s a shame that this happens and we all remember our first chess playing experience (maybe it’s against your father, or your grandfather, or maybe your brother etc) and many people quit chess the first time they are exposed to it. It’s too hard they think, I’m not smart enough for chess. or so they think.

I’ve always looked for ways to make chess interesting, or fun to children. We are planning to make it more beginner friendly starting next term, by including a short lecture as a part of our session. We will teach them ways to win, ways to become more confident and actually they start to realise that everyone has this hurdle to overcome. Some have their own shadows they have to defeat (I certainly do, and Gothamchess does too), others have their confidence issues when they are watched by the opponent.

Starting in Term 3, we are running our regular Saturday Junior Night on Saturdays from 5PM to 6:15PM (lecture starts at 5:00PM to 5:25PM), but occasionally when there is a clash with a weekend tournament, we will run on a Friday (the day prior) from 5PM to 6:15PM instead. There is a cost of $40/Term and there is going to be a Trybooking link (here: https://www.trybooking.com/nz/TGH) for payment.

The schedule has been updated on the main junior club page: https://www.aucklandchess.nz/saturday-night-junior-chess/

Thanks. Alex