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A Review of 2022 (01/02/23)

Looking back at our year 2022, much has happened. At the beginning of 2022, I resigned from my full time teaching job in order to focus on the business. It has been hard giving up my annual salary (I have not been able to pay myself here yet), but thankfully my family is very supportive. We were able to offer more tournaments with most months having at least three events. We have added more classes as a result of having more students. We added a school. We attended the National Open in Las Vegas in June and even had a team place 1st in the 9 and Under Section of the International Youth Championship. We then flew out to Philadelphia for the World Open where we ultimately used our AVERT Training while at the Fireworks Event (Which had an evacuation after two officers were shot...thankfully they only had minor wounds). In August, we attended our First US Open where I got to sit in on some committee meetings as well as the Delegates Meeting. Coach Matthew played in all the events above as well as finishing off with the North American Open last week where I had the opportunity to be a tournament director and Matthew tied for 2nd in the U2100 bringing home a nice cash prize. The photo to the right was the view from our hotel room. We are getting ready to hold our first k-8 Championship event next week. I had the opportunity to appear on two podcasts including one through Chesskid to talk about the book I wrote: "Twas The Day Of The Chess Tournament". In addition to the chess offerings, we also offered some Lego Robotics classes and camps which we plan to continue to offer this year. We had an amazing one year anniversary celebration in August with record attendance. We had guest speakers including Sean Manross and Bear The Chess Husky along with National Master Evan Rabin. While we also dealt with some tough situations, I chose to focus here on all the amazing experiences we had and hope to continue to grow in 2023. We appreciate all those who have participated in our events, offered to jump in and help where needed, and continue to support local. We continue to strive to grow chess here in Tucson.

Anniversary Celebration (08/13/22)

Today was the day we celebrated our one year anniversary. While we had held events and other activities prior, our opening of this location at the Tucson Mall was truly the start of operating as a business. The cake pictured to the right, made by In The Mix, was one of the highlights of the celebration. We had an amazing turnout for both our regular game in 25 and our blitz events. We had brand new players all the way up to an International Master. We had plays from the single digit age up to their 80's. The most amazing part was people telling me that they consider our place their 2nd home. This is what I strive for. I want our players, students, etc to feel this is a home away from home. You are always welcome to come visit or stop by to play or chat for a bit. We have met so many amazing people and seen so much growth in the young players. We look forward to the future with everyone.

Hidden Gem in Tucson (08/11/22)

We were recently listed as a hidden gem in Tucson. You can read the article here.

One Year Anniversary (07/31/22)

One year ago today, we officially opened our location in the Tucson Mall. It is so hard to believe that a year has officially passed by. Our first tournament in August only had 11 players. Now we have times where the place is completely full. At Winter Break, I was fortunate enough to be able to quit my full time job to really focus on running the business. It is also important to recognize all the support we have including family members giving us a break sometimes, people who have donated chess books so we may have a library for people to view, customers who have purchased equipment from us, and of course all of those who have attended classes, camps, and/or tournaments. We were also fortunate to have a team win at the International Youth Championship in Las Vegas at the Vegas Chess Festival. This year, we hope to have more teams participate in the International Youth Festival. We also hope to expand into some schools as well as hold one or two big tournaments. In addition to our chess goals, we are expanding out into Lego Robotics and other areas we see a need. Chess will likely always be our main objective, but we strive to offer other areas of growth as well.

Continued Growth (04/12/22)

We are excited to have continued growth. Of course, this is due to all the wonderful customers/clients/students we have had. We are continuing to have some exciting new opportunities coming up as well. We had a great Spring Break Camp last month and have four more scheduled for the Summer. I am excited that we are already getting registrations for our camps. We do have limited space, so please register soon if you are able to have your child attend. Our camps are currently for grades K-8. We are also excited to be attending the Vegas Chess Festival where our instructor (and some of our tournament players) will be taking part in the National Open while some of our students will be representing us at the International Youth Championship happening there as well. It is not too late to register and have your child (14 and Under) play on our team as well. They have many fun side events for the kids as well. I will be around to provide any support for our students and their families. Please let us know if you are interested in attending as well.

Six Months and Counting (02/12/22)

We have now been in our Tucson Mall location for just over 6 months. We originally only signed a 6 month lease but we have had enough growth that we felt good about signing another lease. This time for a longer time frame. Our first tournament here back in August only had 11 players. Our tournaments of the same format are now about quadruple the size. We also are proud to be broadcasting our Board 1 games of the Open section over the internet. We have a great balance of players from Pre-Covid times as well as new players. We have had special guests such as National Master Evan Rabin as well as Sean Manross and Bear the Chess Husky from the Southern California Chess Association. We have written/published a children's book titled, "Twas The Day of the Chess Tournament." Our regular student base is growing and we are hopeful of being able to form a youth team for the Vegas Chess Festival. We are optimistically hoping to have at least one team this June with more at future events. With our growth, I (owner Molly Coy) resigned from my full time teaching job to be able to focus on our continued path of growth. Our goal is continued growth while maintaining a welcoming environment for players of all ages and levels of experience. Players are always welcome to come in and relax and play some chess or read through one of the books in our chess library. We recognize much of our growth is related to the valuable support we have received from so many in the world of Chess and without them, we would not succeed. We look forward to our journey on this path as well as continuing with all our current players while meeting so many more. We look forward to a great future with our players.

Winter Chess Camp Dec 20-23, 2021

We had a great time running our Winter Chess Camp. Students were able to learn skills at their level including rules, check mate patterns, point values, three ways to get out of check, analyzing positions, and much more. Each day they played a tournament game to experience playing under tournament rules including using clocks. Students also got to play on our giant board and play on the coveted electronic chess board. We look forward to running more camps and seeing our wonderful group of campers at future events.

First Blog On The New Site

We have now been in our new location here at the Tucson Mall since the beginning of August. With a big thank you to our longer term participants and our newer ones, we have experienced growth each month. Our previous place on 1st Ave was very small so our tournaments were also small. We weren't seen from the street and were only open during events so we remained small. Having COVID hit a few months after we opened certainly didn't help. So after sitting fairly dormant for a while, we decided to take the plunge and move into the Tucson Mall. This was a scary move at first but has definitely been a good move. Our first tournament in August brought in only 11 players... two of which were the family of the owner. The next month, we were up to 30 players. For October, we actually had to split the group into two times and hit 43 players. We have also added the "Show Me The Money" tournament as well as a Blitz Tournament. We have had a couple guest speakers. First was Sean Manross, the Southern California Chess President at the time (his term recently ended), who gave a fascinating lecture of the history of chess. Just this month, we also had National Master Evan Rabin give a lecture stemming from the first three rounds of the recent world championship. NM Evan Rabin had the opportunity to be in Dubai for the first three rounds. He then played a simul and did a great job, however, our instructor, Matthew Coy, was able to defeat him in the simul. With our growth, we are excited to be extending our hours starting at Winter Break as well as adding more class times starting in January. We also have our first chess camp at this location starting the 20th. We are so excited to bring over the board chess back to Tucson. We are enjoying seeing our previous players again as well as meeting so many new ones. One of my favorite things about our place is seeing everyone enjoy playing the game as well as starting to make great friendships. Whether you want to strengthen your skills, play in a tournament, or just play socially, everyone is welcome to come in. We hope to see you all soon.

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