March Director's Report

Dear Chess Friends & Families,

We are proud to announce that our February Chess Puzzle Contest winner is the industrious Isabelle Kao from the PS 11 Chelsea Chessmates. She accumulated well over 2000 points of puzzle work in the month of February, the only kid in all of ICN to break 2000. She will be working with GM Lenderman (see our profile of Alex below) to prepare for the NY State Championship in Saratoga, coming up this weekend.

Our winning February Contest team was the PS 130 Brooklyn Lions, amassing over 10,000 points worth of puzzle work in February. They'll enjoy a pizza party as a result! Now, our March contest is afoot, and the winner will gain free entry into the Spring Festival (see below for info & registration). Winning team eats like kings & queens :)

Let's congratulate our Top 50 rated players on their hard work this month. It's going to be great to watch them in Saratoga this coming weekend. It's time to put it on the line! Also see here to find our Top 20 Per Grade lists.

Our next Team Tournament is coming up on March 24th. This will be the last chance to play a major team event before the Spring National events in April, so let's show up in force!

We're also excited to announce that this month's Manhattan event will be hosted by PS 166, a school accustomed to hosting large and rigorous chess events. So let's make a day of it on the UWS.

Register here:

Alice is the latest Brooklyn Lion to crack 1000 USCF and sign the Hall of Fame board

Let's talk about full-day chess immersion experiences. The weather has been warming nicely and now that we're well into March, we know that means that a Spring Festival is right around the corner. We'll be celebrating on April 10th, in preparation for both All-Girls' & Elementary Nationals. Register for Spring Festivals here:

This is a nice springboard into our Spring Break Chess Camp, which will definitely supercharge any players, from beginners to Elementary Nationals-bound stars. Register here for Spring Break:

As a special feature of our Spring Break Camp schedule, we are offering a discounted THREE-DAY version, covering the days April 22-24, for anyone attending Nationals that weekend who will need to travel on Thursday. Look for the three-day option in the drop down menu to get 47% off the week price, and three days of camp for only $350.

And since it's never too early to plan for summer, we are now in the next tier of our discounted Summer Camp pricing, which runs from March through May. Register now to lock in summer blocks:

The perfect mixture of fun and work, all our camps have lessons and activities for all ages and levels of players. See you there!

Looking forward,

Coach West

Isaac is the top-rated 3rd grader in all of ICN

Russ Makofsky