Mark your calendars! On Monday, January 2, 2023, Puddletown Chess will be hosting a seminar with IM Carissa Yip. Starting at 7pm PST, our ~90 minute Zoom webinar will aim to answer any questions you may have for a talented International Master. We will also answer questions about our training program.…
The December Quad was another wonderful event for Puddletown Chess. It wasn't as big as last month's with 26 players. but we did have 24 people join this time which means we are getting a stable amount of players. We also had our first twins in this tournament, and they both…
The November Quad was another successful event for Puddletown Chess. Fun fact: this was our biggest quad ever so far, with 26 total players in 5 quad sections and 1 small swiss! Shoutout to our youngest competitor Cormac Tseng, who is only 4 years old! Congratulations to our following winners: Quad…
The October Quad was another successful event for Puddletown Chess. We did the quad at the same location, Godfather's Pizza on October 2nd, 2022. Zoey was our Chief TD this time. There were 16 total players who played in 4 quad sections. Quad#1 Winner was BOB LIU, Quad#2 Winner was ANSON…
I began organizing tournaments, quads in particular, one month ago. So far Puddletown Chess has held two quads. There are things I learned and things I should learn. The surprising lesson as organizers was that the pizza parlor was working out as a place to hold tournaments. A pizza parlor is…
Puddletown's first-ever quad-style tournament was a grand success! The event happened on September 11th, 2022 at Godfather's Pizza in Cedar Mill. Our Chief TD for this tournament was Maolong Tang. We had 20 players in attendance, organized into 5 sections/quads. Quad#1 Winner was ARNOLD TIANYI YANG, Quad#2 Winner was ADITYA CHANDRASHEKARAN,…
"What does community mean to you? What makes a community?" This year, I have started my freshman year at Westview High School, where the first few days have been focused on community-building rather than academics. And while I have grown tired of these particular questions, the relentless repetition of them has forced…
"Are you sure that you're supposed to sit there?" Well, of course. I thought. "I'm not sure. Let me check." I said. I walked over to the pairing board, and sure enough, I had sat... in the wrong place? It was the sixth round of the North American Youth Chess Championship, a…
Three classrooms of students. Two gatherings of friends. One. Hundred. People. That's the number of people I was challenged to teach chess to within a year. I was at the closing ceremony of the Haring National Tournament of Girls State Champions. The Haring runs concurrently with the Irwin (Senior), the Denker…
What have I done? Recently I played in the challenger’s section of the state invitational, which is below the championship section. Being invited to the championship section has been a goal for me since last year, but I missed it by a hair. Since I was expecting to play in the…
Zoey Tang's US Girls Junior Championship Experience "Focus on the step ahead of you, not the whole staircase" ~Unknown This was the quote running through my head when I scanned the email for the umpteenth time, not believing the words. Every small step I had taken, every hour I had invested…
Welcome, fellow PuddleTown readers! This is Zoey. I am the president and one of the head coaches of Puddletown Chess. I am so glad to be a part of this organization and to be able to spread the passion of chess throughout our beloved community. I hope that more people will…
Hi this is Ishaan back with another blog post. I was thrilled to be invited to play in the Oregon Closed Challengers this year. I will share my 4-day saga of the first 6 rounds of the tournament, followed by an eventful last round. In the 1st game, I won a…
We were lying on the bed and watching TV when my mom got a pairing text message. We were so confused. Shouldn’t my tournament start tomorrow? “Mom, did you register Austin for the 6-day schedule? That starts tonight.” “Oops!” The game was about to start in about half an hour, and…
Hello PuddleTown readers! This is Austin. I am so excited to have a platform to share my knowledge and understanding of chess, and to spread the beauty of chess throughout the community. Chess has taught me a lot. It constantly helps me develop various skills like creativity, planning, time management, and…