Unfortunately, we have now had to cancel 10 Dec training session as numbers are likely to be low due to a competition in London that day.

22 September 2005
** Autumn Training Dates **

Unfortunately, our first-choice training dates for November and December have been moved or cancelled because Badgerbrook School hall was unavailable. We have cancelled the 26 Nov session and brought the 17 Dec session forward to 10 Dec.

Does anyone have any ideas for a cheap, alternative location for 26 November?

To see the full list of training dates check the diary page.

17 July 2005
** Autumn Training Dates **

Don't forget - Saturday 10th September is the first LPSCA training day for the Autumn 2005 term. Training will continue in the same format from 12:30pm - 3:30pm for all children at Badgerbrook School.

To see the rest of the training dates check the diary page.

8 June 2005
** Final Summer Term Training Dates **

Well, the sun is shining so I guess that must mean Summer is here and soon it will be the start of the school holidays, with this in mind there are only four training dates left:

Saturday 18th June
Saturday 25th June
Saturday 2nd July
Saturday 9th July

All held at Badgerbrook School from 12:30 - 3:30pm, all ages and abilities.

Surprisingly, we've received our application forms for the Giga-Final in Manchester. If your child still hasn't recieved their's, then an email to Mike Basman might be appropriate (ukchesschallenge@aol.com).

Enjoy the summer !!

Dionne Clarke
on behalf of LPSCA

We are holding training from 12:30pm - 3:30pm at Badgerbrook on Saturday 14th and 21st of May. No training on the 28th due to the Bank Holiday.

Just to remind you that the new times are for all of the children, regardless of their playing abilities.

The first hour is spent playing a ladder game and results from previous matches can be found on the 'ladder' page. You can also obtain directions to Badgerbrook for those of you that haven't attended before.

Some of you have sent emails requesting dates for the Giga Final, details below:

16-17th July
Manchester University
Organiser: Mike Basman
Email: ukchesschallenge@aol.com

For those of you that qualified through the Mega Final, you should be getting details of the competition in the post. However, due to the organisational chaos of that tournament I intend to email Mr Basman with my children's details - just to make sure that we get the entry forms in time !!

This year the Smith & Williamson British Chess Championships 2005 are being held in the Isle of Man from the 31st July - 13th August. If any of you require any further details or entry forms these can be found on the BCF website.

We are not aware of any other local tournaments coming up in the near future, but if you want to check out the British Chess Federation calendar for dates of tournaments a little further afield then their website address is: www.bcf.org.uk

For the summer 2005 term LPSCA will be changing the format of our training days to give children more opportunity to play competitive chess and to benefit from the excellent teaching skills of our professional coach.

From our next training session on Saturday 23 April 2005 at Badgerbrook, we are asking all the children (that's beginners, intermediate and advanced players) to attend training sessions from 12:30pm until 3:30pm.

To encourage the children to play competitive games against each other we are going to start the LPSCA Chess Ladder competition. This will happen in the first hour (12:30pm to 1:30pm) of every training session and will provide a chance for children to measure their improvement relative to others in the group as well as allowing them to practice for competition days.

At 1:30pm until 3:30pm our professional coach, David Leven, will begin his training session with the intermediate/advanced players whilst the beginner/intermediate players break out to another room to learn the more fundamental skills with one of our talented chess-playing parents! This will ensure we can easily move children up from the beginners to the advanced group when they are ready to do so.

The Last Chance Saloon is the last opportunity to get a place to attend the British Land Chess Challenge, which for those of you who have been before is the biggest Junior Chess competition in the UK, initially entered by some 67,000 children through their schools. If your school hasn’t run this competition then the Last Chance Saloon is the competition you have to attend in order to get through to the Mega Final, which this year is being held in Loughborough.

Please let us know by emailing info@LPSCA.co.uk if you would like to play in the Last Chance Saloon, as places are limited for this very prestigious competition.

We will be sending out information regarding start times etc over the weekend. But the cost to attend will be £5 for the day, and according to the rules of this competition seven rounds have to be played.

The Under-9 Midlands Zone of this competition will be held on Saturday 12 March 2005 at Beauchamp School & Community College, Ridge Way, Oadby, Leicestershire, LE2 5TP. The organiser is Satish Chandarana, Chairman of the LPSCA and the organising committee can be contacted via the following email address: info@LPSCA.co.uk

It will be a three round jamboree with 40 minutes each on the clock. Full details of how you can be part of the team representing Leicestershire can be provided on request at the above email address. There will be 20 players from each of 5 counties in the main competition and the reserves will play in a Reserves Tournament.

The timetable is as follows:

Arrival	11.00am
Board Stewards Meeting	11.15am
First Round	11.45am
Second Round	13.25pm
Third Round	15.05pm
Prize Giving	16.50pm

For more information about this competition, contact this email address:
info@LPSCA.co.uk

Just to let you know that as of Saturday November 20th 2004 we have hired a new coach, called David Leven.

David has a wealth of experience in the Chess World and we are looking forward to his new direction. David will introduce some British Chess Federation Awards there are Bronze, Silver and Gold for the children to earn and work towards.

We are also re-evaluating our training techniques with the children that have just started playing chess - we have developed some structured lessons and goals for the children to achieve and work towards.

On the 11th December we are holding our first major competition with the County Trials Championships. On Saturday you will be able to pick up entry forms for the competition. From this competition we will be choosing the Leicestershire squad to play in the County Championship which start in 2005.

Times on Saturday remain the same 12:15 - 2pm for Beginners to Intermediate players, 2pm - 3:45pm for intermediate to advanced players. The price of £3.50 also remains the same. We have received our Criminal Records clearance, so if you would prefer to drop children off then that is OK.

We are looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday.

LPSCA Committee