Wilson to Teach Chess at Ray

I’m delighted to announce that veteran Chicago scholastic chess coach Lamarr Wilson has joined the Ray School Chess Club and will be the club’s main chess teacher for the 2008-09 school year.

Lamarr is no stranger to Ray, having been a friend of the club for years. He used to be the coach at Joplin Elementary School and has been active in Chicago chess circles for a long time as a teacher and webmaster. Today he is the president of SchoolTech Consulting, Inc., where he advises and assists Chicago public schools on their technology needs. We’re thrilled that Lamarr has agreed to take over the teaching duties at Ray, following the departure of founding coach Emil Sidky.

Also, veteran Ray School chess mom Julie Vassilatos will manage the chess club meetings this year. Julie has been active in the club for the past three years and was one of the people most responsible for the success of the citywide chess tournament held at Ray in 2007. One of the things she plans is to have a special girls section of the chess club as part of an effort to attract more female players. Stay tuned for details.

Julie and Lamarr will, I trust, be ably assisted by other chess parents.

So Long, Coach—and Thanks

It was five years ago this summer that my son Michael and I ran into our friends Emil Sidky and his son Nikolaj Reiser in Nichols Park one afternoon and discovered that like us, they liked playing chess. Both kids were about to enter first grade at Ray, and almost instantly the thought of starting a chess club at the school struck all four of us as a brilliant idea.

That fall we founded the Ray School Chess Club, and since then I have been privileged to work in double harness with Emil to give the kids at our school a place to learn and play chess. He and I have had a division of labor, and there is no question whatsoever that Emil has done the most important work. It is he who has taught chess and run the meetings—sometimes with help, sometimes without it—probably 150 Monday afternoon sessions since that first one in 2003.

Emil has been the backbone of the Ray School Chess Club, the only person whom the club simply couldn’t have done without.

Of course, starting next fall we will have to do without him, since Nikolaj is leaving Ray and Emil will move on to other things. I would therefore like to take this occasion to thank him for all he has done these past five years to make Ray’s chess program one of the best in the city.

Thanks, Coach, and good luck always.

Another Year Come and Gone

This was the scene last Monday at the final meeting of the year for the Ray School Chess Club. It was pizza in the schoolyard and the traditional end-of-the-year chachkas for all the kids. This year, alas, we also bade farewell to the chess club’s founding coach, Emil Sidky, who is moving on after this year.

Photos by Chihlan Lu. More of them here.

Thanks to Lu and also to chess moms Teresa Parker and Julie Vassilatos for organizing the festivities.

Your Moment of Zen VI

Write the caption or tell the story if you like.

The Grand Finale

Scenes from the final indoor chess club meeting of the year

But watch this space for details about the forthcoming outdoor season, in which we will meet Saturdays at 4:00 PM on the University of Chicago Campus (Hutchinson Court), starting May 26. Pencil it in. More to come.

More photos here. All photos by Ms. Averill, Room 413 (Thanks, Jane!)

Give it up for Coach Emil Sidky!