A celebration of Chess - The Big Chess Summer Camp 2024

Learn Chess by solving sheets in the Big Chess Summer Camp 2024

The first Big Chess Summer Camp was held in May 2023. The motivation behind organizing this was to hold a training camp where it doesn't just attract a certain rating category, but a lot of chess players starting from absolute beginners to serious tournament players. The idea is to use training sheets which contain 10 positions on a certain theme, and try to solve it. And we've stayed true to that formula - it worked wonders in the three camps so far'! But one may ask - why use sheets then? After all, the majority of chess training camps are structured with having a coach/group of coaches giving lectures on various chess topics. Why do it like this?

Well, the main idea behind this was to enforce self-paced learning. Not everyone learns a topic in the same speed - so unless the players are of the same strength or have the same motivations, someone will be left behind or someone may feel that the rate of learning is too slow. This method puts the onus on the player themselves! If you feel like solving as many sheets as possible back to back, then great! But if you want to solve two of them and then play some fun Blitz, then solve another, that's also cool. Whatever problems you face, you can ask volunteers or the head coaches. Accountability is also not an issue with so many people solving around you!

Taking feedback from the past two camps and discussing among ourselves, we have carefully designed a total of 45 sheets for the chess camp. These sheets are basically divided into three levels - Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. Level 1 are sheets 1-15 - they are the sheets we generally recommend to players who are beginners - relatively new to the game. Starting from how the pieces move to understanding the basic tactics - this is the flow here.  Level 2 (sheets 16-30) are meant for the players in the intermediate category - those who know the basics and trying to go beyond. Finally, Sheets 31-45 are level 3, which is meant for even stronger players - even serious tournament players will find this challenging!

We wanted to keep the process of coming to camp and solving very simple and intuitive. So there is no online registration needed at all - you just come to the Phoenix Marketcity Mall in Mumbai and visit Atrium 5. You come to the registration desk, tell your name, phone number and email ID - and that's it for registration! Now you can just collect a training sheet and start solving. A total of 329 people (unique entries) have joined the Big Chess Summer Camp so far!

The coaches and volunteers are there for you to help you decide which sheet you can start from! After you have finished solving the sheet, you can get it checked by one of the volunteers or the head coaches. In case you are stuck on a problem, they are more than happy to help you with it!

After you have finished the sheet, you just take the next one and keep solving. The whole flow is simple - you can come in at anytime you want, solve as much as you like, and leave when you feel like! This schedule is especially very helpful for working professionals who will have trouble dedicating 4 hours of time ( 4 PM-8 PM) every day for a week.

There are three head coaches in the Chess Camp - Nithin Chandan, Priyanka Ved, and Shashank Mokashi. All of them are experienced chess players and trainers, and they have carefully picked the positions to form the training sheets! It is really commendable that they are interacting with such a huge number of chess players and still manage to give time to almost all of them. They are constantly helping the players and checking their sheets! While they work very hard, it is a very rewarding experience for them as well to see the sheets formed by them being solved so seriously by a huge number of people. 

We have to mention the volunteers - the kind people who are helping tremendously with the whole operation of the camp. They help in setting up the tables, organizing the chess boards, teaching the students - basically everything you can imagine which is needed to run a chess camp! This is also helpful for the players who decided to volunteer - while helping others with various positions, their chess strength also grows in the process.

Four days of the Camp through stories and photos

Day one:

It was an amazing first day at the Big Chess Summer Camp 2024 in Phoenix Marketcity Mall, Mumbai! Close to 100 people turned up to learn chess in their own pace and have fun.

One of India's most esteemed trainers and authors, Praful Zaveri visited the Chess Camp today! He interacted with a lot of the chess players in the Camp - helping them when they got stuck in positions and offering them some important chess advice. Our very own IM Sagar Shah was also present throughout the duration of 4 PM - 8 PM. He also helped a lot of the players, and all of them were very happy to meet him!

The day ended with a wonderful Q&A session with Praful Zaveri. He answered many questions about chess improvement and the understanding of the game! The icing on the cake was the little volunteers he brought with him in the camp today - some very talented chess players from his academy Indian Chess School!

Day two:

A huge number of people turned up at the Phoenix Marketcity Mall in Mumbai to solve sheets, play games, and improve their chess. The total footfall was easily above 250 today! We saw many cases when the child would rope in the parent(s) to join them in solving the positions, and few minutes later we would find the parents engrossed in solving a position on their own. Such is the beauty of chess!

There are many different kinds of people in the chess camp. Some of them prefer to keep solving sheets consecutively, trying to finish as much as possible within the time! Then there are some people who approach it slowly - they solve 1/2 sheets, maybe play a fun Blitz game, chat a little with fellow players, and move on to the next sheet. A fun hand and brain game took place today where several people were suggesting moves in a game between two participants of the camp! During the end, few kids were playing bughouse chess as well.

Day three:

It was a very eventful day three at the Big Chess Summer Camp 2024 yesterday. Both Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal were present at the camp - and a lot of people turned up as usual! We are constantly reprinting the training sheets as some of them get used up by the participants. The whole mood was very serious - everybody wants to put in their best work and find the answers!

One of Mumbai's most talented players, Aniruddha Potawad visited the club today. Aniruddha's FIDE Rating is 2200+ - naturally, everybody wanted to play a game with him! Aniruddha kept playing Blitz games with chess players of many different levels. It was a fun challenge for him, and a great learning experience for many others!

Yesterday was actually the birthday of two of our team members - Abhyudaya Ram and Ravindra Potawad. There was a small celebration at the Chess Camp for their birthday! 

Day four:

Time flies by very fast. 4 days of the Big Chess Summer Camp are over already! By this point, almost all of the participants have gotten into a flow of solving the sheets. While many new people are also coming in and joining everyday, the recurring players are very eager to join in and start from where they left off the day before!

The highlight of the day was certainly the kids joining in from the Chembur Children's home. They were so happy and excited to join in and solve the sheets! These kids have really grown strong by regular playing and learning through the Teach Chess India sessions from Sagar Shah and Priyanka Ved. It was amazing to see them in action!

The Team behind the Camp

The Head coordinator of the Big Chess Summer Camp is Abhyudaya Ram, who brought this whole event together. Our very own Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal also visited the camp - people were so happy to meet with them and interact with them! There are several other people from the team who are working tirelessly in the camp - Harsh Kumar, Adarsh Bhadauria, Vidhee Karelia, Mihir Vaghela, Pranali, Ravindraji, Yaseen, Ankush - the list goes on!

The people who have registered for the Big Chess Summer Camp so far

There are only three days left at the Chess Camp - please join us at the Phoenix Marketcity Mall to make it even more bigger and better! Remember - in the last two days (Saturday and Sunday), the camp will run from 2 PM-8 PM IST. 6 hours of unadulterated learning and fun is coming your way!

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