Random House Dinner

Jen here. Roy and I love entertaining/hosting. In our first year of marriage we had a weekly meal at our place with three of my good friends and anyone else who came. It was random, and it was dinner. Thus began the random house dinner.

In our fourth year of marriage we have picked it up again. Praise God for His awesome provision of a house to rent with ample room for dinner and hanging out with friends. Hallelujah!

We invite anyone and everyone, the same day every week.  We have had from just the 4 of us (Roy, me and two housemates) to about 8 people. The most common guests are friends from work, so I am surrounded by chess coaches! Games of chess are common as well as Backgammon, Euchre(my favorite!) and Apples to Apples.

Tonight the guys decided to film a kung-fu chess game, which is what the photos are of. :)

Enjoy!

Scholastic Chess Championship

Jen here. I've almost caught up with our HK adventures...I don't think I could ever write all of them down.

Our last tournament that we put on was the Hong Kong Scholastic Championship, held in June. It was an interesting tournament, as we had many new staff present in order to be trained. Many university students were looking for jobs for the summer and we had lots of camps scheduled. Perfect fit! It was a good tournament. Roy was the man in charge and he delegated duties to the other staff. I helped Roy in whatever ways worked best--taking photos, being a floor tournament director, keeping kids quiet, organizing the trophies, etc. It was a good time. :)

All students received a trophy at this tournament--see the large trophies in the top left picture, down to the small trophies in the top right photos. This tournament was similar to all our others: three age divisions for trophies, 5-6 rounds (depending on age). One difference: this was Coach Roy's last tournament in Hong Kong this year! He announced it to parents and many wished he would stay. He's an excellent Chess coach and he works well with the students. They have improved so much--I would want Roy to stay too! :)

But, not to worry, Roy still had about a month of classes, camps and quads until he would be leaving HK in July.

Summer Tournament

Jen here. Yes, we are back in the States. Why am I still writing about HK? Because I am behind in my postings...and I'd like to record the end of our stay in HK! So, do know I will be catching you up on two months of happenings in, well, less than two months (I hope!). Enjoy!

May 22, 2010 Chess4Life | Hong Kong put on our Summer Tournament. Yes, May isn't exactly summer, but in HK it is more summer than spring, thus we named it the "Summer Tournament". We had a good number of students in the tournament, and it went well.

I am intrigued by how Roy (Coach Roy) interacts with the students. His classes and tournaments are very orderly, quiet and calm. He holds their respect and they listen to him. In the quietness and order, one would think the students are bored, sullen or apathetic, but they aren't! They are doing what they enjoy (playing Chess), learning new information and tactics and being reminded of old knowledge. They are being challenged and having fun at the same time. How cool! Roy is able to joke with them and find out what they look forward to each day, what activities they are involved in, etc. What a blessing!

The ISF Academy 2010 Chess Open

Jen here. March 27th was a big day for Chess4Life | Hong Kong. We held our first large tournament, partnering with one of our schools, The ISF Academy. We watched the sign-up numbers grow and knew this would be big, especially for Roy, head honcho of all things Chess in ActiveKids.

114 kids signed up and we had three sections: Secondary (~12-18), Primary (~7-11) and 6 and under (4-6). I don't remember the final number of schools that turned up, but I believe it was in the teens or twenties.

The day began early, with Roy and me arriving at the school by 7:15am. Check-in would start at 9:30am, and the first round at 10am. Logistically, our goal was to keep things moving--on-time or ahead of time. Tournaments that run behind are difficult for staff, students and parents. No one wants that!

The week prior, Roy trained me and three other staff to be floor tournament directors (I got to watch over the 4-6 year olds!) and The ISF Academy provided multiple parent volunteers that were so helpful in everything from helping students to read pairings, record results, pass out meal vouchers and round up students for the next round. The ISF Academy principal was a vital part of the success of the day as well. Praise God for providing all this help!

And now for my little tidbits of the day. Chess tournament halls are supposed to be quiet, right? Roy did a great job setting the tone for the day (fun, and quiet) and the students (especially my little ones) were very quiet. Sure, there was the occasional student yelling, "Check!" or "Illegal move, take it back!" but all in all, they did well.

When students completed their games, they were instructed to quietly walk with their opponent to the results table to record their result. This table was about 30 feet away from where the 4-6 year olds played their games. Almost every pair of kids would say, "okay" and then run to the results table(feet pounding the gym floor)! A few times, one student's opponent would head toward the results table first, and every time she would yell, "Hey, wait for me!" and run to catch up with her opponent. Oh kids. They made me smile multiple times and laugh out loud at other times.

Between rounds the students could hang out in the Skittles room (Cafeteria) or play outside. Once the students heard the next round was beginning, there was a stampede to the tournament hall. :) Many of my 4-6 year olds would come in fresh from the soccer court, sweating and out of breath.

The kids did an excellent job. My little ones ended up playing 7 rounds of Chess in one day, as did the primary kids. The secondary only played 5 rounds (they had longer rounds). We handed out many trophies and saw many students excel.

After the tournament, we were exhausted (all staff included). Once we packed everything up, a few of us decided to get dinner before heading home. I felt a camaraderie among our staff as we spent all day working and then had time to chat and get to know one another more at dinner. It was a fun day! Roy and I got home around 8pm and went straight to bed! What a day!

Inter-School Tournament

Jen here. Roy approached the principal and parents of our ISF Academy chess students with the idea of forming a team of students and Roy coaching them as they compete as a school team in local Chess tournaments. All parties being on board, a team was organized and a special team class began in mid-January. Their first team competition? The HK Inter-School Tournament, hosted by HKCF, held Sunday, February 28th (why all day on Sunday? The world may never know...).

I went with Roy to help in any way and to support him--and because I just love to be with him! I know many of the students on the team and am an assistant coach to many of them.

We taxied to the school and arrived at about 8:15am. The tournament room was a large auditorium/gym, and upon inquiring, we discovered they had no rooms available for skittles (aka: a place for students to go when they finish their game, hang out, go over their games, etc). We scouted the open-air hallways for a spot to set up a home base (Thanks to Mike Skidmore for setting such an example for Roy in coaching!) and found one on the floor above the tournament room--4 picnic tables close to the door to the balcony overlooking the gym. As students arrived Roy organized his 12 ISF kids and the rounds began. I've never attended such a tournament; in this one, four kids make up a team and you play a team, sitting shoulder to shoulder with your fellow teammates. Having brought 12 kids, we had three teams.

Between rounds the students reported back to our home base to go over their games, eat a snack and chill. After a while, the parents began hanging out and chatting at our home base (HKCF provided seats to sit inside the tournament hall, so some of our parents were in there for the first few rounds) and I got to meet many of them. They were so excited their children were competing in Chess and growing as a team. Throughout the day they expressed how united the team was and really appreciated Roy's role as coach to the students. :)

The day was long, as the tournament was delayed, finishing an hour or more behind schedule(primary school award ceremony finished at 7:30, secondary had to wait longer). But the kids had a fun time, won many games and grew as a team. The end placing: Our A team earned Second Place, and two students earned trophies for placing in their respective boards. Way to go, ISF Academy!

Nowadays the team is preparing for the first large tournament put on by Chess4Life: The ISF Academy 2010 Chess Open, which will be held March 27th, hosted by the ISF Academy. What an event it will be...please pray for Roy as he is the main TD and organizer of this event--he has many people to organize. Thanks!

Beginners' Tournament

Jen here. What a weekend. Last Saturday Chess4Life put on a Beginners Tournament. The goal of it: to prepare students for tournaments, teaching them the basics. We had 45 students sign up: 14 kids ages 4-6, 22 kids ages 7-8 and 9 students ages 9-12.

Coach Roy, as I call him due to assisting him with Chess classes, was the TD of the tournament, as well as running the group of 7-8 year olds. I got the pleasure of working with the 4-6 year olds, and a new coach, Philip had the 9-12 year olds.

Every student played 4 games, which each lasted less than 30 minutes(some poor dears lost in but a few minutes...). And in between rounds we taught the students something new about tournament play: reading the pairing chart, recording your result, what to do if you have problems or questions, notating your game, good sportsmanship, etc. The students had new information to apply in each round.

Just before the tournament I taught a small Chess class (two kids) and then taxied with them to the tournament. These kids are adorable. They were so pumped for the tournament! Mom said they talked about it all week and looked forward to it so much. I tried to encourage them on the way to the tournament; they're young and new to chess. Some of the other kids have been taking classes from us since September and have learned quite a bit. These kids started a month or two ago.

Upon arriving to the tournament, I remembered one reason why we wanted to put a cap on the number of students allowed to register: the tournament venue was one primary school classroom, not exactly designed for 45 kids to play chess in, you know? We ended up using two classrooms and the small art room/lab connecting the two rooms. Guess where the little 4-6 year olds with Miss Jenny (or Coach Jenny) ended up? In the art lab. It wasn't a big deal...it was better to have the young kids in a contained area, and it felt cozy.

Short interruption here. Back in university, in my education classes, we talked a lot about flexibility. Teachers must be flexible. Well, being in HK with a husband teaching Chess, I've had many opportunities to be flexible and to grow. This being one.

The students were quite excited and wound up. Upon receiving the 1st round pairings, I started our first teaching lesson, and then began the round. Chess tournaments are supposed to be quiet, right? Yes. Lesson #1. But so many 4-6 year olds don't realize that their talking makes noise. I'm not sure they grasp whispering yet. My TDing in this room consisted of a lot of "shhh..Please stop humming. Remember, Chess tournaments are quiet places. When you check your opponent, you don't have to yell 'check' you can just whisper it. Billy, don't help David with his game, you can lose your game for helping another player. Oh, parents aren't allowed to talk with their kids while they are playing..." You get the idea. Many of the kids' parents were standing at the end of our room watching, which was tough, but good. They were all delighted to see their kids learning Chess.

Some of the kids are so young or have such a short attention span, I was worried they would never complete their games! It was humorous watching some of them play one another. One little 4-year old kept losing focus, or playing with the pieces like they were GI-Joes or something. Other students were able to checkmate their opponents or at least capture all of their opponents pieces--even the king! FYI, you're not allowed to capture the king in Chess. There was many a time when I had to ask a student, "Are we allowed to capture the king in Chess? No...that means your opponent played an illegal move. Let's go back and see what happened." Nevertheless, all of the kids are learning and growing in this area and it's exciting to see their progress.

All in all, the tournament went well. The kids were happy; they all received a trophy. And we finished on schedule. Praise God! :)

End of Year Chess

Jen here. Lots of chess--end of classes, tournament and now holiday camps. The above photo is from the "End of Year Tournament" held last Saturday. Roy was the official tournament director--he did a great job. Twenty-two kids in attendance, one Roy and two assistants (me and Pierre). It turned out well. The three kids in the picture all go to ISF, our biggest chess school. And check out their sweet trophies--the star trophies are my favorite so far. Roy and Pierre did most of the Chess stuff, and I was in charge of the kids between rounds (aka: babysitting and concessions). It was a challenge in many ways...but also fun. I enjoy being around kids and getting to know them. They are so cute. And they are little people, with thoughts, attitude, feelings.

Roy is busy this week (Mon-Wed) with Chess camps. He has two potential candidates for chess coaches, and they are helping Roy with the camps. What a great way for Roy to see them interact with the kids and teach the kids!

On a different note, Roy and I noticed a strange phenomenon happening at restaurants on Christmas eve and Christmas: Their "a la carte" menu gets thrown out the door and they charge big prices per person for a set meal. Hmm... strange. Is this because people don't invite people to their homes for meals, but to restaurants? Do all the restaurants do this? One restaurant's set menu for Christmas eve cost $1500 per person($200 US per person). Crazy.

What's new in HK

Jen here. God has much in store for us in Hong Kong. I delight in seeing His working and leading in our lives. Being in HK has brought about some new things for me. Here are a few of them:

For starters, I am now a Chess student. One great way to serve Roy is to play chess with him (whether he is blindfolded or not) and to let him teach me. I am actually putting effort forth to improve and to learn chess, and I'm growing! Every Friday night Roy runs "Quads" which is a group of 4-person mini tournaments. What happens when 11 kids show up (11 kids= 4 + 4 + 3; one quad only has 3 kids in it)? Roy's wife steps in to beat the little kids! Ha! Actually, I have won all my games except two. Last week I played a boy, and he was beating me most of the game point-wise, but I was holding my ground and looking for checkmates. We took so long Roy put a clock on our game (which happens every time I play...ha)...and I lost on time. NO! My heart was pounding. He had two queens...I just promoted one of my pawns to a queen and began checking his king over and over so he wouldn't use his two queens to kill me off...but alas, it did not work. He won, on time. :( Boo. Next time...

I am now a Chess photographer. Yep, Roy's making a flier or homework assignment and he wants a chess graphic: "Jenny, could you take some photos for me?" It's sweet because I get to use my camera and flash...and it's helpful to Roy. And look at that handsome man I get to shoot photos of once in a while!

I am coordinating a Christmas tea for women. Kathy Hamilton, director of women's ministries at IECC, volunteered me to "help Phyllis with something"...I later received an e-mail thanking me for coordinating a tea with Phyllis. Hmm... interesting. :) I have enjoyed meeting with Phyllis and working out the details...and may God provide people and ready hearts and fun times. I'll be making Christmas cookies for it...so I look forward to that as well! Now to find some cookie cutters!

More later! Ciao!