2020 Review and 2021 Outlook
Dear CCCSA Members and Supporters:
What a year - I can sincerely say that I am excited for what 2021 has in store for us! Below you will find a synopsis of events since the pandemic, and my forecast for 2021. While I will touch on this a bit in my conclusion, I want to mention how thankful I am for our supporters and staff who have helped us withstand what was/is unprecedented territory.
Synopsis of Events Since March
Free Weekly Online Tournaments
Nearly 750 members in our chess.com club
Nearly 215 members in our lichess.org club
Free Live Weekly Lectures/Streams
Nearly 9,000 followers on our Twitch channel
Over 300 hours of content on Twitch
Official Twitch Partner
Naroditsky vs the World matches drawing international attention
Friendly Matches Between CCCSA and Other Prominent Chess Clubs in the US
Team Matches Against: Saint Louis Chess Club, Mechanics Chess Institute, Memphis Chess Club, Marshall Chess Club and Pittsburgh Chess Club.
The CCCSA won all matches!
Featured CCCSA members/players of all ratings levels
Students in Our School Programs
The CCCSA has serviced our students in school programs with live and interactive lessons online. In addition to the live lessons, Coach Chris Callahan made over 30 supplemental videos for our students.
In an effort to reach more students in need during the pandemic, the CCCSA offered these videos to all students in our member schools.
Sample video below:
Quality Training Camps for Juniors
Top Instructor Names Include: GM Veselin Topalov, GM Judit Polgar, GM Peter Svidler, GM Hou Yifan GM Jacob Aagaard, GM RB Ramesh, GM Sam Shankland, GM Ruslan Ponomariov and many more!
Students all over the US participated in these camps
Online Academy Classes
The CCCSA moved all of its Academy Classes online.
Students received lessons via zoom and had supplement homework for each class
Coaches Alex Velasquez, David Cogswell, NM Dominique Myers and GM Daniel Naroditsky led the classes.
Online US Chess Rated Events
70+ US Chess Online Rated Tournaments
Both Cash and Trophy Prizes
Adult (Open) and K-12 Events
Events featured over 1300 unique players from 40 states, including 39 GM's and 41 IM's
OTB US Chess and FIDE Rated Events
Conferred 18 FIDE norms and 10 FIDE Titles, including 3 GM and 4 IM titles in CCCSA GM/IM Norm Invitational events.
Organized the FIDE 2020 North American Junior U20 (record breaking 95 players)
Creation of the North American Corporate Chess League (NACCL)
Created an online chess league for companies in North America
Features weekly rated play, lessons, and guest lectures
Helping companies engage their employees through chess
CCCSA News Segments
The CCCSA was featured on both WCCB and Spectrum News Stations
CCCSA Staff Accomplishments in 2020
Executive Director/Founder Peter Giannatos fulfilled the requirements for FIDE International Arbiter and was interviewed on the Perpetual Chess Podcast.
Assistant Director Grant Oen directed the 2020 Champions Showdown and STL Blitz & Rapid featuring top GMs Carlsen, Kasparov, Caruana, Nakamura, So, Firouzja, and ran more USCF-rated tournaments than any other National TD in the country.
Grandmaster-in-Residence Daniel Naroditsky gained 109K Twitch followers and 107K Youtube subscribers and defeated 2700+ GMs So, Duda, Svidler, Mamedyarov, Vidit, Xiong, and Le Quang in online match play.
Assistant Coach Maya Myers earned the title of FIDE Arbiter and directed the U.S. Women’s Championship.
Year Summary:
Sorry for all that! It's actually been quite the eventful year for us despite the huge changeup 2020 threw at us. I can say that I am extremely proud of how the CCCSA and its staff managed through the pandemic. Each and every member of our staff assisted with new, adaptive and creative ideas in order to continue engaging our members and supporters. The strategy of the CCCSA was always, and has remained, to engage our supporters and members through activities and value propositions, not to ask for donations.
What's Next?
At this time, it is hard for me to predict exactly what our rollout for 2021 will be, but I have a forecast that I would like to share:
Starting January 5, the CCCSA will reinstate Tuesday Night Action as a free weekly event. While safety measures and limitations will still be in place, our goal is to slowly begin offering OTB options this year.
In late February or early March, we plan to reinstate the K-12 Friday Action Quads OTB.
In the 2nd Quarter, we plan to organize a few Saturday events, such as Reverse Angle and Rated Scholastic.
In the 3rd Quarter, we hope to organize open, larger weekend events, and in-person summer camps and classes.
In the 4th Quarter, we hope to reinstate all original CCCSA activities.
While this forecast is all contingent upon developments related to the pandemic, I feel as though this it provides a reasonable timetable for the reinstatement of CCCSA in-person activities.
In the Meantime:
The CCCSA will continue to provide services which include:
Online Tournaments (Open and K-12)
Online School Day Enrichment
Online Academy Classes
Online Twitch Lectures
OTB GM/IM Norm Invitational Events
OTB Tuesday Night Tournament Games
See our official events schedule where we post all upcoming events
I'd like to finish by thanking all of our members and supporters from all over the world! I am extremely grateful of the support we have received this year.
Cheers to a new year filled with opportunity and prosperity,
Peter Giannatos
Founder, Charlotte Chess Center
peter.giannatos@charlottechesscenter.org
