The Leipzig chess piece set with ChessCube Analysis running

A Sick Set Thursday with a difference . This is how the chess board looks on my “Sean” account. I guess I am pretty much boasting about how great my custom colors and Leipzig chess piece set go so well together. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to make anyone jealous, but I do sometimes brag about it . There are 6 different piece sets to choose from, including the standard ChessCube Classic and Line sets, however I quite like the Leipzig piece set.

On these screenshots, you’ll see 3 of the many different benefits I have of being a Premium member of ChessCube. 1 being the custom chess piece set (in this case the Leipzig set), 2 being the custom colors of the squares of the board, and 3 being ChessCube Analysis, which is showing me what the next best move would be. ChessCube Analysis becomes active while watching live games, or when reviewing your past played games.

In my opinion, this is an outstanding ‘virtual chess set’, and it definitely deserves to be the Sick Set of this week!

To learn more about the ChessCube Premium service, visit: http://www.chesscube.com/shop/membership/view

And with that, I’ll get back to playing on my super cool ChessCube account

Sean

The Nkandla community in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, had a great day when SA President Jacob Zuma arrived to take part in a chess tournament between surrounding schools. Nonkulueko Sithole was thrilled to play President Zuma, even though the President checkmated her in fewer than 10 moves. “This is the best day of my life. I never thought I would ever sit this close to the President and play a game of chess with him,” said the 14 year old.

Zuma brings his Bishop into the game against Sithole

In an interview after the game with City Press, Zuma said, “Chess is very important as it makes you a better and knowledgeable human being. I like games like chess and bridge because they stretch your brain to the limit. They make you think strategically”. President Zuma also challenged local businesses to support the sport financially. “Next year we must host a fundraising dinner party for chess right in the hall,” he said.

Kwazulu Chess Association President Sandile Xulu, one of the tournament organisers, said chess gave “young people the opportunity to compete, regardless of race or social standing”. “It provides a field of ideas, concepts and strategy for young growing minds,” he said.  In an interview with ChessCube Community Manager, Sean Wyngaard, Xulu said that KwaZulu Chess’ aim is to take chess into all schools, as well as to introduce it as a sport. Future plans would then involve working with the Department of Education to consider it as a subject in school in Kwazulu-Natal and particularly rural areas and all of South Africa. “This is exactly what President Zuma and I shared and want to see happen.” said Xulu. Speaking of President Zumas’ desire to have all children take part in chess tournaments, Xulu noted, “This (the Nkandla tournament) was our “OPENING MOVE”, which we hope will get supported and start rolling”.

Sandile Xulu, President of the KZChess Association

ChessCube supports President Zuma’s vision, and will be launching an online schools chess initiative in South Africa and other countries from early 2010. The South African government, a number of NGOs and large corporations are doing a great deal to improve Internet and computer services in schools. ChessCube will be working with all providers to ensure that schools in South Africa can connect to ChessCube’s classroom service.

“ChessCube will provide facilities for children to play chess online and to receive online video training”, explained Mark Levitt, ChessCube CEO. “The basic service will be free to all schools in South Africa, and we will be working with big business to sponsor additional opportunities for South African youth.”

ChessCube’s classroom service will be at the forefront of a modern trend to popularise chess. Along with Venezuela, which has recently included chess in it’s official school curriculum, ChessCube considers the personal and societal benefits of chess to be of immense value. What are these benefits precisely? David MacEnulty, a famed chess teacher (the subject of a movie “The Knights of the South Bronx”) had this to say in a recent exclusive interview with ChessCube:

“One of the things you learn from playing chess is how to control yourself. You learn to have delayed gratification. You learn tremendous discipline and above all you learn to trust your own judgment. Once a child learns that he or she is smart enough to play chess, there’s not going to be any holding them back from anything else.”

“The biggest benefits come when children actually sit down and play tournament chess. Once you’ve played tournament chess for a couple of years, major transformations take place in a child. The question of relying on your own judgment really comes out.”

“When the children on my chess team in the Bronx went to junior high school they were much better prepared than many of their peers. In fact, the Principal of the junior high school once told me that the chess kids seemed to be a different breed altogether. You can tell the chess kids from the way they walk down the hall – there’s just more confidence in the way they walk. There’s more confidence in the way they interact with the teachers in the classroom. They don’t get into trouble because one of things that chess teaches us is to see danger ahead of time.

“One of the things that’s overlooked frequently is the social component of being on a chess team or just learning to play chess. When children work together on a team, even though chess is one person against one person, whatever is good for anybody on the team is good for everybody on the team.”

“Now when one of the kids from a place such as where I taught in the South Bronx wins a game against a very privileged child, that changes everybody’s attitudes. The recognition, that there, on the other side of the board, is my intellectual equal, that’s an amazing transformation that happens on both sides of the board. I think that’s a really critical thing that we should introduce to society everywhere, not just South Africa.”

President Jacob Zuma contemplates his next move

Sources:

Times Live (Article)
City Press, 27 December 2009

Useful links
ChessCube Facebook Application: http://apps.facebook.com/chesscube/
ChessCube website: www.chesscube.com

SeanW - Our fearless community manager

If you were asked the question, “How passionate are you about your passions?”, would your answer be, “It’s close to an obsession”? The way I see it, this is what ChessCube is all about. A worldwide community coming together to share a common passion, the love for playing Chess.

ChessCube shares this obsession with its users, by providing an outstanding interface for newcomers to this great game of skill and strategy, as well as for seasoned veterans to perfect their skills. And once the timer has run out or the King has been dropped or pinned, players can engage with each other in one of our many chat rooms. And that’s where ChessCube hits the ball out of the park.

In my view, the social service we offer to our community is second to none. We all have friends in the real world, and so too on the ‘Cube. When we’re online as players, we make friends, and every time a user logs on, the time and opportunity is there to bond as friends. And when the community has fun, we have great fun! Users can socialise in a room dedicated to their own country, or say what’s on their mind in our theme based rooms such as the Music room, Sports room, and our Chess Analysis room, or even engage in our 1000+ user strong Cube Café.  It’s so great that we can play against and chat to our neighbours, colleagues and and friends on the Cube, and 5 minutes later be challenging and engaging with someone on the other side of the globe.

The community is lead by a diverse group of Moderators from all over the world.  They’ve put a lot into place with regards to helping everyone and leading the community forward as a whole, and are completely uncompromising about the leadership they offer. These Moderators all share a common goal, and that is to make ChessCube’s community a second home to its users.

The growth in the community has been fantastic. This definitely says that we’re doing something right. And although the basic principle of ChessCube will always remain the same, we are constantly moving forward with new advancements and funtionality. With a user base consisting of over 600 000 users from around the world, we have definitely stepped up to the plate by adapting quickly and reacting to this change quite positively.

Managing ChessCube’s community at this size is challenging, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.