first book

It was finally finished, proofread and ready to be printed!

Our fist Chess workbook that was written, created in Belize and illustrated by our own artists. You can see the faces of artists below.

As you know during the summer chess art camp at Sibun Lodge, the following students worked very hard on illustrating first Belizean chess workbook:

Albert Cus- Toledo

Fitzroy Chan- Stann Creek

Omar Pulido - Cayo

Rasheed Palacio - Cayo

Wilson Cruz- Cayo

This books is intended for children and adults who want to learn chess. It is fun to read and teaches you more than just chess-teaches you history and geography as well. See few images from the book and illustrators at work:

During the illustration process all the illustrators had to do research in the art and history books, so that the images that they were creating would fit into the geographical locations mentioned in the story.

Special Thanks to Becki and John Shannon's family! They were driving everyday with their own kids to the camp, so that they could guide us all in the right direction, they stayed extra hours to review the work that was done during the day. THANK YOU!

Becki at work

Dec 11th holiday tournament

135 players from all the districts arrived to compete in the Holiday Team tournament. Each team consisted of 4 players under 17 years old and one player of 18 years old or older. It was a terrific day of arts, puzzles, Christmas cookies and of course CHESS!

All districts participated in this tournament and the competition was tough:

Best female players

Nia Beane, Xena Zul, Vanessa Cucul, Michealynn Young, Maricela Cocom and Rosana Chun

Winners of the adult section:

Winners of 15- 17 ears old section:

1.Alfred Awe

2.Juan Vernon

3. Javier Lisbey

Winners of the 13-14 year old section:

1. Steve Flowers

2. Dolores Sho

3.Brandon Marsden

4. Pablo Bo

Winners of the 11 and 12 years old section:

1. Jerome Sho

2. Carlos Cocom

3. Lloyd Augustine

4. Briceno Choc

5. Erwin Wills

6. Dwayne Rodriguez

Winners of 10 years old section:

1.Ivan Pixabaj

2. Kareem Jenkins

3. Jaheed Palacio

4.Keiderre Loria

5. Vincent Hulse

Winners of 9 and under section:

1.Gabriel Cocom

2. Kenrick Fransisco

3. Jovel Chiac

4. Dondre Augustine

Team winners: 1st place was share by the team from Belize City ( Belize one) and Stann Creek ( Mighty Knights)

2nd place team winner: Chess Family one from Cayo

3rd place team winner: Chess Family two also from Cayo

4th place team winner: San Ignacio Team:

It is great to see our young players participating in such a difficult tournament: Gabriel Cocom - 8, Nia Beane- 7 years old and the yongest player in that tournament- Zahira Chun- 6 years old.

There was an excellent participation of the Golden Kings and Queens team:

This was a great Holiday event- thank you to all the players, coaches and parents!

In addition to that, Brian Chun, Stann Creek Chess Association Chairman, as well as President of Belize Chess Federation, received a Chess Table( Hand made by David Coombs) in recognition of his outstanding dedication to the work with young chess players of his district.

Golden Kings and Queens in action

Ms Pat Robinson with the International Grand Master Maurice Ashley during dinner chess game at Caves Branch Jungle Lodge

Golden Kings and Queens

Congratulations to the Golden Chess Kings and Queens on their achievements: Leonie Cain, Felicita Finney, Pat Graham, Lionel Kisling, Aurora McCord, and Pat Robinson. This team of chess players under the guidance of the passionate chess coach Karen Chaleki continues meeting every week to play chess and even had a field trip to the chess camp for children on July 19^th. During the visit children shared with them their art work, told them about the camp

and then they played 4 rounds Blitz Chess Tournament as part of the camp activity. . Way to go!

Previous Monday , July 12^th, Mr . Lionel Kisling was an invited guest for the Book talk Show at the same

camp, which he attended and helped to give out the awards to the winners of that camp tournament.

During lunch time, both weeks Golden Kings and Queens spent quality time with children.

ohh,...and don't miss December issue of AGEWAYS,, they will be publishing one of the pics of our Seniors playing chess and Ms Pat's letter that she submitted sharing with the rest of the world the accomplishment of our Belizean Golden Kings and Queens.

If you are a senior and would like to learn how to play chess or know how to play chess and would like a game join us on Tuesdays at 4:00 pm at Bull Frog. New members are welcomed. For more information contact Leonie Cain at 822-2492.

CODICADER JULY 2010

The next category is 13/14 years old. We will be sending 6 players and 3 coaches among almost 100 other athletes from Belize for the whole week of competition and fun in Guatemala.

Here is our Chess Team for CODICADER:

Akeem Jenkins, Cayo

Luis Tut and Kris Sanchez, Stann Creek

Estevan Coy, Toledo

Jose Manzanilla, Corozal

Steve Flowers, Belize districts

Coaches: David Coombs( Cayo), Humberto Juarez( Corozal), Brian Chun ( Stann Creek)

All the participants will be attending July 2-6th week at Sibun Jungle Lodge, where we will concentrate on preparing them for this important event with the help of the guest coach GM Maurice Ashley.

We would really appreciate if you would be able to help financially for the t-shirts and transportation.IF you able to donate money towards the trip- please contact David Coombs, who is the head delegate (670-5435).

To see the pictures from the previous Central American games in May-see below:

The games were based in the IRTRA de Retalhulue resort about 2 hours south of the Guatemala city. This is a luxury 5 star resort set in vast grounds with two theme parks adjoining.

Belize was competing against chess players from Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras.

between the rounds there was plenty of time to have fun in the water park:

and then back to the concentration on the board:
back to fun- trip to the toy museum:

walk in the park:
.. then back to chess again and making friends with players from other countries
As for those chess games, they needed a real muscle strength!

There were a lot of beautiful things that they saw, and memories will last for years!

and even they had a lot of fun,, it is nice to be back home!

The whole trip lasted 1week, and in addition to an incredible chess experience that our players gained, the cultural and social value of this trip is of even more importance! These kind of trips open their eyes, raise curiosity, allow them to make new friends and learn how to switch from fun to concentration and enjoy both.

During the trip Pedro Pixabaj, Jose Teul and David Coombs( coaches/chaperones) made sure that despite of full days of events, all the players kept their journals and did the homework assignments that they were given from their schools.

Congratulations to our international travel pioneers!