Chess Club
CHESS CLUB
“EVERY PAWN IS A POTENTIAL QUEEN”
Crescent’s Chess Club holds training sessions every Monday from 3.30pm to 6.00pm. The sessions are conducted by a professional chess trainer who teaches the students how to play the game well and improve their skills. These skills include chess openings, end-game strategies, attacking or defending tactics and many other skills that can be used in the games. During the training sessions, members solve puzzles and spar with one another, putting what they have learned from the trainer to practice, thus ensuring that they understand how to apply the skills in their games.
Chess improves players’ memory too, as it is crucial to recall the moves your opponent made, as well as the moves you made that helped you win in the past. In fact, it is no surprise that experienced chess players are able to recall every single move made by both their opponents and themselves in their games, without referring to any physical recording of the moves. Unlike other games, chess players interact with their opponents in a silent manner, which also trains them to interpret non-verbal languages. How do chess players know what their opponents are planning and how do they feel? In Chess, players learn through experiences in competitions or practice matches to observe and read their opponents’ body language and facial expressions. Therefore, chess also improves player’s analytical skills and trains the players to anticipate the next move of the opponent.
The Chess Club frequently participates in external competitions such as the annual National Schools Individual Chess Championship, the Inter-School Team Chess Championship and other Chess tournaments. The members can gain valuable experiences through participation in these competitions and we have achieved quite a number of successes over the years. These include coming in second in the Under-14 Secondary Girls’ and 3rd in both the Secondary Girls’ and Open Girls’ category in the 2015 National Inter-School Team Chess Championships. In the 2016 National Schools Individual Chess Championships, nine of our members won prizes at the National and/or Zonal level. Two of them were selected to be part of the Singapore Chess Federation High-Performance Squad.
Teachers-In-charge:
OIC:
Mr Lee Tiong Beng
Blurbs
“Over the years, Crescent’s Chess Club has given me many opportunities to hone my playing techniques in chess tournaments and to develop my strategic thinking skills. The training sessions held weekly improved my tactics and motivated me to become an avid and competitive chess player. I really look forward to chess practice every week!” -Megan Kwok (3S2) on her perspective on joining the Chess Club since 2014
“The Chess Club is a CCA that trains your brain power, and it’s really fun when we try to solve difficult chess puzzles during training sessions. It requires us to think calmly and anticipate our opponents’ moves. I’ve also learnt to be persevering even when I’m losing pieces, for as long as I don’t give up, there would always be a chance to win. The teacher and friends are all very friendly and I really enjoy being a member of the Chess Club.” - Li Jingwei (4G3) on benefits of playing Chess
“Chess helps to improve many skills, like a person’s memory, strategic thinking abilities and performance in Mathematics, and I have benefited from all of them. Through the 3, coming to 4 years of being in the Chess Club, I have made many friends and have grown to like them, the teacher and the coach very much. I really do enjoy Chess overall as my CCA and I definitely do not regret joining it.” - Tan Si Min (4S2) on her joy of joining the Chess Club
“I chose Chess as my CCA because I love playing board games and I enjoy thinking through playing. After joining chess, I gradually find that playing chess is not that easy. But I am not afraid of the difficulties lying ahead of me and will try to learn as much skills as I could. Through Chess, I learnt to think logically and more quickly!” - Liu Xiangning (3S1) on what she learns from chess upon joining in 2016
“I find the Chess Club a fun and amazing CCA. I am better able to balance my studies and CCA commitments. The Chess Club also developed some important life skills in me in addition to improving my chess playing techniques.” - Anna Jessica (2C2) on how she feels about the Chess Club