Ithaca Chess Club Newsletter # 001
Dear Chess Lovers,
Welcome! And thank you for your interest in the new Ithaca Chess Club. Every Saturday I will send an email newsletter to keep you updated about club news, activities, and plans.
Please share this email, and tell your friends that they can join the chess club (and/or get on the email list) easily: just send an email: see our Contact page.
Contents in this issue # 001:
A. Where and When We Can Meet
B. Tell Your Friends about the Chess Club
C. Tell Us About Yourself (optional)
D. Chess Tactics of the Week (answer next week)
E. Chess Question/Lesson of the Week
F. Send Your Chess Questions
G. How You Can Help the Chess Club
H. How to Contact the Ithaca Chess Club
A. Where and When We Can Meet
Where: Thompson Park … is in the Fall Creek neighborhood of Ithaca (zip 14850), on N. Cayuga St. and Cascadilla Street, across from Gimme Coffee.
When: Saturdays 12 pm to 3pm (Not yet: I will tell you when this begins).
If you absolutely cannot attend at this day and time, please email me and with a list of days and times you are free. I can’t promise to change the day/time, but I will do my best to find the optimum day and time for everyone.
B. Tell Your Friends about the Chess Club
We need more players. Tell your family and friends that the Ithaca Chess Club is free; and to join this mailing list send an email to chessithaca@gmail.com
C. Tell Us About Yourself (optional)
— 1. Would you like to play a) live games b) online games, or c) both live games and online ?
–2. What would you like to learn?
–3. What is your playing level?

D. Chess Tactics of the Week (answer next week): Tactics # 001
White to play and win, in the attached file, Chess Tactics # 001.
Answer next week.
E. Chess Question/Lesson of the Week
How can you easily record and remember any position on the chessboard?
We use the FEN system. When the chess pieces are in the starting position, the FEN is this:
rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq – 0 1
— It begins at the 8th rank, where you can see all the black pieces are there:
rnbqkbnr
— and then the 7th rank: pppppppp.
— The /8 means that the next 8 squares (on the 6th rank) are empty.
— Jump ahead to the first rank with the white pieces: RNBQKBNR
— and then the “w” tells us that it is white’s move.
— KQkq means that both players are able to castle kingside and queenside.
— the hyphen “-” tells us that in this position, there are no squares that can be used for en passant capturing.
— the final 0 1 will be explained in a future message. (Feel welcome to Google this).
F. Send Your Chess Questions
You can send us your chess questions, and we will answer in a future email newsletter.
G. How You Can Help the Chess Club
1. Spread the news about the Ithaca Chess Club.
Tell your family and friends that it’s free, and to join the club and get the newsletter, just email Mike at chessithaca@gmail.com
2. If you have already offered to volunteer time or resources — thanks a million — I will email you in a separate message.
3. We could use some chess sets. If you have any used sets to donate, great. If you would like to gift a new set to the club, then choose any chess set that you like. My favorite chess set is this one (and you can choose the colors of the dark squares, either green or blue): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009RSFOF2/?th=1
H. How to Contact the Ithaca Chess Club
Visit our website: https://ithacachessclub.com/
Email us: See our Contact Page.
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Enjoy your week, play chess for fun, practice deep concentration, and keep learning.
Mike Pastore
Founder and President
Ithaca Chess Club