We have a great chess club; it runs smoothly and efficiently, like a clock. All thanks to the expertise and cordial demeanors of the CCCR and RCC staff. Give it a shot and you'll fit right in!

Many players lose patience and quit in the first two weeks because they lose a few chess games. But things get better after a few dozen USCF-rated games.

You'll safely explore new or hidden aspects of your psychology. In society, at home or at work, the social contract dictates that we act nicely. Of course the same is true while playing chess. -With one small exception: in chess you can play any style you choose. Fast and aggressive, or slow and positional. Like many other activities, chess can be all about self-awareness.

Learn about yourself. Otherwise, what's the point? Yet, change can be difficult.

National Master Stephen Capp takes you on a journey into fighting chess. Games are rich with coffee-house tactical melees, bold sacrifices and 19th Century style king hunts... You will find very few draws here because nobody likes kissing your sister. Examine deadly attacking ideas arising from the Grand Prix Attack. This opening has been played at the highest level. Nigel Short, Anand, Carlsen and others have all scored important victories with it. You can, too. You can use it in response to the Pirc, and Modern Defence in addition to the Sicilian. There are games with gambits such as the Blackmar Diemer, the Elephant and Milner-Barry where you can learn to drag your opponents into 'deep dark forests' as Tal use to say. Tarrasch once said: 'Before the endgame, the gods have placed the middle game'. You will find very little endgame study in this game collection, -mostly just King hunts. They say, 'studying the endgame is like eating your vegetables'. Of course, learning the endgame is important. However, let's put the vegetables aside for now and dig into hot fudge sundaes and cheesecake. There are strategically rich games involving the main line Sicilian and various Ruy Lopez systems. There are two memorable battles in the Owen's defence which can't be missed.

FIDE Mas­ter (and USCF Se­nior Mas­ter) Igor Niko­layev's games in­clude 100's of gam­bit open­ings (King's gam­bit, Dan­ish and Scotch gam­bits, Evans gam­bit, Jaenisch-Schlie­mann Gam­bit, Smith-Morra gambit, Bu­dapest gam­bit, Blu­men­feld gam­bit, Benko gam­bit, Niko­layev gam­bit, some less known gam­bits). En­cy­clo­pe­dic ar­rays of 2.c3 Anti-Si­cil­ian (about two hun­dred games) and a splen­did Re­nais­sance of the Ponziani Open­ing (a few dozen games). Han­dling the French with­out the no­to­ri­ous pawn chains (~100 games). De­stroy­ing the Caro Kann with sim­ple tools the op­po­nents did­n’t study (~100 games). A bit of bru­tal vi­o­lence in the Scan­di­na­vian, Pirc and mod­ern de­fense (a few dozen games). Sur­pris­ingly ef­fi­cient rev­e­la­tions on both sides in the Two Knights and the Ital­ian Game (~200 games). Mak­ing White for­get 'milk­ing the cow' in the Span­ish Game (~100 games). Strate­gi­cally ag­gres­sive ap­proaches against the Queen's gam­bit, the Catalan Opening, the Eng­lish Open­ing, the Reti, the Colle, the Bird’s open­ing. Not to for­get Chig­or­in's De­fense with the ad­ven­tur­ous but con­vinc­ing early e7-e5, From's Gam­bit to its full ex­tent, and a real bomb in the Four Knights Open­ing. Still a lot more with any­thing in-be­tween, lead­ing to tense, dy­namic po­si­tions where imag­i­na­tive play and deep cal­cu­la­tions are most at home. At­tacks, com­bi­na­tions and tac­ti­cal strikes merge with many in­struc­tive endgames. And a bit of chess phi­los­o­phy, psy­chol­ogy and hu­mor.

A master player of the Sokolsky opening, which is far more than just a mere novelty. From a bold Orangutan on the queenside to the Sokolsky 'King’s Gambit'. The Veresov Opening is another hit of his. Robust conservative approach to the Ruy Lopez against various systems. Classical blockade ideas in the French as a universal method for White and a poisoned 3...b6 for Black. Impressive Caro Kann examples after 4.g4 with the following blockading e5-e6!? pawn sacrifice. With Isay you will love the Sicilian for either side. Black's repertoire is also submitted with the Alekhine's Defence, the modern Philidor Defence, the King's Indian, Pirc-Ufimtsev Defence. Includes games against legendary figures, some of whom he knew personally. A number of postal games which were recognized as masterpieces of correspondence chess. About a half century in master level competition allow you to say something important about chess.