As our 10th year winds down, I wanted to highlight a little of the past. Everyone takes many pictures these days, but for much of the pre-Covid time we really didn’t take very many pictures of the kids.
The first picture was not the first picture taken, but it a picture of my dad (technically steo-dad, and you may here my talk about my dad in Tennessee who I am going to visit, etc., so it can be a little confusing.) My dad was Dan Varner and he taught me to play chess. If we ever have a reading room/library it will likely be named the Dan Varner Reading Room. The two book shelves on the left side are now in the main club area.
The second picture is from an event 12/26/2023, Ram now teaches for us and runs the upstairs room (also designed the shirt you will see me in later on and that is the front of our current shirts.) Jack is an expert who plays semi-regularly and dropped in to see us just this past fall.
The third picture is from March, 2014 and is our celebration after the PA State Scholastic Championship. Alec Khmelnitsky who runs many of our events is back row third from the left. Aneesh Raparla who was K-3 state champion and his little sister are in the front row, his sister standing in front of him.
The fourth picture is a celebration of us winning the Masterminds Summer League the trophy is with our club trophies downstairs. Ram, Alec, Jack, and Nikki (who was back just the other week and hopes to play in our next All Girls event) are in our orange t-shirts.
The fifth picture is me wearing a white version of that first t-shirt (the design for Tri-Bridges Chess Club is by Ram) and I am th Cleveland Public Library which has the finest collection of chess books in the world – but we are catching up!
The sixth is Vasishta and Yajat with the bughouse trophies they won in the 2018 PA State Scholastic Championship – the picture is from when we used to use the Baptist church on Swedesford Rd.
The seventh is a busy Fetters – White tournament. We ran 34 for of these over almost three years.
The eighth picture is from March, 2020 and is our celebration after the PA State Scholastic Championship at the Fetters White building.
The ninth picture is two sisters – Srija and Srinitha warming up at the first Reach for the Sky tournament.
The tenth picture is Joe Mucerino and Yajat Gupta from Exton Commons Event #1.
