Intro Week & Master Kick-off
It feels a long time ago already, but 2 weeks before the start of the year we introduced the new intro kiddos to our association during the bachelor intro week. You could find us on the Green Strip Market, the Culture Evening and we even had some workshops. At the Green Strip Market, we invited kiddos to play against each other to establish family dominance or challenge us! Our stand was nicely placed on the Koeveld underneath the trees in front of Auditorium, and we were enjoying the good vibes from all the other culture associations next to us. Although, the trees turned out evil as they were sporadically attacking our chess fanatics with falling leaves from above. For the Culture Evening on the next day, we organized a Techno Blitz Night to introduce the kiddos to a derivation of the Noesis classic and well-loved Techno Bunker. People could come in and out to play some quick games while enjoying the techno beats to pump them up. The last day of our intro extravaganza were the workshops, where our former board member Thomas Kools was teaching the kiddos about discovered attacks and how to set them up. After a captivating explanation of the tactic by Thomas, the kiddos were challenged to perform a discovered attack in a real game and if they succeeded, they would be rewarded with a Hubble coin! Oh, how generous we are. For the master kick-off, we had a smaller program as we only had workshops planned. Thomas again coming in clutch with teaching the wonders of the discovered attack to new master students. However, we ran out of Hubble coins for the participants as we gave them all away during the bachelor intro week. So, we had to switch it up with giving away official Noesis beer openers. Our generosity knows no bounds. Overall, we had a great time during the intro week and master kick-off, and it was lovely to see all the new chess enthusiasts and potential new members. We hope we’ll see most of you during our club nights!
Change of Boards
Before the first club night, we first had an important General Members Meeting. Because this was the meeting where we changed boards! It was an emotional evening, but the first board of Joost van Engelen, Tristan Stevens, Bas van Doren and Thomas Kools were tremendously thanked for their efforts in setting up the club and creating a nice community of chess lovers. Now it’s up to the new board of Max Quintus, Youri Martin, Theo Witkamp and Jitze Orij to continue the legacy of Noesis.
First Club Night
After all the introductions were over, it was time for us to kick off the year with our very first club night! The club night started off with an interesting but challenging interactive talk by Dolf Meijer about calculating! Dolf Meijer is a big name in the Dutch chess community, having been a chess youth talent scout and now mainly teaching chess to kids around the brainport region. After the talk we had a small 10+0 rapid tournament to finish off the evening. Also, stupidly enough, we found out that the Calculus start test for the new students coincided with the evening, but we still saw enthusiastic people show up after they finished their test. It was a good start of the year and we hoped you enjoyed as much as we did!
Open Culture Week
The second week of the year was the Open Culture Week of the culture associations. Students could try out activities from all associations to see if they want to join. Noesis was of course also present with two activities of our own. On the Monday we had a chess workshop from Thomas again, this time on a variety of tactics and a small bit on endgames. No rewards for the students this time sadly, it seems our generosity has some bounds after all. Nonetheless, on Wednesday we held an Open Rapid Tournament where people could play games, have fun, and enjoy some friendly competition. It was well visited as more than 40 people participated in the tournament. Throughout the Open Culture Week, we saw many new faces and hope that many of you will decide to become a member and that we’ll see you on other club nights!
