The South Suburban Chess Club of Greater Chicago

The South Suburban Chess Club (SSCC) was formed in 1994 on the efforts of Fred Gruenberg and others in the wake of the closing of the Orland Park Chess Club, which in turn was formed in 1983 after the closing of the Homewood Flossmoor Chess Club. The SSCC is permeated in south suburban chess history!

The SSCCs first home was a community center in Palos Heights, and this was followed by a move to a church in Alsip, and later to its current home at the Oak View Community Center at 110th & Kilpatrick, in Oak Lawn, where the club has met every Friday night from 7PM to 1030PM excepting holidays since 1999. During all these years the club has been guided by the dedicated leadership of Joe Bannon, who, though largely inactive now, continues to stop by from time to time to make sure everyone is playing chess and having a good time. There will be no slacking on Joe's watch!

Today the club President is Mark Spitzig, and the club is assisted by leadership roles by players and directors such as Wayne Ellice, Marty Franek, Romas Fabijonas, Dave O'Dell, Patrice Connelly, Len Weber, Steve Tennant, and others.

The club is an active one, with players ranging from beginners to masters, young and old and everything in between. The club has hosted rated events including USCF rated events, blitz tournaments, bughouse events, and even has a crazyhouse championship, and a blindfold championship!

Some of the stronger players who have played in the last year include masters Steve Tennant, Len Weber, and Tim Kras, and experts Glenn Panner, Ed Latimer, and Tam Nguyen. Other stronger participants have included Joe Cima, Kiran Yalamanchi, Todd Freitag, Artem Akhmetov, Mike Cronin, Geoff Lewis, Romas Fabijonas, and Bruce Dawson.

This year the club saw some changes, primarily in that a new branch has opened in Orland Park, also on Friday nights (from 6PM to 9PM) at the Orland Park Cultural Center, 14760 Park Lane, Orland Park, where the famous Dr. Mikhail Korenman bases his Karpov Chess Institute.

There is currently a movement to also create a branch on Wednesday nights (from 630PM to 1030PM) at the A Place For Us cafe at 5629 W. 63rd St., in Chicago, which was previously the home of the Midway Chess Club. It remains to be seen if this effort will succeed!

The SSCC is represented in the Chicago Industrial Chess League by two teams, which play in the leagues largest and strongest division, the West Division.

The older of these teams is called the SSCC Pawns, a venerable team with a long CICL history, currently captained by Romas Fabijonas, assisted by Dave O'Dell. This team made the playoffs in the 2008/9 season, narrowly missed the playoffs last year, and this year - who knows???

The second team is called the SSCC Wombats, captained by Len Weber, assisted by Patrice Connelly. "Wombats" is a name change of last year's CICL co-champion (!) team the SSCC (Team Yorktown) Wildcats, the name honoring the new Orland Park location by taking the name of past Orland Park teams which won the (now defunct) Illinois Chess League championships in 1991 and 1992.

You can follow the club's Facebook page (South Suburban Chess Club of Greater Chicago), which will have news and results from all affiliated clubs, locations, and related tournaments.