...run by Edward Ochagavia, a survivor of the Nazi siege of Stalingrad in 1942."I'm a very old man. I survived the Stalingrad battle in 1942, but at the moment I can't survive the Lambeth Council closure of the Carnegie Library."
The Carnegie Chess Club was established by Edward Ochagavia in 2000 when the Library was under threat of closure. He was keen to make the library not just a place for books but also to bring people living in the area together socially and stave off the threat. He learned to play when he was growing up in the Soviet Union where chess is almost a way of life and wanted to pass on his enjoyment of the game.And now the library - and the club - is under threat of closure again.
Friends of Carnegie Library
Defend The Lambeth Ten
Save Lambeth Libraries
The idea of closing libraries seems odd to me. Kids who have access to books do better at school. On the surface, it makes little sense. Can anyone explain the thinking behind it? Among the casualties of library closures are likely to be a few chess clubs, and that is also an activity that is widely thought to benefit children's performance in the classroom.
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