We held the MS Championships this year at the same time as the Elementary Championships with amazing success! Everyone had a great time in an upscale and relaxed environment. We had 3 sections (OPEN, RESERVE (U1400) and a U1000). Ratings of players ranged from 400 to over 1900! Despite the difference in skill, the separated rating sections allowed every player to get a great, balanced and challenging game. The winners of each section are:
- OPEN – Alec Ho and Peter Marriott (4.0) Co-Champions
- RESERVE – Heather Young (4.0)
- U-1000 – Ian Convy (4.0)
The event boasted over 70 players from around the State. We made a number of changes to prior year formats that everyone truly appreciated. We plan to do the same next year.
One change we are planning for the OPEN Section at the request of the parents and players – This will be a 2-day Game/90 Event. We are still working out the schedule but it is clear that players of the caliber Washington State is generating, our players demand longer games and the time necessary to play them. Our current thinking is to make all games G/90 (so that players do not need to “shift” between different time controls during the event). We are still working out the schedule. When determined, we will post it here for community feedback.
A HUGE THANK YOU to all that supported the event!
A link to the final standings can be found HERE
We’ve been talking to Elliot Neff from Chess4Life about what can be done to support Middle School Chess in the Seattle Area. He has agreed to host events with a 7-12 OPEN with CASH AWARDS. To make it more appealing to players, he agreed to make 50% of the total entry fee turned into prize money.
What does that mean? Simple. The more kids that play, the bigger the cash prizes will be. We thank Chess4Life for offering to make this possible. In addition, the Mountlake Terrace Chess Club has offered to donate $100 to one tournament each month for the 1st place award. That means one event a month is GUARANTEED to have a $100 first place award.
If anyone is interested in the Seattle area, check out the
- Heritage Event (signup at www.chess4life.com) on 1/9 (cash awards)
- Meridian Park event (signup at www.chessplayer.com) on 1/16 (trophies).
If we can get a bunch of kids to show up there, we should be well on our way to rebuilding Middle School Chess in Seattle once again!
Based on feedback from a number of parents, we moved the MS Individual Championships to the same location and venue as the Elementary School Championships. As word starts to filter out, we have received some concerns that we are “competing” with the Elementary Championships. We assure you that this is not so.
The reason for moving the event in this manner was to allow the greatest number of players to participate in Middle School Events. Last year, there were only 30 kids that supported the event. By moving it to our current location, we expect more kids to be able to participate, making it a better event for everyone.
We also recommend that if your child qualifies for the State Elementary event, you support that one. You are certainly welcome to attend the MS Event if your child is in Grades 5-9 but we want to stress that we believe we take a second seat to the Elementary event. We are working very closely with this year’s Elementary Organizer and we are working hard to make sure that the entire community is served with high quality chess.
Some folks have asked “Why do you include 5th Grade?”. “There is no clear definition for “Middle” or “Junior High” school in Washington State. We started our search with the source of the NW Rating System. From there, we checked a large number of school web sites to see what grades they supported. We found several that serviced 5th – 8th grade and called themselves “Middle School”. There was also 1 that included 9th grade. We chose to be as inclusive as possible and allow Grade 5, 6 and 9 in based on that rational. We could have been more exclusionary and created a complicated set of rules to exclude a number of kids from playing but we decided that the purpose was to get more kids to play, not less. We hope that clears things up.
One last note – The Middle School events are all non-profit events. Our objective is to make sure that any surplus is put back into the community. Like WHSCA, no one is here to make money off the event – just assure that kids can have a great time.
If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to post them here. If you have a question, chances are that someone else is thinking it, too……
Chess, Events | rickjorgensen | 
April 26, 2010 10:57 am | 
Comments (0) 
Subscribe