I’m not a big fan of  teams from the same school playing each other.  This is done in at the High School Level and there are a bunch of issues that come up as a result. I believe that TEAM competitions are when you bring your best team to play – Just like HS Football. It is a privilege for kids to play on the “Varsity Team”. The whole idea is to pick the best SCHOOL in the State – not the best Team in the Best School.

The problem is that there are not enough kids in Middle School to have a “JV Team competition” – even if we reduce the number of players on a team to 3 (which is the number of players on a team in Middle School). Our objective is to increase the number of teams from different schools to increase the “depth” of Chess in the State.

I’m proposing this year the following:

• There is only ONE VARSITY TEAM PER SCHOOL. These kids will go head-to-head as a team. The school itself must pick it’s “Best Team”.
• All other players will play in a “JV Section” that will be a 4 round Swiss event.
• If there 4 or more teams for JV (4 schools have 6 players or more), we will hold a Team JV event. There can be multiple teams in JV. Schools can choose to play in the JV Swiss or the JV Team Match. If this occurs, we will STILL have the 4 round swiss event to allow “singles” to come and play.

I do realize that this seems to put a couple of the top schools at a disadvantage. They have a large number of great players that deserve to play in Varsity and will frequently take the top couple of places. I can only liken  this to other High School Sports where some schools (like Meadowdale in our area) have a ton of fantastic Tennis players and it is really hard to get on the varsity team but if you go to Lynnwood High (where my son goes), it is easier for him to get on varsity.  Modeling our event after other HS Sports seems like a reasonable thing.

As always, please comment on this proposal.  This is a community effort and your participation is vital!

• 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

Placings were as follows:

1st – Odle Team A

2nd – Pine Lake Team C

3rd – Overlake

4th – Pine Lake Team A (on tiebreaks with Overlake)

This was a very competitive event with great games for all levels of play because the community came out to support it! This was not just “the top teams”, but an event for all Middle School Players.

We  also thank Lynden Christian, Assumption, Alderwood Middle School and St. Thomas More for bringing so many teams, making this a fun event for all!

If you think you want to field a team, please contact us immediately at rick.jorgensen@gmail.com.  Directions to the event will be sent to players via email.

MS TEAM Championships will be held on March 20th at St Thomas More Church . There will be 4 G/45 rounds and kids from the same school district can play together if they do not have enough on a single school. For registration, email us at rick.jorgensen@gmail.com

The MS INDIVIDUAL Championships will be help on April 24 at the Marriot Hotel in Tacoma (across from the Convention Center). There are NO QUALIFIERS REQUIRED and is open to ALL WA State kids Grades 5-9. There are cash awards in the with small “memento trophies” to the winners. The more players signup, the more cash will be available for awards!

The OPEN is a Four round G/60 event and the RESERVE Section is a Four Round G/45 event.

Registration is OPEN NOW and gets more expensive the longer you wait to sign up. There is a maximum capacity of 150 kids so don’t wait till the last minute. Scholarships are available for those requiring financial assistance.

Registration is now open at www.chess4life.com under the MS Individual Chess Championships on 4/24.

If you have any questions, contact Rick Jorgensen at rick.jorgensen@gmail.com

• The Northwest Grade Level at Bryant Elementary (Seattle) on 2/6 has a special 7-8 section. Let’s bring a BUNCH of us and show everyone that we have a strong community that supports Middle School!
• The Mountlake Terrace BUGHOUSE in Lynnwood on 2/13 is a fun event for all, with a K-12 section for older kids. No need to have a partner, we will match you up with someone at registration.

Both events can be found at www.chess4life.com

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!

In the Seattle Area – Chessmates Fall Kickoff on 11/14 is a large event that has a section for 5-8th grade. This usually fills up pretty fast so you want to play. This is an event for all levels of skill. You can sign up here.

Also in the Seattle Area, the Washington Class on Thanksgiving weekend (11/27) has a 7-12 OPEN section. You can sign up here.

In the Tri-Cities area, the Queens Quest with Knights on the Side will let you join the fun as well on 11/14. Contact David Sommers (dsommers@libertychristian.net) for more information.

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……

We are proposing that the primary mission of the Middle School Chess Association is to grow the number of kids that play in Middle School – first and foremost. We believe that with greater participation numbers, we can build a stronger program.

To achieve that goal, we are making some changes to the rules that allow teams of SCHOOL DISTRICTS to be formed if there are not enough kids in a single school to form a team. By banding together more kids, we hope to make Team Chess more accessible to Middle School kids in the State.

This is a break from the past and we are also putting in place safeguards to prevent the creation of “Super-Teams”. We are planning to empower a committee with the discretion of investigating and making determinations on accusations of creating “Super-Teams” so that all will have a fair advantage. We hope to appeal to “common sense” solutions as opposed to overly legalistic approaches.

This board is the forum for this discussion. Please place your thoughts and opinions here so that we can involve everyone in the process of coming to the best possible solution.