Virginia Scholastic Chess Association Newsletter

March 24, 2010

This newsletter is sent to families who participate in Virginia Scholastic Chess Association tournaments. The VSCA is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization dedicated to promoting scholastic chess in central and southeastern Virginia. Please email news@vschess.org to subscribe, unsubscribe or change your address.


Fork Union Scholastic (Grades K-12)

Registration is now open for the 15th annual Fork Union Scholastic tournament, to be held Saturday, April 10, 2010 at Fork Union Military Academy in Fluvanna County, Virginia.

The Fork Union tournament is open to students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Players are divided into 4 sections based on their grade in school: Trophies will be awarded to the the top 5 individuals and to the top 3 school teams in each section. Advance registration is online only, and closes at 7:00 AM Thursday morning, April 8. Current membership in the U.S. Chess Federation (USCF) is required for all players.

Please visit www.vschess.org for information and to register online.


Longwood Easter Scholastic (Grades K-8)

The Longwood Easter Scholastic, hosted by the Virginia Chess Federation, will be held this Saturday, April 3, 2010, on the Longwood University campus in Farmville, Virginia. The scholastic tournament will have two sections, K-5 and K-8, and 4 rounds. The scholastic event is being held in conjunction with the non-scholastic Longwood Easter Open, with U1600 and Open sections. For more information visit the Virginia Chess Federation website, www.vachess.org/LWE-10.htm.


Grafton Winter Chess Festival Results

127 scholastic players participated in the Grafton Winter Chess Festival tournament at Grafton Middle School in Yorktown on February 27. In the K-5 section, Nicholas Gu won the first-place trophy by tie-breaks over his sister, Jenny Gu. Nicholas and Jenny each finished with a perfect score of 5.0 points in 5 rounds. Echo Lake Elementary School won the K-5 first-place team trophy. In the K-12 section, Hunter Hines won the first-place trophy with a score of 4.5 points in 5 rounds. Three Chopt Elementary School, with five players playing up, won the K-12 first-place team trophy.

Congratulations to all of these players and to all of our tournament participants. Complete tournament results are available at www.vschess.org/results.


State Championship Results

437 scholastic and collegiate players participated in the 2010 Virginia Scholastic and Collegiate Chess Championships, held on March 13-14 at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. The state tournament was organized by the Virginia Chess Federation and hosted by the Virginia Tech Chess Club. We would like to congratulate the following VSCA players and teams who won awards at the tournament:

K-3 individuals: Jacob Thomas (4th place trophy), Nathan Wu (9th), Nicholas Gu (11th), Akshita Gorti (14th), Jensen Morales (18th), Kapil Iyer (23rd place medal), Miles Anderson (24th), Rajit Tummala (25th), Sabrina Shisbey (27th). K-3 teams: Echo Lake Elementary School (5th place trophy), Twin Hickory Elementary School (8th), Phillips Elementary School (11th), Colonial Trail Elementary School (12th), Hollymead Elementary School (15th).

K-5 individuals: Ajitha Balasubramanian (16th place trophy), Harish Tekriwal (24th), Steve Chen (25th), Shreya Shetty (27th place medal), Matthew Houff (28th), Jenny Gu (29th), Matthew Chilton (31st), Ananya Suram (32nd), Preeti Sharma (40th), Apurv Shah (44th), Jeremy Curtis (45th), Nishanth Sajja (47th), Drew Chafin (49th). K-5 teams: Three Chopt Elementary School (3rd place trophy), Colonial Trail Elementary School (8th), Echo Lake Elementary School (10th), Oakwood Elementary School (15th).

K-8 individuals: Tip Wolfe (3rd place trophy), Vikas Rajasekaran (4th), Vignesh Rajasekaran (8th), Matthew Shih (9th), Denis Liu (27th place medal and top U1000 award), Abhishek Penumala (29th), Divij Rajesh (31st), Yash Tekriwal (35th), Gregory Akerman (38th), Hunter Hines (40th), Arvind Chava (42nd). K-8 teams: Moody Middle School (2nd place trophy), Louisa County Middle School (11th), Yorktown Middle School (12th), Short Pump Middle School (14th).

K-12 individuals: Eric Most (2nd place trophy), Andrew Miles (13th), Jordan Bekenstein (16th place medal), Jerome Mueller (25th), Chris Williams (27th), Brittany Gater (32nd). K-12 teams: Clover Hill High School (3rd place trophy), Louisa County High School (5th), Oscar Smith High School (8th).

Complete tournament results are available at www.vschess.org/results.


Tournament Registration and Entry Fees

Advance registration for VSCA tournaments is ONLINE ONLY at www.vschess.org, and closes at 7:00 AM on the Thursday before the tournament. In order to accurately process entries, we cannot accept mail, phone or e-mail registrations. The advance registration entry fee of $7 may be paid by mail (preferred) or at the tournament. Players who do not register before the 7:00 AM Thursday deadline can register at the tournament between 8:00 and 8:45 am on Saturday, but they will need to pay the late entry fee of $14. Players who register later than 8:30 am on Saturday may or may not be paired for the first round, depending on the number of late registrations.


Tournament Check-in

In order to help us complete registration and start our tournaments on time, please check in at the registration desk by 8:45 am, even if you have mailed in your payment. This will minimize the number of names that we have to call in order to check attendance, and will also allow our volunteers to close registration and balance the books earlier. Players arriving after 8:45 am (8:30 am if you have not registered in advance) will risk not being paired for the first round.

If you have registered online, but later find that you will not be able to attend, please email results@vschess.org by Friday night so that we can withdraw your name. If you have to change your plans at the last minute and will be absent or late, please try to let someone else know so they can tell us at registration.


USCF Membership

Current membership in the U.S. Chess Federation (USCF) is REQUIRED in order to play in VSCA tournaments, except for sections specifically designated as non-rated. In order to avoid delays on Saturday, please join or renew directly with USCF at www.uschess.org/webstore. Please do not mail a paper application form or check to USCF, since this may cause delays in processing your membership. If you are unable to join or renew online, please plan to fill out a membership application at the tournament. You can check membership status at www.uschess.org/msa. The U.S. Chess Federation maintains a national database of ratings (relative playing strengths) for adult and scholastic players. In order to update the ratings following each tournament, all players in the tournament must be current USCF members.


Please visit our website at www.vschess.org for the latest news and information.