Virginia Scholastic Chess Association Newsletter

January 10, 2017

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.


Virginia Beach Winter Scholastic & Quads (Grades K-12 and Adults)

Registration is now open for the Virginia Beach Winter Scholastic & Quads Tournament, to be held Saturday, January 28, 2017 at the Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach. Advance registration is online only, and closes at 7:00 AM Thursday MORNING, January 26.

This tournament is open to students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and also adult players, and includes both rated and non-rated scholastic sections as well as quads for adults and advanced scholastic players.

The K-5 Not-rated and K-12 Not-rated (grades 6-12) sections are designed for beginning tournament players (first, second or third chess tournament, with exceptions on a case-by-case basis). Games in these sections are NOT RATED by the U.S. Chess Federation (US Chess) and players do NOT need to be US Chess members.

The K-5 Open and K-12 Open (grades 6-12) sections are US Chess-rated sections. All players in these sections must be current US Chess members.

The Open Quads sections are US Chess-rated sections open to advanced scholastic players (US Chess rating 1200+) and adult players. Quad entries will be divided into groups of 4 (quads) by rating. Each quad will play a 3-round round robin with a time control of G/60;d5.

The entry fee for the scholastic sections is $10 for advance (online) registrations, and $15 for onsite registrations. The entry fee for the Open Quads is $20 for all players, whether registered online or onsite. Please read our Tournament Check-in Policy.

Trophies will be awarded to the top 5 individuals and the top 3 school teams in each of the scholastic sections. There are cash prizes for the Open Quads, with no trophies or team competition.

Please visit the VSCA website at www.vschess.org for more tournament information and to register online.


What If It Snows?

Snow and other winter weather is always a possibility at this time of year. We make every effort to hold our tournaments as scheduled, but occasionally we do have to postpone an event due to safety concerns and/or school regulations. If we have to postpone a tournament, we will post a notice on the VSCA website www.vschess.org as soon as a decision is made, and we will also email a notice to everyone who has registered. Please register with an email address that you check regularly in case we need to contact you. If you have already paid your entry fee online, we will refund your payment if the event is postponed, or if you are unable to travel to the event.


VSCA Board of Directors Election

The yearly election for VSCA Board of Directors positions will be conducted online from Tuesday, January 17 through Sunday, January 29. Eligible voters are: We are now accepting volunteers and nominations for all nine Board of Directors positions. VSCA voting members age 18 or older are eligible to serve on the Board of Directors. Current Board members are welcome to run for re-election. The VSCA is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization, and we depend on parent involvement. If you are able to help, and would like to have more input on how the organization is run, please consider serving on the Board. To place your name on the ballot, please email news@vschess.org by Sunday, January 15, and provide your name and a brief statement (150 words or less, plus an optional picture) for our website. Your statement should tell voters a little about yourself and why you are interested in serving as a Director. The candidate statements, along with instructions for voting, will be posted on our website by Tuesday, January 17.

For more information, please visit http://www.vschess.org/chess-news/board-election-2017-01-04.php.


Virginia Scholastic & College Championships

Registration is open for the 2016-2017 Virginia Scholastic & College Championships, to be held Friday, March 10-Sunday, March 12, 2017 at the Holiday Inn Virginia Beach-Norfolk in Virginia Beach. The Main tournament will be held Saturday (4 rounds) and Sunday (2 rounds). There are also three side events: The Blitz and Bughouse tournaments will take place Friday evening, and the Parents & Friends tournament will be held Saturday (3 rounds) and Sunday (1 round). For complete details, and information about hotel reservations and tournament registration, visit the Event Website. Online registration is open until Friday morning, March 10, but to take advantage of the discounted entry fees participants must register and pay by March 6. Entry fees increase for any payments received March 7 or later.


Hopkins Scholastic at Hopewell Tournament Results

36 scholastic players participated in the Hopkins Scholastic at Hopewell Tournament, held at Hopewell High School in Hopewell on December 10, 2016. The K-3 and K-5 sections were combined with separate awards, and the K-8 and K-12 sections were combined with separate awards. All sections were US Chess-rated.

In the K-3 section, Abhinav Gitta won the first place trophy with a perfect score of 4.0 points in 4 rounds. Rivers Edge Elementary School from Henrico County was the first-place team in K-3.

In the K-5 section, Manas Niranjan won the first place trophy by tiebreaks over Micah Kuester. Manas and Micah each finished with a score of 3.0 points in 4 rounds. Veritas School from Richmond was the first-place team in K-5.

In the K-8 section, there was a three-way tie for first place. Cade Petrus won the first place trophy by tiebreaks over Joshua Nichols and Anusree Marikkannan (a fifth grader playing up). Cade, Joshua and Anusree each finished with a score of 3.0 points in 4 rounds. Lucille Brown Middle School from Richmond was the first-place team in K-8.

In the K-12 section, John Corson won the first place trophy with a score of 3.5 points in 4 rounds. Maggie L. Walker Governor's School from Richmond won the K-12 first-place team trophy.

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


Hampton Roads Scholastic Chess Club

The Hampton Roads Scholastic Chess Club, organized by VSCA Board Member Christina Schweiss, has merged with the Hampton Roads Chess Club and the Virginia Beach Chess Club, and meets on Tuesday evenings at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach. Scholastic players meet from 5:00 to 7:30 pm, and adults and advanced scholastic players meet from 7:00 to 10:30 pm. Meetings include training as well as rated tournaments. The club is also hosting a State Champ Camp for scholastic and college students. The camp will be held during the regular club meeting hours (Tuesday 5:00 to 7:00 pm) on February 21, February 28 and March 7. Fees for the camp are $10 for club members, $40 for Grace Homeschool Co-op members and $60 for the general public, with discounts for families. For more information, visit the chess club's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HRScholasticChessClub, and also check out the State Champ Camp flyer.


Maggie L. Walker Free Chess Clinics

The Maggie L. Walker Governor's School Chess Club in Richmond holds chess clinics at the school on one weekday evening each month from 5 to 7 pm. The clinics are free to scholastic players of all experience levels, from beginner to advanced. The next clinic is Tuesday evening, January 10. For current information, visit the chess club's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/MLWGSChess.


It's Your Move!

VSCA secretary and Class A player Mike Callaham has generously offered to analyze and comment on VSCA tournament games which players send him. If you have a game that you're proud of, or a game where you feel you could have played better, and would like Mr. Callaham to take a look at it, all you need to do is send him a copy of your complete and legible scoresheet (game notation). He will respond by email, and games which are especially interesting or instructive will be published on the VSCA website. For complete details, visit the VSCA website at www.vschess.org/chess-resources/games. Mr. Callaham has recently posted his analysis of an extremely interesting game from the Virginia Scholastic Championships in Ashburn.

Mr. Callaham is the CEO and founder of the Richmond Chess Initiative, the coordinator and head coach of the Richmond Middle School Chess League, and currently coaches chess clubs at Binford, Boushall, Lucille Brown, Thomas Henderson, Albert Hill, and Thompson Middle Schools in Richmond, J. B. Fisher Elementary School in Richmond, and Tuckahoe Elementary School in Henrico County. Coach Callaham has also met with chess clubs at many other Virginia schools, and he would like to visit as many other school chess clubs as possible on behalf of the VSCA. Parents and coaches, if you would like to have Mr. Callaham visit your school club for a free simul, chess clinic or lecture, please contact him at waterman2010kir@aol.com. Be sure to provide contact information for the school chess sponsor/coach. This is a wonderful opportunity for your school to benefit from the help of an experienced chess player and teacher.


Visit Us on Facebook

Check out the VSCA Facebook page at www.facebook.com/vascholasticchess, managed by parent and board member Christina Schweiss.


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. Entry fees may be paid online through PayPal (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 9:00 am on Saturday; entry fees may be higher for late entries. 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.

Please note that the above information applies to most Virginia Scholastic Chess Association tournaments. Some tournaments may have different registration schedules and/or entry fees.


Tournament Check-in

To help start our tournaments on time, we have implemented a new check-in policy. Players who pay online do not need to check in at the tournament, but they must let us know if they are not coming. Please read the following brief instructions:

All Players: If you are registering and/or paying at the tournament: If you are paying online:

US Chess Membership

Current membership in the U.S. Chess Federation (US Chess) is REQUIRED in order to play in VSCA tournaments, except for sections specifically designated as not-rated. In order to avoid delays on Saturday, please join or renew directly with US Chess at www.uschess.org/webstore. Please do not mail a paper application form or check to US Chess, 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 rated sections of a tournament must be current US Chess members.


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