Virginia Scholastic Chess Association Newsletter

September 27, 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.



National Chess Day at Meadowdale (Grades K-12 and Adults)

Registration is now open for the National Chess Day at Meadowdale tournament, to be held Saturday, October 14, 2017 at Meadowdale Library in Chesterfield County. Advance registration is online only, and closes at 7:00 AM Thursday MORNING, October 12.

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

Food and drinks will not be sold at this tournament. Please bring your own lunch and snacks, or plan to visit one of the fast food restaurants in the area. We will have a lunch break during the tournament.

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. All players registering for Open Quads are expected to play all three rounds.

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.



Other Upcoming VSCA Events

The next scheduled VSCA event following the Meadowdale tournament is the Veritas Fall Scholastic tournament on November 4 at Veritas School in Richmond. The Veritas tournament will feature K-5 and K-12 Not-rated sections, and K-5 and K-12 Open (rated) sections. There will be no Open Quads at the Veritas event.

A calendar of VSCA events as well as other scholastic events in Virginia is available at www.vschess.org/chess-calendar.



Championship Chess RVA Cross-round Tournament

Championship Chess RVA, headed by VSCA Board Member Brian Garbera, is hosting a "cross-round" tournament on Saturday, September 30, 1:00-4:00 pm at the Children's Museum of Richmond, 2626 West Broad Street, Richmond 23220. The tournament features Quick-rated play for U.S. Chess Federation members and Non-rated games for non-members. For more information, visit the Championship Chess RVA website at championshipchessrva.net/richmondtournamentsupcoming.



Virginia Beach National Chess Day Festival

The annual Virginia Beach National Chess Day Festival will be held outdoors at Virginia Beach Town Center on Saturday, October 7, 2017. The event is organized by the Hampton Roads Chess Association and sponsored by the City of Virginia Beach. The all-day festival will include a tournament with US Chess-rated sections for experienced players and not-rated sections for beginners, a simultaneous chess exhibition by five-time Virginia State Champion and National Master Dan Miller, free chess lessons for beginners, a giant chess board, and other chess activities. Spectators are welcome. Many of the activities are free; there is an entry fee of $10 per player for the tournament and $5 per player for the simul. There is no charge for spectators. Advance registration for the tournament and the simul is now open at www.vschess.org. For more information, please visit the event website.



Grafton Fall Chess Festival Results

67 scholastic and 15 adult players participated in the Grafton Fall Chess Festival, held at Grafton Middle School in York County on September 23, 2017.

There were four scholastic sections: K-5 Not-rated, K-12 Not-rated, K-5 Open and K-12 Open. The K-5 Not-rated and K-12 Not-rated sections were combined with separate awards. There were also three Quads and one seven-player Small Swiss section for adults and advanced scholastic players.

In the K-5 Not-rated section, Yan Morozov won the first place trophy with a perfect score of 4.0 points in 4 rounds. The first-place team in K-5 Not-rated was Cape Henry Collegiate School from Virginia Beach.

Alonzo Greene won first place in the K-12 Not-rated section with a score of 3.0 points in 4 rounds. There were no teams in the K-12 Not-rated section.

In the K-5 Open section, Prasannaa Chokkalingam won the first place trophy with a perfect score of 5.0 points in 5 rounds. Old Donation School from Virginia Beach was the first-place team in K-5 Open.

In the K-12 Open section, Matthew Bustillos won the first place trophy with a perfect score of 5.0 points in 5 rounds. Old Donation School from Virginia Beach won the K-12 Open first-place team trophy.

In the Open Quads and Small Swiss sections for adults and advanced scholastic players, the first-place winners were Mr. Thomas Burgess; Mr. Jonathan Cameron and Mr. David Kea (tie); Josh Havens (8th grade); and Mr. Clark Boyd.

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



Mike Hoffpauir Elected President of US Chess Executive Board

Congratulations to VSCA President and Chief Tournament Director Mike Hoffpauir, who was recently elected president of the U.S. Chess Federation Executive Board. Mike is also a National Tournament Director, a FIDE Arbiter and Chairman of the Board of the Virginia Chess Federation. We are very proud of Mike and we are extremely fortunate to have him in our organization.



Hampton Roads Chess Association

The Hampton Roads Chess Association, organized by VSCA Board Member Christina Schweiss, 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. For more information, visit the chess club's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HRScholasticChessClub.



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 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 Boushall, Lucille Brown, Thomas Henderson and Thompson Middle Schools in Richmond; Armstrong High School 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.



Help!

The VSCA is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization. We welcome volunteers of all interests and experience levels to help with tournaments and other scholastic chess activities, or to assist with planning by serving on the VSCA Board of Directors. There is one vacancy on the Board of Directors for the remainder of the current year, and voting for all nine Board positions will be held during the coming winter. Parents of scholastic players who have participated in one or more VSCA tournaments in the past 12 months, and individuals age 16 or older who have done significant volunteer work for the VSCA in the past 12 months are eligible to serve on he Board and vote in elections. If you are interested in volunteering as a Director candidate or in any other capacity, please contact VSCA President Mike Hoffpauir at president@vschess.org.



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 the following check-in policies:

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.