Our New Chess Library!

Peter Stevlingson and I have bought a lot of chess books over the years.  My boys won a few of them.

Rather than just having them gather dust, we thought we would offer them out to parents who would like to check them out.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LIBRARY 

There are not only some really great books here, there are also some DVDs and even a couple software packages.  We're going to try this out.  We suggest a $1 donation to the club to take out a book, and we suggest a 2-week return period.  This is a great way to check out an awesome book, and to learn what sorts of books your child (and your family) like best.

If books are lost or seriously damaged, we ask that the parent pay for its replacement.  Of course, we ask that the materials be respectfully handled so that they may be used for a good time into the future.  Many of the books are paperback, so this is especially important that they be well handled.

To Check Out: send me an email of what you would like to check out, and I will enter your name on the library sheet (which we can all see) and I will bring the item to class.  Thank you.

New Tournament - Golda Meir - Feb 22

New Tournament on Calendar - Golda Meir - Sat Feb 22 -Every year, the city of Milwaukee chess is dominated by Golda Meir school - they have a great program and some leaders who know about the benefits of chess.  This is a fun UNRATED tournament for kids of all ages.  There is a K3, K6 and K12 division.  EMAIL ME with child's name, school, and grade if you would like me to register you.  Only $10, and you pay at the school the day of the tournament - but you need to email me first before 2/19 so I can pre-register you.

Registration is by school, as is the usual case - clubs not allowed for this one.

CLICK HERE to view the tournament flyer, hope you can make this one at Golda Meir.

Nothing after this until March, when we have three tournaments in a row- Randy's New Berlin tournament at Elmwood (3/15), the State tournament in Oshkosh for some players (3/22-23), then the big Grade Level tournament on 3/29.

Thanks!

Star of Bethlehem Results

CLICK HERE for full results from Star of Bethlehem.

Highlights:  NOTE: This was a USCF-rated tournament so please go to uschess.org and click on players and ratings, player lookup, and you can see your ratings, and how they were either established new OR affected by this tournament!

1) Teams:

• Still need work getting full teams together for tournaments - thanks to the parents who have volunteered to help with each school.  We'd like to form little groups of friends for each school (and each division) so we have teams of 4 or more for each tournament we play in!
• Muskego High School took the K-12 fairly easily with 18.5 points (possible 24).  High scorers were Evan 6, Jason 5, Rachel 4, and Reid and Jake with 3.5 each.
• Lake Denoon K-12 with Jack Bognar, Brian Mark and Elliot Bognar took 5th place with 8 points.
• Lake Denoon K-6 did extremely well, in the running all the way against a tough Brookfield Academy team, ending up in 2nd place.  Top finishers: Will Schantz led the way with 4.5, Matthew Redlinger kicked in 4 wins, and Kyle Jain added 3.5 and Aaron Gibbs 2.5 to the effort.
• Bay Lane did great with only 3 players, finishing in 5th place ahead of some teams with 4 or 5 players. Nice job Alyssa Przedwiecki (4), Noah Gover (3) and David Bundy (3)!
• In K-3, we really didn't have any teams.  Mill Valley we had two players who both did EXTREMELY well- Gavin Joers with 4.5(!) and Nelson Klein with 4 wins.  With a couple more players, we would have been up towards the top!  Tess Corners also had two players compete, Alex Swieszynski (3) and Derek Stathus (2).

2) Individual:

• In K-12, Evan Seghers continued his roll as our top board, going a perfect 6-0 and winning the K-12 division.  
• Jason Markowski also did very well, losing only to the tough John Hegelmeyer, going 5-1 and taking 3rd place.
• In K-6 division, Will (4.5), Matthew (4), Alyssa (4) had "red division performances" and Kyle did well again, taking 3.5 points.
• Several strong performances by newcomers in this tournament!  Noah Gover took 3 points, David Bundy 3 points (nice recovery!), and Aaron Gibbs and Nick Schuster also did well.  In K-3, newcomers Alex Swieszynski (who just got his Blue wrist band) did really well, taking 3, as did Derek Stathus who won 2 games.  Keep practicing guys!  Great to see you doing so well.
• Gavin Joers took 4.5 in K-3, one of the best performances in K3 this year, and Nelson Klein added 4 wins to his impressive resume.

Great job one and all!!   Hope to see many of you at Discovery World this weekend!  Still working on calendar for February.  We will have a tournament we'll attend!

High School Chess vs. St Mary's Canceled for Tue

Our home High School Chess vs. St Mary's is Canceled for Tuesday, we'll announce a make-up.

Class Wednesday should be ON however.

Chess clock/set sale - one day only!

Matt alerts me- there is a fantastic one day deal at Wholesalechess.com for an Excalibur Gametime II clock AND/OR their Quality Club Chess Set Combo. The Gametime II clock is $27.99 (Normally $40) and the chess set combo is a mere $8.99 (Normally $19).

Here is link: http://tinyurl.com/ptf9vkb

A Word about Chess Ratings

A word about the USCF Rating

As stated on the flyer for the IAC tournaments, which are usually USCF rated, "USCF membership is required for all sections. It is recommended that memberships are purchased in advance at www.uschess.org to facilitate onsite registration and check-in.

In addition, three month discount USCF memberships may be purchased onsite. The membership includes a three month subscription to Chess Life magazine."

The Star of Bethlehem tournament is USCF rated.

I recommend the annual membership which you can sign up to on the uschess.org site, then just bring this number to the tournament (or you can look it up online again with a smart phone if you forget).  The rating is something you carry from year to year.  A beginner is usually about 100 after first tournament.  A master is 2,000+.  A solid high school player will be around 1,500.  Magnus Carlsen, the world champion, recently achieved a 3,000 rating.

Interestingly, our own Mr. Dan Gomoll has created an "app" called "chess rating" on Apple's App Store which you can download for free if you have an iphone.  It lets you look up a player's USCF rating.

The WSCF Rating - Discovery World

The Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation, run by Bob Patterson-Sumwaldt, has its OWN rating system, similar to the USCF.  When you play in a WSCF rated tournament, you automatically get a WSCF rating.  Many of our players have one on Bob's books from previous years.  It doesn't cost anything, but is meaningless outside of the WSCF events.

At Discovery World, the tournament is based on a combination of grade level AND rating.  If a player has both USCF and WSCF ratings, the rating that is used is the HIGHER one.  If a player has only one of the two, that is used.  If a player has neither, then only the grade matters.  K3 U300 means "Grades K through 3 AND the player has rating Under 300."  If a 2nd grader for example has a rating of 500, then they would not qualify for this division and would have to play K6 U600 division (it may accidentally say "WSCF U600" on the registration page, but it is a K-6 only division).  Similarly, if a 5th grader had a rating of 1000, they would not qualify for K6 U600 and would have to play in WSCF K-12.

Let me know if you have any questions about ratings.  USCF is the more useful (and universal) measuring stick.

Last Call for Star of Bethlehem!

Thanks to all who have signed up for Star of Bethlehem.  Please go to http://ia-chess.com/registration/participants.html?id=27 to see who is signed up - if you'd asked me to sign you up, please make sure you are on the list!  Hope I didnt forget anybody!  Just pay at the door if you're registered - if not just email me at seghers@gmail.com and I'll get you registered.
Remember this is a USCF-rated tournament.  You can sign up for USCF at the door if you're not already signed up.  To read about the USCF, see their site at http://USChess.org
Remember, you can also just register at the door on Saturday morning.  Costs $5 additional.

For Discovery World, parents can sign themselves up at their site http://wisconsinscholasticchess.com  ... email me if you have problems.