Virginia Scholastic Chess Association Newsletter
May 11, 2011
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.
Grafton Spring Chess Festival (Grades K-12)
Registration is now open for the fourth annual Grafton "Spring into Chess" Festival, to be held
Saturday, May 28, 2011 at Grafton Middle School in Yorktown. In addition to a VSCA scholastic tournament, the Grafton Festival will also include an adult quads tournament, hosted by the Virginia Chess Federation (VCF).
Advance registration for the scholastic tournament is online only, and closes at 7:00 AM Thursday morning, May 26.
Players are divided into three sections based on their grade in school:
- K-3 section (kindergarten - 3rd grade)
- K-5 section (4th - 5th grade)
- K-12 section (6th - 12th grade)
Trophies will be awarded to the the top 5 individuals and to the top 3 school teams
in each section.
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.
The entry fee for the adult quads tournament is $20, with cash prizes for 1st place ($45) and 2nd place ($30) in each quad. Current USCF membership is required.
Online registration is not available for the quads event. To enter, email VCF president and tournament organizer
Mike Hoffpauir,
or sign up at the Registration Desk on the day of the tournament.
More information for both the scholastic and adult tournaments is available in the
event flyer.
Other Upcoming Events
The Virginia Chess Federation (VCF) will host a scholastic tournament for grades K-8 on Saturday, June 11, 2011 at the Spratley Gifted Center in Hampton.
Please note that this is a new date.
Details and online registration will be available on the
VCF website beginning in late May.
A complete scholastic chess calendar of Virginia and national events is available at
www.vschess.org/chess-calendar.
Hanover Scholastic Results
54 scholastic players participated in the 4th annual Hanover Scholastic tournament at Hanover High School on April 30.
In the K-3 section, Sanjana Dasari won the first-place trophy with a perfect score of 4.0 points.
Colonial Trail Elementary School won the K-3 first-place team trophy.
Zoey Lamb won first place in K-5 with a perfect score of 4.0 points. Colonial Trail Elementary School won the K-5 first-place team trophy.
In the K-8 section, Matthew Houff won the first-place trophy by tiebreaks over Chaitanya Ganti, a fifth grader playing up. Matthew and Chaitanya each finished with 3.5 points in 4 rounds. Short Pump Middle School won the K-8 first-place team trophy.
In the K-12 section, Jonathan Yu, a fifth grader playing up, won the first-place trophy
with a score of 3.5 points in 4 rounds. Three Chopt Elementary School, with 3 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.
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.