Virginia Scholastic Chess Association Newsletter

February 22, 2018

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.


Maggie L. Walker Spring Scholastic (Grades K-12)

Registration is now open for the Maggie L. Walker Spring Scholastic tournament, to be held Saturday, March 17, 2018 at Maggie L. Walker Governor's School in Richmond. Advance registration is online only, and closes at 7:00 AM THURSDAY MORNING, March 15.

This tournament is open to students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and includes both rated and non-rated scholastic sections. There will be no Open Quads at this event.

Coach Mike Callaham will be on hand to offer free game analysis and notation training, as well as moderately-priced chess books for all skill levels.

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 entry fee is $10 for advance (online) registrations, and $15 for onsite registrations. Please read our Tournament Check-in Policy.

Trophies will be awarded to the top 5 individuals and the top 3 school teams in each section.

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


State Scholastic Tournament

Register and pay by Monday, February 26 to take advantage of the Early Payment Discount for the 2018 Virginia Scholastic & College Championships. Entry fees increase on Tuesday, February 27. The State Championships, organized by the Virginia Chess Federation (VCF), will be held March 2-4, 2018 at William Fleming High School in Roanoke. For complete information, and to register and pay online, please visit the Event Website.


Other Upcoming VSCA Tournaments

The Spratley Spring Scholastic & Quads tournament will be held at Spratley Gifted Center in Hampton on Saturday, April 14. The Spratley 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 (1200+) scholastic players.

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


HRCA State Warm-up Tournament

The Hampton Roads Chess Association, organized by VSCA Board Member Christina Schweiss, is hosting a state warm-up tournament on Saturday, February 24. The event will be held at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach, and will feature K-3, K-5 and K-12 rated sections for experienced players, a K-12 unrated section for new players (no US Chess membership required) and Open Quads for adults and advanced scholastic players. For more information, and to register online, visit www.eventbrite.com/e/hrca-state-champ-2018-warm-up-chess-tournament-tickets-42320194842?aff=es2.


Championship Chess RVA Cross-round Tournament

Championship Chess RVA, headed by VSCA Board Member Brian Garbera, is hosting a "cross-round" tournament for grades K-6 on Saturday, February 24, 12:00 noon-3:00 pm at O'Toole's Restaurant, 4800 Forest Hill Avenue, Richmond. 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 richmond.championshipchess.net/tournaments/tournamentregister/?id=-1.


VSCA Board of Directors Election

Eight candidates for the 2018 VSCA Board of Directors were elected in online voting held January 12–27, 2018. Julie Wells (Virginia Beach) was elected as a new Board member. Re-elected Directors are Mike Callaham (Richmond), Jeff Forbes (Virginia Beach), Brian Garbera (Chesterfield County), Cheryl Havens (Virginia Beach), Mike Hoffpauir (York County), Bart Mebane (Middlesex County) and Christina Schweiss (Virginia Beach). There is one vacant position on the Board. Congratulations to the elected Board Members, and thank you to the VSCA Members who voted in the election.


Grafton Tournament Results

55 scholastic and 7 adult players participated in the Grafton Winter Chess Fest tournament, held at Grafton Middle School in York County on January 20, 2018.

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 one Quad section and one five-player Small Swiss section for adults and advanced scholastic players.

In the K-5 Not-rated section, Eric Greene won the first place trophy with a score of 3.0 points in 4 rounds. The first-place team in K-5 Not-rated was Deer Park Elementary School from Newport News.

Chinmay Gowda won first place in the K-12 Not-rated section with a perfect score of 4.0 points in 4 rounds. There were no K-12 Not-rated teams.

In the K-5 Open section, there was a three-way tie for first place. Abhinav Maru won the first place trophy by tiebreaks over Melinda Brady and Nolan Arriens Dwarshuis. Abhinav, Melinda and Nolan each finished with a score of 3.5 points in 4 rounds. Grace Academy Homeschool Co-op from Virginia Beach was the first-place team in K-5 Open.

In the K-12 Open section, Christian Carrasco, a fifth grader playing up, 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 Quad and Small Swiss sections for adults and advanced scholastic players, the first-place winners were Mr. Olichard Jacques and Jonathan Cagle (fifth grade).

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


Hopkins Scholastic at Hopewell Tournament Results

32 scholastic players participated in the Hopkins Scholastic at Hopewell tournament, held at Hopewell High School in Hopewell on February 10, 2018. This event was originally scheduled on December 9, but postponed due to snow. The tournament is named in memory of VSCA founder and longtime president Peter Hopkins.

There were four scholastic sections: K-3, K-5, K-8 and K-12, all US Chess-rated. 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.

In the K-3 section, Adhrit Ahan won the first place trophy with a score of 3.0 points in 4 rounds. The first-place team in K-3 was Colonial Trail Elementary School from Henrico County.

Micah Kuester won first place in the K-5 section with a perfect score of 4.0 points in 4 rounds. Veritas School from Richmond won the K-5 first-place team trophy.

In the K-8 section, Cade Petrus won the first place trophy by tiebreaks over Vaibhavreddy Maru. Cade and Vaibhavreddy each finished with a score of 3.5 points in 4 rounds. The Plaskey Homeschool, with two players playing up, was the first-place team in K-8.

In the K-12 section, John Vidal won the first place trophy with a score of 2.0 points in 4 rounds. The host team from Hopewell High School 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 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.


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.