Thank you guys!
These kids and their teacher, Robyn Bonner, are one of the best classes I have had so far. What a very kind and perfect gift for an old chess coach like myself.
Thank you guys!
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This last school year I did a quick blitz tournament with the kids at St. Peter & Paul Elementary School in Grangeville. It want well and was lots of fun! If you want to do one at your school, just let me know.
The Tournament was a great success! We have 37 participating players in all sections. Jace Belisle won 1st place in the student section earning him $100 cash. His name will be added to the Holiday Family Chess Tournaments perpetual trophy of DEATH which will stay on that monument of honor for at least 7 years. Jace Belisle and Lance Labrum battle it out on board 1 in the 6th round. Avery James won 2nd place Student award of $50. Tanner Labrum won 3rd place Student award of $25. We gave away 26 official prizes and all participants received something. Thank you to Story Time Chess for their generous donation of prizes. All players said they had a wonderful time and a couple said they played their best Chess game in life so far! The venue was at St. Peter & Paul Elementary School in their spacious Parish Hall which provided a kitchen for food and ample room for the tournament. Thanks so much to Rhett Mahony, school principal for his donation of the venue! The Chess Guy had some very difficult problems with the old software used to run the tournaments which delayed the start by 2 hours for data entry and fixing issues. Thanks to the patient players who waited and waited for the first round. The Chess Guy is working on writing new software for later tournaments that should fix the issues with the 20 year old commercial product most tournament directors have had to put up with. Near the end of the tournament, the top players battled it out with a clock added to finish the rounds, leading to very exciting chess with everyone watching excitedly for the winner to be revealed. Though the Chess Guy was on crutches still from a foot infection, all went smoothly with many parents expressing their pleasure with an event that highlighted the mental work-out that the game of Chess requires. Lots of parents and players and especially my wife Kim, pitched in to help as the crippled Chess Guy manned the PC to generate pairings, print out player status and pairings sheets, and collected and entered game results. The Chess Guy wishes to thank all the donors to our donation jars around the area and to those businesses that sponsored the tournament. This was the first time the tournament was held in the spring as opposed to around Christmas for reasons due to illness. Players will be rated by RatingsNW.com soon. Here are the prize winners: All Participants: Thank you for coming!
The 7th Annual Holiday Family Chess TournamentWhen: Friday March 24th 2023 from 9AM till about 6PM (This is Spring Break for most schools)
Time Format: There is no time limit but the last 5 or so boards playing must finish with 5 minutes each on a chess clock. Tournament Format: 5 or more round Swiss depending on the number of players. Touch move will be enforced and game recording of moves is encouraged. A brief teaching session (about 1/2 hour) will begin the tournament for new players and give clarity on ettiquite and protocol during the tournament. This tournament will take all day with a 1 hour break for lunch. Venue: The Sts. Peter and Paul Parish Center is the most ideal location we have had for this tournament so far. It has two spacious rooms and a full kitchen and is located conveniently in Grangeville on the southwest side of town. Don't confuse the private catholic school with the publc elementary school located just a block away to the south east. Here are photos that should make it easy to find and give you an idea of what to expect.
To RSVP here for a 20% fee discount:Donations
You can also donate through any Freedom NW Credit Union branch to the account named "The Chess Guy" All donations go to support the prize fund, marketing, equipment and travel costs. Sandy's health and tournament statusSee my post on this here.
White to mate in 1 move!This puzzle is not exactly fair and it is very hard to give you the clue needed to solve it without completely giving it away.
Mouse over the next line for the clue AFTER you have tried to solve it without the clue. You need to consider that the previous move of black was an unusual one. I found this on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frxtbAV0pAo Location Needs:
Time Needs:
Cost and Student Requirements:
Tournament Requirements:
The Curriculum:
So there you have it. Feel free to call me at 208-301-8615 or email me at [email protected] to set up a class or private lesson.
A Chess Ladder is a kind of long-term slow tournament often used in chess clubs and classes to help rank the players as they play games together. I have been doing chess ladders with Excel for years but it was cumbersome both to design and to enter data into a method that would make sure no duplicate games were entered, that the names would be right and that the proper scores in a printable form were easily calculated, viewed, sorted, and printed so I wrote my own tool and I THINK it is bug free now and done. This tool only allows the same group member to officially play another specific group member two games - once as white and once as black. Once all members have played everyone else in the ladder. one game as white and one game as black, the ladder is done and a true ranking of the members can be made. I published it on AWS and this tiny url points to the tool: https://tinyurl.com/chessLadderTool The state of the tool is saved via JSON text. It's a little tedious to save and load the state via notepad or some similar text editor but once you have that down it's pretty easy to use. A sample JSON file for demonstration can be found here. If you have questions or problems please comment here and I will address them in a reply or fix the tool. Enjoy!
On Friday, May 13th, a mini chess tournament was held at the DoJo building near Kamiah on Highway 12 with the Kamiah Homeschool class. 22 students participated.
This was the first tournament done by the Chess Guy since the COVID outbreak that shut down the annual Chess Guy tournaments in our area. The winners were:
The 5 round Swiss tournament was the capstone to a 4 week chess class requested by Mrs Julie Manley. Interest in Chess among the homeschoolers was spurred on by online play. The Chess Guy was beaten several times in quick games due to the high level of competence members of the class exhibited. If you want chess instruction or a tournament in our area, call The Chess Guy at 208-301-8615 or check out http://sandythechessguy.weebly.com/
It has always been my policy not to tell other's how to take care of their own bodies. The above video gives you some reasons why South Dakota governor Kristy Noem decided not to impose lockdowns and mask rules upon her state, which survived till now just fine.
I don't believe in supporting draconian and unconstitutional mandates when related to a non-emergency. Therefore, I will not comply with any COVID restrictions when I teach students chess in person. Our annual tournament has been canceled due to the COVID issue and will resume if and when things get back to normal. I apologize to anyone that has been unable to use my services due to my policy but am certainly available via ZOOM or other technology to teach kids chess remotely. Sandy The Chess Guy |
AuthorSanford Staab is a chess enthusiast in the Kooskia, Idaho area. He is available for coaching and tournament support. See our facebook page here. Archives
September 2023
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