2023 WCA President's Report

  • Written by Mike Nietman
  • Published: 06 April 2023
  • Last Updated: 06 April 2023

2023 WCA President’s Report

April 1, 2023

I’m pleased to announce that US Chess has signed a contract with the Madison Marriott West to host the 2025 US Open! It will be the third US Open at the property (2013 and 2018) and fifth in Wisconsin (1935 and 1953). The dates are July 28 – August 3. The first thing to note is that that is only seven days. The 2025 event will be the first of the new seven-day format US Opens. There will still be nine rounds with the Traditional schedule doubling up rounds on two of the first three days. Shorter schedules such as a four day and most likely a five or six-day schedule will also be available. All schedules merge Friday evening in round seven.

For those that recall the problem we had in 2018 when the CrossFit games took all of the hotel rooms in town (or jacked up their rates to $400) I’ve been told that they were moving the games to Alabama in 2024 but they’ve since signed with Madison again for 2024. To combat a possible extension to 2025, US Chess has booked the entire Marriott and has two overflow hotels are also under contract. Hopefully there won’t be a room problem.

While still not back to full strength on our tournament offerings post-pandemic, we’re getting closer and I’m happy to see new organizers and organizations popping up. That said we have a problem with numerous adjacent weekend events that are making our players select which events they go to instead of possibly participating in multiple events. Organizers need to work together in setting dates for their events. The way to do that is to contact our tournament clearinghouse (an official US Chess post) who happens to be Guy Hoffman at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. He will let you know what other organizers are planning and let you know if your dates have already been taken. I suggest not signing contracts until you get with Guy.

Speaking of signing contracts, hotels seem to want to make up for a couple of years of lost revenue during the pandemic by jacking up their rates for our playing rooms. Even Gruenhagen Conference Center at UW-Oshkosh is raising their meeting room rates. Organizers need to ask for off weekends if they want to get an affordable hotel deal. If we can get into a property, expect higher entry fees. We need to start thinking outside of the box for new sites. If you have any suggestions for venues, please contact a Board member.

Tournament organizers are able to add calendar entries to our website calendar and we encourage them to do so. It is free advertising for their events. After submission, you may need to e-mail me so that I can approve the event.

WCA’s financials continue to be on strong ground.

Andy Becker, Randy Bubolz and Sandy Hoffman have terms as WCA Board members expire March 31, 2023. All three were re-nominated along with Neil Hogg and Andy Schley. Randy opted not to run. An election took place of all Wisconsin players above age 16 who played in a WCA event in 2022. Andy Becker, Andy Schley and Neil Hogg were elected to three-year terms starting April 1. My thanks to Randy and Sandy for their dedicated service to Wisconsin chess.

We have not had a reorganizational meeting to determine 2023 officers as of yet.

The WCA sponsors the Marshall Rohland Memorial/Wisconsin Closed Championship, the Arpad Elo Open, the William Martz Memorial/North Central Open, the Wisconsin Memorial, the Game/60 State Championship, the Rapid and Blitz State Championships and the Wisconsin Junior Open and Veterans Tournaments. All are open for bids from state organizers and/or tournament directors. If you are interested in more details on how to bid for these events, please contact any board member.

The 2023 State Scholastic Championships was held in March in Oshkosh under the new organization of Chris Wainscott and Alex Betaneli. They had over 500 attend! Congratulations to New Berlin Eisenhower High School for winning their first state championship! The Eagle School of Madison won their first K-8 state championship and the Milwaukee German Immersion School defended their K-5 state championship.

Since the State Scholastic is a team Swiss event at the high school level, Wisconsin uses the Wisconsin Junior Open as its qualifier for the national state invitational events. Please plan to participate in the event November 4-5 at UW-Oshkosh to qualify for the 2024 GM Arnold Denker National Tournament of High School State Champions, the Dewain Barber National Tournament of Middle School State Champions, the John D. Rockefeller III National Tournament of Elementary School State Champions and the WIM Ruth Haring National Tournament of Girls State Champions which will be held in conjunction with the US Open in Norfolk, VA. In 2023 these events will be held in Grand Rapids, MI. Our representatives will be Hersh Singh (Denker), Ethan Liang (Barber), Ojas Sahoo (Rockefeller) and either Simran Bhatia or Aradh Kaur (Haring) who have yet to complete a playoff this spring. Good luck team!

With the same format as the Denker, Barber, Rockefeller and Haring is the John T. Irwin National Tournament of Senior State Champions. We use the Veterans Tournament held in conjunction with the Wisconsin Junior Open in November to select our representative. Bryan Lilly will be our 2023 rep having won a playoff with Senthil Sundaram.

Of special note is that in 2025 the National State Invitationals will expand to include the GM Maurice Ashley National Tournament of K-3 State Champions and the Paul Morphy National Tournament of K-1 State Champions. We’ll need to figure out how to select those players plus name alternates for all of the invitationals.

Congratulations to Dan Phipps for capturing the 2022 Wisconsin Chess Tour title. Organizers desiring to have their event considered for Tour status need to contact Tour Committee Chair Guy Hoffman by November of the year before the tour. Tour standings are listed on our website www.wischess.org.

Speaking of the state website, I’ve received permission from Badger Chess editor Bill Williams to re-publish interviews he and his contributors printed in the magazine. If you go to the home page now, there is an excellent interview with Arpad Elo from 1982. Over the rest of the year, I’ll post additional interviews with the likes of Bill Martz, Fred Cramer, Tom Moore and a second one with Arpad Elo. I hope you enjoy the content.

Several years ago, Mark Seghers put together a BlogSpot website for the State Scholastic tournament. Back in the 1980’s I was able to find all of the winners going back to the tournament’s inception in 1970 (except for 1981) for inclusion on the travelling trophy. Now I’m trying to locate either standings or full crosstables for the events and have Mark post them. I’ve been able to find at least standings for all of them except nine. If you have any of the missing crosstables or even full crosstables for ones that we’ve posted just standings, please let me know. The website is Wisconsin State Scholastic Chess Championship (wischolasticchesschampionship.blogspot.com).

While doing this research I’ve also been interested in collecting the names of the winners of the Wisconsin Junior Open which started in 1972. I’m currently missing 1972-1976, 1978, 1984 and 1988. According to a note I found, there was no event in 1977 and 1979-1982. I’ll post what I have at this year’s Junior Open.

And more for the history buffs… Milwaukeean Mike Wierzbicki has penned a manuscript of chess in Milwaukee in the mid-1900’s. He has submitted it to the Wisconsin Historical Society Press for publication and is awaiting their decision. Once it is published, I’ll let you know where it can be obtained.

Hope to see you at a tournament or club soon!

Respectfully submitted by WCA President, Mike Nietman This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

1982 Badger Chess Interview with Arpad Elo - Part 1

  • Written by Mike Nietman
  • Published: 27 February 2023
  • Last Updated: 11 March 2023
Reprinted with permission of Bill Williams, Badger Chess editor from the June 1982 edition.

An Interview with Arpad Elo

Badger Chess Assistant Editor Ted Babcock interviewed Professor Arpad Elo, “father” of our rating system during this year’s Elo Open in Madison, April 2-4. Babcock described Elo as being “most gracious, anticipating many of my questions, and giving answers in great detail. . . an enjoyable experience for me.” This is part one of the Elo interview, part two will appear in the July issue.

When and where were you born?

Well, I was born in Hungary on August 25, 1903. A long time ago.

And when did you move to the United States?

In 1913. I just escaped World War I; that is our family did. That was lucky. We moved into the Cleveland area, where I went to high school. In 1921 I went on to the University of Chicago and played chess there in the Chicago Chess League. Chicago was a good chess center, a good many strong players. Then in 1926 I took a position at Marquette University in Milwaukee and, except for a break during the war years, I was there until my retirement in 1969.

Who were some of the better players in Chicago at that time?

There was Samuel Factor, who won the Western Championship a number of times. He was a strong master. And Herbert Albohm. Those were the outstanding players.

Edward Lasker lived in Chicago for a while; although I have never played against him—I did against the others.

For many years we had an annual match between Milwaukee and Chicago. It was a pleasant, generally late in the summer.

Read more: 1982 Badger Chess Interview with Arpad Elo - Part 1

1982 Badger Chess Interview with Arpad Elo - Part 2

  • Written by Mike Nietman
  • Published: 27 February 2023
  • Last Updated: 06 April 2023

Reprinted with permission of Bill Williams, Badger Chess editor from the July 1982 edition.

An Interview with Arpad Elo

Badger Chess Editor, Ted Babcock, concludes his interview with Wisconsin’s steadiest and most supportive champion: Professor Arpad Elo, known in the outer places as the father of the rating system. Yes, the Elo number of every major player in the world is named for a man. In this part he scores Edmondson and appraises his compeers of the 1930-50 era,

How long did you play in tournaments?

Well, the last tournament that I played in was 1968. I started playing in state championships in 1933; I played in 37 consecutive state championships from 1933 to 1969, and during that time I won or tied for first eight or nine times, roughly 25% of the time. It’s a long history of chess; actually from 1926 when I first started to play in Milwaukee, I played for 43 years in Wisconsin chess.

Read more: 1982 Badger Chess Interview with Arpad Elo - Part 2