WCA President’s Report

2008 Annual Membership Meeting

Radisson Hotel and Conference Center Green Bay

May 25, 2008

The WCA had another successful year. Tournament attendance continues to rise and our treasury is strong. Our youth continues to impress. Additional city clubs have or are opening in Manitowoc and Hartford. New organizers and tournament directors are emerging but there is a need for mentoring. If you are one of these new organizers or TD’s, just ask to assist at an event run by a more senior organizer or TD and they’ll be happy to show you the ropes.

Preliminary word is that the USCF will run a six figure deficit this year. The president wishes to cut costs. One such idea is to move Chess Life and Chess Life for Kids online. Members would have the option for less expensive dues to get their Chess Life content online or for the current membership rates to maintain a hard copy. However, there is great debate that the per copy cost of the remaining magazines would be too prohibitive to maintain a hard copy. Note that online memberships would still receive a quarterly newsletter with TLA’s and some chess content in it.

Part of the proposal is also to reduce the number of membership categories and then just have an online or hard copy price for each category.

Another proposal to raise revenue is to open up the regular rating system to online play. There has been great opposition to this proposal since the regular rating is a great asset of the USCF and ruining it will harm the Federation. If this proposal moves forward, restrictions will need to be in place such as to have an unbiased TD present or somehow monitoring the event.

The June issue of Chess Life will include a ballot for all eligible voters age 16 and over. The election will be for two delegates from Wisconsin for two year terms beginning after the US Open this summer. The WCA Board of Directors has placed the names of Mike Nietman, Guy Hoffman, Arlen Walker and Sandy Pahl into nomination and they will appear on the ballot. We urge you to vote for two of the four nominees. But do vote!

When deciding on when to hold an event tournament organizers should continue to contact the state tournament clearinghouse Guy Hoffman to find open dates on the tournament calendar.

The WCA sponsors the Marshall Rohland Memorial/Wisconsin Closed Championship, the Arpad Elo Open, the William Martz Memorial/North Central Open, the Wisconsin Memorial and the Junior Open/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. Note that the NCO has not been held recently due to a lack of bids.

We continue to be astounded by the talent of the Wisconsin youth. Brian Luo became the first Wisconsin player participating in the World Youth. He finished seventh in the Under 10 event in Turkey last November. Elo Open winner Alex Velikanov is also eligible to compete in World events. Both are ten years old and are the winners of the last two Wisconsin Junior Opens.

At the recent National High School event in Atlanta, two of the three under sections and the unrated section were won by Wisconsin players! In the third under section a Wisconsin player was playing on board one in the last round but lost. For the second straight year Wisconsin had the fourth largest delegation. At the recent National Elementary event in Pittsburgh one Wisconsin school won the K-3 Unrated section and another player tied for first in the K-6 Under 1000 section. Schools should start preparing now for next year when Supernationals IV occurs in Nashville, Tennessee.

Congratulations to Madison West for winning their sixth consecutive State Scholastic Team Championship. Last March 425 students participated. Congratulations to Marion and University School of Milwaukee for tying for the K-8 Team Championship and to New Berlin Glen Park Elementary and Muskego Mill Valley Elementary for tying for the K-5 Team Championship.

Good luck to Chris Brown, Jr. of Fox Point in the 2008 Arnold Denker Tournament of High School Champions and to Mira Ensley-Field of Appleton in the Susan Polgar Invitational for Girls Tournament. Both of these events will be held in Texas in August. The WCA uses the Wisconsin Junior Open held in November as the qualifier for these nominations.

Congratulations to Alex Betaneli for recapturing the Wisconsin Chess Tour title. In one of the more dramatic Tour finishes in recent history, several class prizes went down to the last tournament and in a couple of cases, the last game of the last tournament. Unfortunately one of the events advertised as being on the Tour this year wasn’t held and a second may not be. Organizers desiring to have their event considered for Tour status need to contact Guy by November of the year before the tour.

Arlen Walker maintains our website free of charge to the WCA. He states that no one submits content to him. If anyone has any content to submit, please contact Arlen for details. The terms of office of Sandy Pahl, Arlen Walker and Dennis Kosterman expire today. I want to thank all of the Board members for their hard work this past year.

WCA President’s Report

2006 Annual Membership Meeting

Howard Johnson’s, Wisconsin Dells

May 28, 2006

It was an exciting year for the WCA!

Last month the WCA hosted the 2006 National High School Chess Championships in Milwaukee. 1423 players from 37 states descended on the Midwest Airlines Center to compete for the title of National High School Team and Individual Champion.

I am proud to report that Wisconsin’s scholastic programs came out in force to support the event. Over 300 individuals and over 70 teams from the state participated. And were they rewarded! Wisconsin individuals took home 33 top 25 trophies over the five sections of the event while Wisconsin teams took home 31 trophies. Including individual tied for 25^th place trophies and class trophies, Wisconsin accumulated 85 trophies in the main draw of the event.

Although several of our tournament directors were able to work the event and gain valuable experience working with National TD’s, several others wanted to work the event but were shut out because the USCF filled many positions with experienced scholastic TD’s from across the country. One of the side effects of the USCF taking over organizing the events back in 2002 has been that local tournament directors wanting to get their foot into the door have been unable to and local organizations are losing valuable opportunities to gain experience. If for no other reason, it makes economic sense to hire local directors and I’ll continue to pursue that view as co-chair of the USCF Scholastic Council.

While I had to draft a few coaches and parents at the last minute to fill a few volunteer positions, all shifts were adequately covered. Many thanks to them for their donation of time.

The USCF was pleased with the turnout of the event as it was only 12 short of the USCF run event record. (As a note of reference, the National Elementary was around 300 short of its record and the National Junior High was over 300 short of our record from 2002.) I’ll continue to pursue opportunities for us to host this event again, probably not before the 2010 or 2011 cycle of events.

Preliminary word is that the USCF will run a small deficit this year. They did move into their new building in Crossville, TN. My opinion is that the Executive Board has not accomplished too much this past year. The office staff is either very experienced or experienced chess players who are able to answer questions quickly. Online systems continue to improve. USCF unveiled its Membership and Tournament Registration Store last October and has been used with great success at each of the five national scholastics to the point where first rounds have routinely started on time. The online TLA Area started up a couple of months ago.

The June issue of Chess Life will include a ballot for all eligible voters age of 16 and over. The ballot will be for two members of the USCF Executive Board and two delegates from Wisconsin. The same issue of Chess Life will contain statements from the candidates for the Executive Board. If you have any additional questions, please contact me or Guy Hoffman for input on the candidates. But do vote! The WCA Board placed me, Guy Hoffman and Arlen Walker on the ballot for the two delegates seats. We urge Wisconsin’s voters to choose two of the WCA Board nominated candidates.

Tournament organizers seemed to space out the events pretty well this past year. I did not hear of any conflicts. Tournament organizers should continue to contact the state tournament clearinghouse Guy Hoffman for open dates on the tournament calendar. Guy can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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

Last summer Luke Ludwig found the Arpad Elo Trophy given to the winner of the Championship section of the Elo Open. I researched all the past events and the WCA paid to put all of the names of the past winners on the plates on a new base for the trophy.

The WCA Board passed a motion this past year that requires organizers of our events to use the WCA affiliate ID (T5009006) on our events. The main reason for this is so that future research will be made easier by being able to more easily find the crosstable on the USCF’s MSA website.

Plan now to attend the 2006 US Open in Oak Brook, IL August 5-13. The 2007 event will be back in Cherry Hill, NJ while Dallas, TX has the lead for the 2008 event.

Congratulations to Madison West for winning their fourth consecutive State Scholastic Team Championship. Last March 547 students participated. The K-8 state team champion is Fond du Lac’s Woodworth Middle School while the University School of Milwaukee won the K-5 team championship.

Good luck to Jesse Blashe of Marion in the 2006 Arnold Denker Tournament of High School Champions and to Tracie Klauer of Milwaukee Bay View High School in the Susan Polgar Invitational for Girls Tournament. Both of these events will be held during the US Open in Oak Brook in August. Qualifications was based on finish in last year’s Junior Open.

Congratulations to Ashish Vaja for winning the 2005 Wisconsin Chess Tour. Organizers desiring to have their event considered for tour status need to contact Guy by November of the year before the tour.

Arlen Walker maintains our website free of charge to the WCA. It can be viewed at www.wischess.org. If anyone has any content to submit, please contact Arlen for details.

The terms of office of Andrew Becker, Mike Selig and Ken Rasmussen expire today. I want to thank them for their many hours of dedication serving the WCA.

WCA President’s Report

2005 Annual Membership Meeting

Holiday Inn, Neenah

May 29, 2005

It was a quiet year for the WCA but next year should be exciting!

Milwaukee will host the 2006 National High School Championship April 21-23, 2006. The tournament will be at the Midwest Airlines Center while the Hilton Hotel will serve as the host hotel. 1400 of the best scholastic chess players from around the country will participate including a huge contingent from Wisconsin.

But we need your help! If you are a tournament director, this is a great chance to work with talented national tournament directors both on the floor and in the back room and get credits to upgrade your certification.

Read more: 2005 President's Report

Gruenhagen Conference Center, UW-Oshkosh May 24, 1998

Wisconsin chess is entering an intriguing period. Many new clubs, organizers and tournament directors have popped up all over the state. Growing pains remain. The key to overcoming these growing pains is planning. Organizers must work together when planning events. When selecting dates please consult with our tournament clearinghouse. (Currently this is Guy Hoffman.) Recently three Milwaukee area clubs ran events on three consecutive weekends with generally poor turnouts. Last December two tournaments were held on the same day. Economically, there is a finite amount of dollars our players can spend on events. Organizers must work together to maximize our tournament successes.

Another intriguing part of this period is the outreach our clubs are doing to attract national figures and national events. Congratulations to the Milwaukee area clubs who arranged for GM Bisguier to come to Milwaukee earlier this month for a series of lectures and simuls.

Once again I will be attending the Wisconsin Education Association Council's convention in October in Madison. But this year I've arranged at no cost to us for Beatriz Marinello, the USCF Scholastic Director, to deliver a two hour presentation on why chess should be included in schools. The talk will include a detailed discussion of current studies. She also will be available in our booth on the convention floor. Tell your teacher friends to attend!

The most exciting news of all is that the Greater Milwaukee Convention Bureau, the Milwaukee Public Schools, the UW-Milwaukee Chess Club and the WCA will jointly sponsor a bid for the 2000 National High School Championship.

The bid must be completed by July with the USCF Policy Board awarding the event in November. Volunteers are needed now to assist the organizational team. Sponsors, trophy dealers, computer firms, cell phone companies must all be contacted. On-site volunteers need to be coordinated. The list of jobs is endless.

If you are interested in working on this project, please contact me.

As I'm sure you read, Badger Chess is counting down to its last issue at the end of 1999. With help, in 1982 Bill Williams and Wray McCalester started Badger Chess. At first they alternated each month being the editor. When Wray moved on to the USCF office, Bill took over as full time editor.

The magazine has won several awards. It could have won many more but Bill refused to enter issues for review by the awards committee of the Chess Journalists of America. Let's encourage Bill to submit issues these final two years.

Bill, Wisconsin chess is indebted to you. Thanks for the great run! You've done a super job!!

This past winter, Kirk Plankey started a new magazine dedicated to northeast Wisconsin players and their games. Unfortunately in a recent letter to subscribers, Kirk states that for various reasons he is giving up his quest and that full refunds will be forthcoming.

To begin the new millennium Wisconsin will be without a state-wide publication. At the Board meeting immediately following this membership meeting, I will request that the Board approve the creation of a committee to perform a feasibility study to produce a WCA sponsored magazine.

The WCA normally sponsors six events each year. The State Closed Championship starts off the year. During fall we hold the Wisconsin Junior Open and Veteran's Tournaments, the William Martz Memorial/North Central Open and the Herman Schramm Memorial. Our chess year ends each spring with the Arpad Elo Open.

As many of you know, the 1997 calendar year was not good for us as the Elo and North Central were not held. Thanks to Yogi Lilly and the Waukesha club for running the 1998 Elo. My bid for the 1998 North Central was approved at our last Board meeting. It will be held at the Eau Claire Holiday Inn.

My thanks to Tom Feeney and the Racine Chess Club Board of Directors for switching dates with the WCA this fall. The Junior Open and Veterans Tournament will be held October 10-11 in Oshkosh and the Racine/Kenosha Open will be November 14-15. The switch was due to a booking problem here at Gruenhagen.

As announced last year due to cumulative losses over the past few years, the WCA has changed most of its tournament prize funds from guaranteed to based on. We cannot continue to lose money.

My thanks to John Rummel for taking over the job of maintaining our website. Its new address is

http://www.globaldialog.com/~jrummel/WCA/WCAIndex.html.

Please check it out and send John your tournament announcements, tournament reports and games. He'll be glad to hear from you!

The WCA received $537 this year from the USCF for our state's share of the State Affiliate Support Program money. We used $400 to support four programs and to reserve $137 for future use.

First, for the Junior Open we reduce entry fees for those that send in more than four entries in the same envelope. This helped ease the huge workload for the TD's at the event. Seventy five participated in this program that invites juniors and schools to get active and recruit others to come to the tournament thereby benefiting both the schools and the event long term.

Second, we continue to strive for excellence in tournament organization and direction by funding the Merit Award Program. (If you are interested in more detailed information on this or any other WCA program, please contact me later.)

Third, due to a request from several postal players, the WCA donated $50 to help defray the cost of flyer printing and mailing for the 1998 Wisconsin Postal Chess Championship. We are pleased to help this often overlooked group of chess players.

Fourth, the WCA has started a fund to purchase a proper memorial to Marshall Rohland in the form of a traveling trophy for the winner of the reserve section of the State Closed Championship.

The 1998 Wisconsin Scholastic Championship attracted 373 participants! Congratulations to Madison West for winning their first team championship.

Congratulations to Guy Hoffman for winning the 1997 Wisconsin Chess Tour. If organizers want their event on the tour, they should contact me or Guy, who is the Tour Committee chairman, by the middle of November of the year before the Tour. The Board will be looking at revising the prize fund for the 1999 Tour. With the recent rating deflation we will look at moving the class prizes down one level. This means that the expert prize will disappear and the 'C' and Under prize will be split into a 'C' prize and a 'D' and Under prize.

A great deal of thanks go to all the Board members for their hard work and many hours of time spent on chess endeavors this past year. Special thanks to Guy Hoffman and Matt Merrill who along with myself have our terms of office expire today.