2016 President's Report

2016 WCA President’s Report

March 31, 2016

 

The Wisconsin Chess Association had a good year in 2015. Attendance at our tournaments was up 10% over the previous year however, we did add a new event, the State G/60 Championship, to our event line up. We also had a sound year financially.

We experimented by moving the North Central to Eau Claire, outside of our traditional Green Bay – Madison – Milwaukee triangle of players. We worked with our counterparts in Minnesota to clear their calendar that weekend. Although we only had 37 players attend they came from as far away as Iowa and North Dakota. We’ll be looking at hosting the event in Eau Claire once again in 2016 over Thanksgiving weekend and hope that more Wisconsin players will make the journey north for this year’s event.

We hope to continue building on this success in 2016 and hope that you’ll continue supporting WCA events and all Wisconsin tournaments.

Embracing newer technology, 2016 was the first year we held a board of directors’ election electronically. At the 2013 annual membership meeting, the members voted to change our bylaws and starting in 2014 allow for the board of directors to be elected via e-mail of all eligible participants in WCA events in the prior year. The previous two years we’d only received three nominations for three open seats so no ballot was necessary. This year the terms of office of Guy Hoffman, Wade Christensen and myself expire today. There were four accepted nominations for the three seats. WCA Treasurer Ken Rasmussen was appointed by the board to run the 2016 election. In early January, he sent out an e-mail to eligible voters requesting nominations. When four people accepted their nominations, in mid-February he sent out ballots to 82 WCA members. 32 ballots were returned to Ken and the audit committee. The final vote tally was

Wade Christensen – 9

Jim Coons - 23

Guy Hoffman - 29

Mike Nietman - 30

My thanks to Wade for his dedication and service to the board. We welcome Jim Coons to the board.

Mid-fiscal year, US Chess is well ahead of its budget once again. However, we haven’t paid for the second phase of the website redesign yet and we need to horde cash as 2017 will be difficult financially due to the Olympiad and World Team being in the same budget cycle.

US Chess is looking forward to the last half of November when the World Championship match will be held in New York City.

It was announced in 2015 that the US Open will return to Middleton in 2018! Be sure to place it on your calendar: July 28 – August 5. We hope to have at least as many as 2013 and hopefully more. 2013 was a huge success. Let’s make it even better in 2018!

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 Wisconsin Junior Open and Veterans Tournaments. New last year was a one day Game/60 State Championship tournament that will be repeated in June, 2016. 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.

When deciding on when to hold an event, tournament organizers need to contact the state tournament clearinghouse director Guy Hoffman to find 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..

Congratulations to Madison West High School for taking their twelfth State Scholastic Championship. Congratulations to Muskego’s Lake Denoon Middle School for winning their first K-8 State Team Championship and to Brookfield’s Burleigh Elementary School for winning their first K-5 State Team Championship. Earlier this month 420 Wisconsin students participated in the State Scholastic Championships at UW-Oshkosh.

Since the State Scholastic is a team Swiss event at the high school level, Wisconsin uses the Wisconsin Junior Open as its qualifier for national individual invitational events. Please plan to participate in the event November 5-6 at UW-Oshkosh to qualify for the GM Arnold Denker Tournament of High School Champions, the Dewain Barber Tournament of K-8 and the National Girl’s Tournament of Champions. These events are held in conjunction with the US Open which will be in Indianapolis, IN at the end of July. Our representatives will be Alexander Velikanov, Rithwik Mathur and Anupama Rajendra. Good luck team! Last year Alex was clear first at the Denker tournament and Anupama tied for first in the National Girl’s Invitational Tournament. Collaborating with our Barber representative Kevin Li, the group took top state team honors in the combined invitationals.

Congratulations to Avinash Rajendra for capturing the 2015 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.

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 need to e-mail me so that I can approve the event. We have received only a couple of news stories this year and depend on the state players, organizers and TD’s to supply content. If you have an interesting game to share or wish to write up a chess tournament or event, please do so and send it to Arlen Walker or me. Arlen may be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I may be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

I want to thank all of the Board members for their hard work and dedication this past year.

Respectfully submitted by WCA President, Mike Nietman