Roger Morin continues his promotion of USCF rated events in northern Maine with a tournament upcoming in Presque Isle. The University of Maine at Presque Isle is a perfect venue to hold an event in Aroostook County. It also is a terrific time of year to view the fall colors, stop at a farm stand for County potatoes, and check out the windmills in Mars Hill. Hopefully this event will help kindle a spark up north for USCF chess. Good luck with your event next Saturday, Roger!
Looking to the Maine State Scholastic Chess Coaches meeting also on October 17, a discussion will include what constitutes a team and how can exceptions be ruled on quickly and efficiently. I have consistently felt that teams should be based at one school and not be able to combine with another school to form a team. I have felt this way ever since I have been able to field multiple teams from a K-8 school with a population of 50 for the past 15 years. I have begun to think that an exception could be that you may play "up" to another school. For example, if you attend a K-5 school, you may play for a middle school that you would attend in the future. They would have to be sending public schools for the community.
Strictly speaking in the Championship sections, team champions should be from one school. There is the Individual tournament for those that can't form a team although it doesn't have the atmosphere of the team tournament. Chess coaches need to look at all their options and pick what makes the most sense for their club. The Novice section provides a good opportunity for newcomers. Maybe we could look to making the flier for the State events more user friendly and have a press release for chessmaine.net to detail the options. It should be an interesting meeting; all chess coaches that are available should attend. The meeting will take place at 1:00 in the Memorial Union at the Unviersity of Maine in Orono.
The Eastern Maine Open, November 7, will kick off the chess season in the Bangor area. It should be a well attended event. Two years ago there were 63 players in attendance while it usually had 20-35 players since 2004. There are four sections: Open, U1400, U1000, U600. It's a great opportunity to get back in the swing as there will be more tourney opportunities often after that.
The Aurora Winter Solstice will be December 5. That event will be celebrating its fifth year with the best homemade eats at a chess event. There will also be four sections. It has consistently drawn forty entrants since its inception.
Check chessmaine.net events page and mark your calendars. Hope to see you across the board!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment