It’s Saturday Open Forum. The Baku Grand Prix is near the end and Grischuk is leading with Gashimov and Wang Yue 1/2 point behind. Gata Kamsky is in 9th place coming into round 11 today.
IM Larry Kaufman just captured the US Senior Open by defeating IM Igor Foygel in the last round. Larry scored 5-0!
The 2nd Annual SPICE Cup will most likely be a category 15 (over 2600 average FIDE rating).
GM Onischuk, Alexander 2728 USCF / 2664 FIDE
GM Miton, Kamil 2703 USCF / 2620 FIDE
GM Kaidanov, Gregory 2697 USCF / 2596 FIDE
GM Kritz, Leonid 2667 USCF / 2609 FIDE
GM Akobian, Varuzhan 2666 USCF / 2601 FIDE
GM Perelshteyn, Eugene 2623 USCF / 2552 FIDE
GM Hera, Imre 2599 USCF / 2524 FIDE
Average USCF rating so far: 2669
Average FIDE rating so far: 2596
18 GMs have already inquired about the final 3 spots which will be announced in due time.
What would you like to discuss? It’s Saturday Open Forum. The forum is yours!
GM Kaidanov showed great form in his recent tournament victory. This is going to be a great tournament and I’m so happy that Susan has helped make this possible.
I hope GM Kaidanov wins….and he’s my favorite to win the U.S. Championship this year.
Has Judith been invited to the SPICE Tournament?
claudia
womancandidatemaster.blogspot.com
we want judit to play!
sasikiran or harikrishna would add elo and intyernational flavor
Morozevich, Polgar, Sasikiran
all fighters .. good rating .. will become Category 16
Catagory 16 should be for next year! Lets build up the Spice Cup!
I would really like to see Judith or you Susan.
Claudia
womancandidatemaster.blogspot.com
http://kingschess.com/uscf/
http://kingschess.com/uscf/
http://kingschess.com/uscf/
Hello,
My name is David Monatelli and I am the chess coach of two IL district 103’s state champion teams. The goal of this web site is to achieve public attention/action to an injustice in scholastic chess caused a poorly worded USCF regulation (Please note that I do not believe the anyone at the USCF has singled our school out. It is specifically a poorly worded rule that that is the issue. I have respect for the USCF and know that this is a difficult issue to tackle).
It isn’t just my opinion that there is something wrong with this regulation. I appealed to the Scholastic council after my first rejection from the Scholastic Co-chair Mr. Nietman. The USCF Scholastic Council then voted to disallow IL District 103’s State Champion Chess Teams from competing at Nationals in May due to a technicality in the regulation 13.x . The 5 voting members of the council split their decision 2-3. One swing vote in our favor and this petition request along with this entire issue would not exist. The split vote tells us all that this is not a clear cut issue even for the board. Ultimately I hope this will bring about change in time for our children to be included in this years national chess championship May 9-11, 2008. If we get to play as a unified team that would be great but a single exemption will not fix the problem. We must have regulation 13 fixed for this whole thing to really mean anything.
I have been working to resolve this issue for a month now using traditional USCF channels. It is now clear to me that one person is not going to make a difference when going up against a non for profit corporation like the USCF. I am looking for support in the chess community. Perhaps if this becomes a global issue something will get done. Don’t just take it from me, please read some of our children’s letters requesting a chance to compete. The letters were all sent to the USCF board members. Please sign our petition and spread the word!
Below is some additional information on our case with background:
Sign an online petition supporting our children’s right to play as a team in the May 9-11, 2008 National Scholastic Chess Championship. This will be delivered to the USCF.
Read some of the kids letters requesting the right to play that were sent to the USCF.
See current list of comments
See FULL list of petitions.
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Background:
I’m David Monatelli the coach of two IL State champion chess teams in 2008 and 13 champion teams since 2003. The problem our teams face stem from a poorly worded USCF regulation (#13). Simply stated it says that you must be attending the same building as your teammates to play together. Back in the day when I actually attended Sprague as a child everything was fine. The schools were K-3, 4-5 and 6-8 respectfully. That was a long time ago but the district still remains one school spread over 3 buildings. However as the population changed the distribution of grades per building also changed. Currently we have the following grade breakdown:
The exact breakdown of grades per building is as follows:
* K-2 Sprague
* 3-4 Half Day
* 5-8 Daniel Wright
With this breakdown of grades per building our 2nd and 3rd graders cannot be a team in the K-3 section and similarly neither can 4th and 5th graders be a team in the K-5 section. (I am sure this regulation affects many other schools across the USA).
NOTE: Our buildings are all located within a one mile radius of each other.
One school feeds directly into the next There is simply no other choice for the children. Our schools do not overlap or duplicate any grades in any of the buildings involved. In theory we could have 9 buildings with one grade in each building or conversely 1 building for all of K-8. The actual children would be the same in either scenario just where they are housed would change. The only thing that changes are the buildings. Perhaps our buildings shouldn’t be allowed to play chess but our children should!
The intent of regulation 13.x is mainly to disallow super teams that can be created from a large school district with many feeder schools. To that extent the rule is useful. However its current wording harshly discriminates against cases like ours. It also gives an unfair advantage to our competitors in private schools that have all K-8 students in one building and have NO geographic boundaries for recruiting their team. We are just a simple public school system that wants a chance to compete.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
David Monatelli
David,
Be sensible, you have a problem that can be solved but its not a global issue.
“Perhaps if this becomes a global issue something will get done.”