Golda Meir and ASA Clark this Sat the 24th!

Saturday 2/24, there are two tournaments, Golda Meir and ASA Clark.

If you are USCF rated (a handful of our kids - Kate, Henry Riordan, Ishaan, Louis, etc), you can

1)  join Ishaan Pattankar at ASA Clark school - go to IA-chess.com to register - this gives you strongest opponents, OR

2)  you can register for Golda Meir - go to www.wisconsinscholasticchess.org to register - we have two (Jack, Isabella) already in the K12 U800 division I believe.  Let's get a full team!

For most players on the team, best to go to Golda Meir.  For those USCF and for best practice for state, ASA Clark is the choice.
For Golda, I have emailed a sheet which shows the WSCF rating and recommended division for each kid on our team.  Some of the kids who are 600-800 rated may want to join the K12 open to make a team there.  We can also switch the morning of the tournament. All players in K12 divisions are expected to take notation.  I will spend my time where most of our kids are (probably Golda), and will visit the other location as well, to check-in with players there.  If we have teams at both, I'll split my day.

McKinley Takes K3 in Inaugural Tournament

In our first tournament, McKinley players did really well!
Here is the link to results.

Christine and Tim Brunow coordinated the food, and created some great signs for doors and hallways, Maura Riordan coordinated school logistics, Heidi Engbring got us all matching T-shirts so we all looked like one big team!  Several parents cooked baked goods which made profit for the club!   So many people to thank I don't know where to start or end.  Several other parents pitched in with setup and cleanup.  Special thanks to coaches Robin Grochowski and Kyle Jain who volunteered all day long to help kids with games while Mark was helping in the tournament room.  With all the help, we started on time, and were done and cleaned up by 3:30.  Thanks to Principal Jean Hoffmann for her support of the club- she has been great!  Also thanks to custodian Lourdes for her help the morning of the tournament.

Attending were nearly 100 kids from several SE Wisconsin schools including Golda Meir, and several New Berlin and Muskego Schools.  With how smoothly the tournament run, he reputation we earned will spur even more interest for next year if we have a tournament again.  This tournament was also significant because New Berlin schools attended a WSCF event for the first time in a few years; it's great to see them again.  Hopefully some of us can return the favor at their excellent Elmwood tournament coming up, a week after state- Golda Meir has a great one in a couple weeks too - I'll send something later about that.

We divided the McKinley kids into three divisions, placing some of our kids in the K-12 division to play against older kids.  Right before the tournament started, however, one of our players got sick and had to go home, leaving us short on a team in that division.  Oh well - this happens!  The remaining team members did very well in K-12,  fighting hard, with Ishaan Pattankar winning a 5th place trophy, and other players like Henry Riordan and Kate Flint winning games against older and stronger players.  With only 3 players, we took 2nd place as a team to Golda Meir, who had 7 players in their K-12.

McKinley kids really shined in K-3 especially!  Nolan Krueger and Charlie Desplaines both went 4-1 to take 2nd and 3rd place out of the 27 players in this division.  Many of our K-3 players won 3 out of 5 also - Brady Malloy, Manisha Kumar, Miles Jahr - Brady and Miles in their first tournament!  We took home 1st place in K-3, beating the Muskego and Orchard Lane and Poplar Creek teams.

Zach Brunow led our K-6 players with 3.5 out of 5, with Connor Dee winning 3 out of 5 and many others with 2.5 or 2 wins.  We took 2nd place in K-6, being edged out by a half-point by Golda Meir's strong K-6 club, but beating a large club from Muskego.

We were surprised at the level of competition that showed up for our tournament - we'd had a USCF-rated division that we had to cancel since there were only 7 players - these players then went into the rest of the mix.  Also, we brought in New Berlin to a WSCF event for the first time in a few years - these kids are also tough.  This was a great TEST with State only a month away.  The kids really got a wake-up call and will now kick their practice into gear!

McKinley Tournament - 104 Pre-registered

Our first tournament is tomorrow, Feb 10!  Pre-registered, we have about 104.  We should end up around 110, I think.  This is a great size for a school's first tournament!  Hopefully this will become an annual event.
For parents, here is a good article which discusses tournaments.  In our tournament, there are four divisions: three of them are Wisconsin rated (WSCF) and one is US rated (USCF).  Make sure your child is registered in the correct division tomorrow when you check in and pay.  Most kids should be in the WSCF division that aligns with their grade.  A 2nd grader would be in WSCF K-3 for example.  A fourth grader would be in WSCF K-6.  We have some kids who are USCF rated and should play in the USCF division (Kate, Max, Henry Ri, Ishaan, etc).
Thanks to all those who are volunteering!  Email me any questions!   Mark

State Tournament Info

So far, we have 16 kids (plus two from Whitman!) who have registered for State Scholastic on March 17-18 in Oshkosh at the UW-O Reeve Union.  We have a block of rooms at Comfort Inn & Suites - when you reserve, mention McKinley Elementary.  $79 includes breakfast.  Indoor pool & whirlpool.  (920) 230-7378

I'll be there Friday night.  You can go early on Saturday but please be there at the Union an hour before game time.  All tournament information is available online:
https://wischolasticchesschampionship.blogspot.com/ - it's a new website I created since it's all been email to date.

I'll be creating a "Text Group" for the tournament for all to use.  We'll have a room to congregate where parents can hang out and we can go thru games.  Evan Seghers will be there to help me.  Watch the web site here for more information as the time draws near.