2010 Year End Update
I hope everyone has had a good year. It has been pretty slow around the site and for chess in Joplin, with the Joplin Chess Club only able to host one tournament this year. It is my hope to get things back in order for 2011.
So read on for things coming up for chess in the Joplin area. If you have other chess related items, let me know and I’ll get it posted. A few things coming up (details after the break): Study night, Club Quick Tournament, and a standard (possibly two day) tournament in March.
Chess Study Night
Starting January 5th, there will be a chess study night. Right now the plan is for every Wednesday night, from 7:00 p.m. until around 10:00 p.m. at Hardee’s on Main: 1810 South Main Street.
The first few nights will be informal study sessions though the overall format may change based on interest and involvement of other people. Please contact me if you have questions or suggestions. I will post updates on the site if plans change.
Chess Club Quick Tournament
Starting in January, the club is holding a rated, double round robin Quick tournament. Games will be played during the Joplin Chess Club meetings over a couple of months, depending on the number of people that are playing and when opponents can get together.
Opponents can play each other during club meetings as long as a TD is available. Our hope is that a couple of games will be played each week, leaving time for people to also play some casual games.
Entry fee (to cover ratings) will be $1, with no prizes. G/25 with a 5 sec delay will be used. Games will be Quick rated only.
Tournament
The club is planning on holding a full tournament the first weekend of March. Final location and details have not been determined at this point, though hopefully that will be done soon. At this point, the plan is for a 2-day event, though we may have to go with a 1-day, due to cost of the locations. Keep checking back for more details and I will be sending them out as soon as everything is finalized.
Miscellaneous
The Joplin Chess Club has a new Club Tournament Director: Joel Stebbins. Joel plans on helping out with a couple of events first and with two directors we hope to be able to have more events throughout the year. If you know of any good locations to hold tournaments, please let Joel or I know.
I also want to congratulate a couple of our local players for their performance over the past year:
- James Smith: James has had a great year, gaining almost 400 rating points since his 1st tournament of 2010. He also was the 2010 Denker representative for MO. If he keeps up the training and tournament results, he’ll be an Expert soon.
- Joel Stebbins: Joel has seen a 300 point gain this year, finishing 1st with a perfect 5.0 in the reserve section of the 65th Annual Oklahoma State Championship and 1st in the Class B section of the MO Class Championships.
I hope everyone has had a good year and has a Happy New Year. See you at the board.
Hey Martin,
Great to hear the Joplin is planning more for 2011. I enjoyed coming down there for your tournament last year.
Just a heads up. Stl is holding the big Saint Louis Open the first weekend of March this year. I know your far enough away that it doesn’t preclude your running one too, but thought you would want to be aware.
Yeah, Laura made me aware of it. When I first started planning on that weekend, there was nothing listed on the USCF site or the MO Chess site about a tournament that weekend. So it came as a bit of a surprise when I found out about that one. Most of our players don’t go to St. Louis for tourneys but there are a few and the possibility that a few we might hope to pull from other areas would go to that instead.
We are shooting for February 12th now. I have the paperwork for the room. As soon as that is finalized, I’ll be updating the site and sending out information. Finding a room in this area is one of the hardest things.