About
In late 2007, I had the urge to begin playing chess again after a long hiatus. So I set out to see if anything could be found regarding the chess scene around the area. I hadn’t played since High School and really didn’t know if anyone had any kind of organized activities; clubs, tournaments, etc.
My initial search didn’t turn up anything useful so I just continued to play at home. In June of 2008, I decided to look around again and found a Joplin Globe article about a tournament held the previous weekend, sponsored by the Joplin Chess Club. That led me to Bart Gibbons, who had started the local club as a USCF affiliate. Shortly thereafter my son and I started attending.
There still really wasn’t a resource, other than the club, for chess in the local area that I had found. I played around with the idea of starting a website to cater to that but kept putting if off. Finally, I decided that I would try it out and put up this WordPress site. It seemed to be a quick way to get something useful up and running.
Anyway, here it is. I sincerely hope that players in and around the area will find the site to be a good resource and will contribute, directly with articles and comments and also as readers. I welcome anyone that wants to contribute to the site and to the local chess scene in general.
The goals of the site are:
- To present players with a resource to find tournaments locally — within an hour or so of Joplin — rated, unrated, and scholastic.
- To find local clubs or places to play other players.
- To provide games from local players for study.
- To discuss chess in general.
I hope that those goals will grow beyond that and include the input from many other players in the area (or even outside the area) to reflect the chess community as a whole. This site is for those that enjoy chess. Whether that is just casual games with other local players, playing competitively in a tournament setting or chess study. Feel free to contribute your thoughts, your games, your comments.
I would like to thank all the local players I have had the chance to play and Bart for starting the local affiliate, running the club and running local tournaments. I also would like to thank Leann Stausing for starting and running the chess club in the Joplin Junior high at the time I was there and for going that extra mile to help instill a love of chess in many students. I hope chess in the area continues to grow and flourish for years to come.
One last thing to say: It’s your move.
Martin, great job on the website! I appreciate your efforts to promote chess in the Joplin area! When is the next tourney?
Sometime in March is all I know at this point. I really need to pin down a location. As soon as I know something concrete I’ll get out an e-mail and post it to the site.
Martin, I am looking for a club that can help my eight-year-old son learn to play chess. He is very interested in playing. Does the local club that meets on Sundays have a group that works with children?
We don’t have a group that specifically works with children. However, your son is welcome to come and at least a couple of the players, myself included, would be willing to help him learn how to play. There is an upcoming tournament so you might e-mail info@joplinchess.org if you plan on bringing him by so you can guarantee someone will be there that week. I don’t know yet how many of the club players are going to that yet, but there is a chance no one will be there that week.
Hey, Martin. You don’t know me, but I came across your site via the stlchess board. I think it’s great you’re working so hard to promote chess in your area. I am doing the same in mine: Kansas City. I thought I’d let you know of a resource I created to help people find tournaments in the Kansas City, MO, area. It’s called:
http://www.kansascitychesstournaments.com
If you or your members ever plan to be in the Kansas City, MO, area, check to see if there’s a tournament going and stop by.
And I’d like to say best wishes with growing your chess scene.
Great, thanks for stopping by and letting me know. I have added your site to our links.
Hi Martin. I was looking at your homepage on chess.com after reading your comment and clicked on your chess site. Very nicely done will have to check it out some more when I have the time. Keep up the good work.
Regards, Scut Fargus