Joplin Chess » General

Neosho Chess Club

Martin Stahl — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:30:51 +0000

There is a new chess club starting up in the Neosho area meeting on Tuesday’s from, 4 until 8 pm at the Neosho Recreation Center, room 102. Everyone is welcome, from beginners to hobby players.

More details can be found on the Clubs page

Joplin Chess Anniversary

Martin Stahl — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:16:36 +0000

Well, the site has been up for almost a year already ( September the 29th it will be a year). I haven’t done as much as I wanted to when it comes to modifications on the site or in posting articles, yet I feel that it has been a useful tool to get information out about chess in the area.

I hope this year to be a bit more productive and finally talk some other local players to contribute some articles, games, etc to the site. I have renewed the domain name, so barring any unforeseen circumstances, I hope we will be around for many years to come.

So please, if you have any news, tournaments or anything else you feel would benefit local chess or is about chess in the area, please let me know. Remember, this site is geared to chess in the area in general, is not dedicated to any particular club or group and welcomes your participation.

Thank you for continuing to visit and I look forward to continuing the chess journey with all of you.

Joplin Summer Open 2009 Update

Martin Stahl — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:48:40 +0000

On August 22nd, the Joplin Chess Club hosted the second annual Summer Open. Turnout for the event was very good, with many of our regulars, some returning players from past events and a few new players. The playing field was pretty strong and many good games were played.

As in past events, there were two sections, with the break being at USCF 1250.

In the upper section, Daniel Todd and Joel Stebbins tied for 1st place and 3rd went to James Smith. The standings, based on tie breaks were:

1. Daniel Todd 4.0
2. Joel Stebbins 4.0
3. James Smith 3.0

In the reserve section, Chris Killinger and Andrew Souder tied for 1st place and 3rd went to Devon Stahl. The standings, based on tie breaks were:

1. Chris Killinger 3.0
2. Andrew Souder 3.0
3. Devon Stahl 2.5

The full cross table, without the tie breaks, is available at the USCF site.

Again, I want to thank all the players for coming and Dalton-Killinger Construction for letting us use the room. Hope to see you all again at our next event (details posted as soon as I have them finalized).

Location, Location, Location

Martin Stahl — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:34:41 +0000

The Joplin Chess Club has been lucky in the past couple of years to find locations to hold tournaments. In order to not outwear our welcome in the locations we have found to date, I want to put out some feelers to see if anyone has some ideas on places where we can host tournaments.

Free is always the best but low cost solutions may also be possible. I hope to have it so that entry fees can remain low and still be able to provide a decent prize fund. Hopefully, chess events will begin drawing more attendees, making it easier to book a location and still meet those goals. At this time, we are still trying to grow interest and having free locations seems to work out best.

In the future I hope to have the club sponsor some scholastic events and even some free, unrated events. Having a number of places lined up would help greatly with that. The only real stipulations that a location would have, other than the low or free cost, would be allowing the club to charge entry fees to the event in order to pay out prizes. Some of the locations I have found don’t allow usage if entry fees are charged. Of course, any free events wouldn’t have that issue.

Anyway, if anyone out there has some ideas, if you know of locations that could be used or you have a location, then please let me know. You can contact me at martin.stahl@joplinchess.org.

Joplin Memorial Day Open Update

Martin Stahl — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:29:02 +0000

On May 23rd, the Joplin Chess Club sponsored its second annual Memorial Day Open.

There were two sections for prizes, with the reserve section being those players rated under 1200 USCF (average rating was actually 1158)

In the over 1200 group there were no ties and the standings were:

1. Daniel Todd 5.0
2. Christopher Talbot 4.0
3. Robert Talbot 3.0

In the under 1200 group there was a 1st and 2nd place tie between Justin Holland and David King with 2 wins each. There was also a tie, with 1 point each, for 3rd and 4th between Devon Stahl and Andrew Souder. Though we only had cash prizes, the 1st-3rd place standings with tie breaks were:

1. Justin Holland 2.0
2. David King 2.0
3. Devon Stahl 1.0

The full cross table, without the tie breaks, is available at the USCF site.

I would again like to thank all the players for coming out and enjoying a day of chess. Also, I want to give thanks to the First Baptist Church of Galena for allowing us to use their site for the tournament.

As soon as a location is finalized, I will have details on the next tournament posted. Hope to see you there.

Mid-America Open Results

Martin Stahl — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 05:15:37 +0000

After the Mid-America open finished up a couple of weeks ago I took a look at some of the local players that took part in the event. Then today I was doing a search and ran across the results in an online USCF article. I thought I would share the results.

I want to take a moment to congratulate Joplin Chess Club members James Smith who tied for 2nd/3rd place with 4 wins in the under 1600 section and Jonah Smith for taking 1st with 5 wins, a perfect score, in the under 900 section. Jacob Smith, another Chess Club member, also did very well, with 3 wins in the under 1200 section.

Congratulations to you all. Keep up the good work.

Joplin Spring Open Update

Martin Stahl — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:46:39 +0000

On March 28th, the Joplin Chess Club hosted the Joplin Spring Open. While turnout was a little lower than in the past, at 11 players, that didn’t diminish the competition at all. There were many fiercely fought games and I’m hoping we will get some of the games annotated to post on the site.

There were two sections for prizes, with the reserve section being those players rated under 1000 USCF.

In the over 1000 group Daniel Todd received 1st place with 5 wins. Brian Gahagan and Robert Talbot tied for 2nd with 3 wins each. Although we only had cash prizes this time, the 1st-3rd place standings with tie breaks were:

1. Daniel Todd
2. Brian Gahagan
3. Robert Talbot

In the 1000 and under group there was a 1st place tie between Chris Killinger and Justin Holland with 3 wins. There was a three-way tie, with 2 points each, for 3rd between Devon Stahl, Andrew Souder and Tywan Anthony. The 1st-3rd place standings with tie breaks were:

1. Chris Killinger
2. Justin Holland
3. Devon Stahl

The full cross table, without the tie breaks, is available at the USCF site. I want to thank all the players, Dalton-Killinger Construction for use of the room and everyone that helped in the process. A special thanks to Bart Gibbons for all his help and suggestions. I learned some good lessons on my first tournament as a director and look forward to the next one.

I hope to see everyone there.

Correspondence Chess

Martin Stahl — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:37:42 +0000

I had been working on a software package to allow players to play games on the site but I haven’t had much chance to modify it fully to my liking. So until I get that finished, I thought I would ask if anyone would be interested in e-mail chess? Or even via mail if that is more to your liking. Either with normal game rules, with standard correspondence rules or some variation. I haven’t yet played in that manner but would like to get some more games going and I don’t really have the time to sit on ICC or FICC very often either.

I know that I haven’t had much time to play a lot of games with people, limited mostly to the chess club and thought some of you might be in similar situations. Details can be worked out via e-mail or in person if you come to the club. Anyway, let me know. Also, if you would be open to playing anyone you could let me know and we could get players put in touch to play some games.

I look forward to hearing from some of you … or even all of you.

Joplin Chess Club Tournament Update

Martin Stahl — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:18:11 +0000

Thus far I have been unable to successfully secure a location for the next tournament. I am still awaiting an update on one location and will should know for sure by Tuedsay. That said, if I am unable to secure a place by Friday of this week I will cancel the date.

I promise I will have some kind of update by Friday afternoon.

Joplin Chess Club Tournament Update

Martin Stahl — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:20:36 +0000

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m still working on the tournament. I have finalized on March 28th as a date that I think will provide a good time to the most people, is far enough out to give ample preparation and conflicts the least with other regional events.

That said, I don’t yet have a place to hold it. I have made a few calls without much luck but will be off work this coming Monday and plan an devoting most of the day to finding a place to play. As soon as I have that information I will post it here and e-mail everyone. If anyone has any suggestions for a place to play or connections somewhere where we can possibly play, please let me know.