OCBCF Newsletter January 2006
From the editor, Eddie Rios, Sr.:
Hello everyone, short news letter this month due to shortage of articles. Ken did however come through with an article. I will be attaching flyers of the Feb tournaments. The big thing now is to remember to send your entries for region, susan polgars national, and state tournaments. You can find them at the usual place. OCBCF.org and susanpolgartexas.com
And now some good hearty advice from a person who learned the hard way. Tournament directors, beware. In the past, I have volunteered my services for many different organizations without hesitation. I have served in many capacities, mainly as a tournament director on the floor. The problem is, that some Chief Tournament Directors have failed to give me credit on my service. I have no issues with this, because I volunteered in the first place. However, there are requirements by US Chess as far as experience on the floor is concerned. When I went to check my tournament record as a TD, I found that several of the tournaments, that I donated my time and effort as well as my health, were not on record. Therefore, I do not qualify to take the test to become a senior TD. I have not built up enough experience in the past 10 years. Please keep up with your records as a TD, and contact the Chiefs for those tournaments if you do not find the tournament which you helped out. It is necessary that you satisfy the requirements of US Chess before you can request a Tournament Directors Test be sent to you. Club membership is only good for 3 years and then you must test up to local. Study your rules book every chance you get and volunteer to be a section or chief td whenever you can, because the experience you gain is very beneficial. Also, I will be hosting an open section for all ocbcf td’s who wish to fulfill their game requirements at all of the Kingsville tournaments, just let me know you are coming to play. Thanks bueno bye, see ya next month
Beyond the Boards: Notes from the Share Your Christmas Tournament
By Ken Muir
December has been intensely busy from the TD-parent perspective for yours truly, not to mention that abominable task known as “work,” and hopefully a few days of rest are in order soon. (Abominable is one of my favorite words for this time of year, thanks to fond memories of the “Abominable Snowman” when I was growing up). December 2-4 found me working as a TD in grades 4-5 for the National K-12 in Houston. Then on December 10 I was scurrying around in the tournament hall at St. Pius under the leadership of Charlene Tintera, Chief TD. The Share Your Christmas tournament not only benefited the local chess playing community but also provided a good amount of food to the local food bank.
Now, there is a huge difference between a national scholastic tournament with almost 1600 players, and one of our local tournaments with usually less than 200 players. Certainly, the national T Ds running the national tournaments have many years of experience, and such tournaments seem to run on a very tight control system. The national T Ds I met at the tournament seemed to really take pride in their work. However, I have to say that the local tournaments we are involved in here in the coastal bend have a much “friendlier” feel to them, and I’m was able to observe that we’re basically doing the same type of thing that the national T Ds are doing in their tournaments, with minor differences. Certainly, our T Ds are very committed to their volunteer work (yes, we are all volunteers) and understand that without volunteers we would not likely have very many local chess tournaments. As T Ds we’re not perfect, but we’re certainly doing a very good job in my opinion of running fair tournaments in an honorable way. I feel privileged to be able to work with the T Ds we have on in this area. I can also see that our local players and their parents are much better “behaved” and more reasonable than some from other places. I have not seen the type of angry exchanges between parents here that I observed in Houston. Let us hope it stays that way!
Our local players may not have won a lot of trophies at the National K-12, but clearly they are solid players who are progressing considerably in their level of play. It’s important not to become discouraged when one doesn’t end up with the result one hoped for. Losing is actually an important part of chess, because it teaches you how to improve your game.
January and February promise to be exciting, with the Region VII tournament in Kingsville on January 21, and the January 28 Susan Polgar National Open Championships for Girls in Corpus Christi! It would be a shame for local female players to miss the National Open here since it is quite unusual to have a national chess tournament here in Corpus Christi. On February 18 there will be a scholastic tournament held at the Flour Bluff Primary School.
I’m hoping everyone reading this article has a great holiday season, and a happy New Year. A new year always brings new hope, whether in life or in chess. A year ago I was having serious doubts about whether I’d be involved with chess tournaments at all this year; yet, here I am still, and strangely, my involvement with tournament direction, OCBCF, and actual tournament play all ratcheted up considerably more than I had expected. Who knows what next year will bring?
Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo.