2025 WCA President's Report

  • Written by Mike Nietman
  • Published: 02 April 2025
  • Last Updated: 02 April 2025

2025 WCA President’s Report

April 1, 2025

Wisconsin is ramping up to host our fifth US Open! We previously hosted the event in 1935, 1953, 2013 and 2018. The first two were in Milwaukee while the latter two were held in Middleton as is this year’s event. Numerous Grandmasters will be involved with a spot in the US Closed Championship on the line. I hope many of you can either play in one of three schedules or a side event or maybe just come to watch. The dates are July 28 – August 3. Note that that is only seven days. US Chess shrunk the US Open footprint from nine days to seven days this year for the first time. The US Open itself remains nine rounds so the Traditional schedule will double rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I continue to be impressed by the number of events held in the state, but we have to work cooperatively in our scheduling of weekend events. There is a problem with concurrent or adjacent weekend events that are making our players select which events they go to instead of possibly participating in multiple events. Organizers need to work together thru the state affiliate in setting dates for their events.

Tournament organizers are able to add calendar entries to our website calendar and we encourage them to do so. It is free advertising for their events. After submission, you will need to e-mail me so that I can publish your event.

WCA’s financials continue to be on extremely strong ground. Thank you for your support by playing in WCA tournaments!

Guy Hoffman, Jim Coons and myself had our terms as WCA Board members expire March 31, 2025. In addition to the incumbents, John DeMastri and Evan Seghers were nominated. Jim declined his nomination so an election was held amongst four candidates for three seats. John, Evan and myself were the top three vote getters and will each serve a three-year term on the WCA Board of Directors. My thanks to Guy and Jim for their dedicated service to the WCA. Guy especially as he over the years has served at various times as our Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary and has been our pre-eminent tournament director over the years. He has told me that he is retiring from directing. Thank you, Guy and Jim! Welcome to John and Evan.

The WCA sponsors the Marshall Rohland Memorial/Wisconsin Closed Championship, the Arpad Elo Open, the William Martz Memorial/North Central Open, the Wisconsin Memorial, the Game/60 State Championship, the Rapid and Blitz State Championships and the Wisconsin Junior Open and Veterans Tournaments. All are open for bids from state organizers and/or tournament directors. If you are interested in more details on how to bid for these events, please contact any board member.

Congratulations to Trevor Magness for capturing the 2024 Wisconsin State Chess Championship.

The 2025 Wisconsin State Scholastic Championships was held in March in Oshkosh under the organization of Chris Wainscott and Alex Betaneli. They had 479 attend! Congratulations to Kettle Moraine Lutheran for winning their first state team championship! Brookfield’s Pilgrim Park Middle School won their second K-8 state championship and Shorewood Hills Elementary School won their first K-5 state championship on tiebreaks over Green Bay’s Chesterton Academy of St. John Paul II.

Since the State Scholastic is a team Swiss event at the high school level, Wisconsin uses the Wisconsin Junior Open as its qualifier for the national state invitational events at the US Open. Please plan to participate in the event to qualify for the 2026 GM Arnold Denker National Tournament of High School State Champions, the Dewain Barber National Tournament of Middle School State Champions, the John D. Rockefeller III National Tournament of Elementary School State Champions and the WIM Ruth Haring National Tournament of Girls State Champions which will be held in conjunction with the US Open in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2025 these events will be held at the US Open in Middleton. Our representatives will be Nicholas Pennington-Cross (Denker), Jind Kaur (Haring), Ojas Sahoo (Barber) and Ishaan Harsha (Rockefeller). Good luck team Wisconsin!

With the same format as the Denker, Barber, Rockefeller and Haring is the John T. Irwin National Tournament of Senior State Champions. We use the Veterans Tournament held in conjunction with the Wisconsin Junior Open to select our representative. Sw Chang will be our 2025 rep.

Unfortunately, not enough room was secured at the Marriott to start the GM Maurice Ashley National Tournament of K-3 State Champions this year but I’ve received assurances that that event will start in 2026 so we’ll have to determine a nominee at this year’s Wisconsin Junior Open. Eventually a K-1 event named after Paul Morphy will begin by 2030 but not in 2026.

Congratulations to Jim Coons for capturing the 2024 Wisconsin Chess Tour title. Organizers desiring to have their event considered for Tour status need to contact any board member by November of the year before the Tour. Tour standings are listed on our website www.wischess.org. Organizers of Tour events need to send their checks ($1 per entry) and a copy of the wall chart (not crosstable) of their Tour event to WCA Tour Statistician and WCA Treasurer Neil Hogg. Prizes for the Tour come from the entries to Tour events.

Hope to see you at a tournament or club soon!

Respectfully submitted by WCA President, Mike Nietman This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

1982 Badger Chess Interview with William Martz

  • Written by Mike Nietman
  • Published: 31 March 2024
  • Last Updated: 30 April 2024
Reprinted with permission of Bill Williams, Badger Chess editor from the October 1982 edition.

This interview was conducted about two weeks after Wisconsin’s William Martz had won the U.S. Open Co-Championship with GM Andrew Soltis.  It took place in the chess room of the townhouse apartment that he and his wife, Norma, dwell in Wauwatosa.  The walls are lined with bookshelves, each one packed with chess volumes on every subject one might wish to examine, and atop the bookshelves are the many trophies he has accumulated in his 20-odd year career as Wisconsin’s leading player.  Also present for the interview (although he declined to comment for publication) was his good friend Dr. Robert Huebner, a name well known to chess fans.  The interview ended abruptly, when the tape recorder used to record his answers ran out of tape—much to the embarrassment of this confused editor.

When and where did you begin playing chess?

I began playing chess when I was a senior in high school at about age 15, and I was brought up on the tournaments in Milwaukee.  It was the custom in those days to hold the Thanksgiving and Fourth of July tournaments at good hotels; either the Plankington or the Schroeder, or similarly good sites. They were quite well organized and playing conditions were very good when compared with modern swiss-system events.  So, I became interested in chess because it seemed a pleasant thing to do. Being competitive by nature, and being a little artistic, one finds chess a good means to express oneself … a good outlet for a competitive spirit.

Where did you attend college?

I attended the University of Wisconsin for three or four years and took a degree in mathematics which I haven’t seen fit to use.

Read more: 1982 Badger Chess Interview with William Martz