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2019 WCA President's Report

  • Written by Mike Nietman
  • Published: 14 April 2019
  • Last Updated: 14 April 2019

2019 WCA President’s Report

April 7, 2019

The Wisconsin Chess Association had another strong year in 2018. Attendance at our tournaments was up again. The Association’s finances continue to be strong. We hope to continue building on this success in 2019 and hope that you’ll continue supporting WCA events and all Wisconsin tournaments.

The highlight of the year was once again hosting the US Open in Middleton. This marks the fourth year that Wisconsin hosted the US Open. Previous events in Wisconsin were 1935, 1953 and 2013. When I heard that the Reebok CrossFit games were to be held concurrently with the US Open I knew that attendance wouldn’t be as strong as it was in 2013. Attendance was down about 130 players I think mainly due to the lack of available and affordable hotel rooms.

We were all saddened when in the last round there was a medical emergency necessitating the round be suspended for several hours and the player from Janesville passed away. Our condolences go out to his family.

The most pressing problem the WCA faces is the inability to secure playing sites at an affordable cost. The Board is starting to think outside of the box but if you have any suggestions for venues, please contact a Board member.

Since only three nominations were received for the WCA Board, all were automatically elected to fill the three open seats. Congratulations to Guy Hoffman, James Coons and myself who have each gained three year terms. My thanks to the all Board members for their dedication this past year.

I have one year remaining on my final term on the US Chess Federation’s Executive Board. We continue to do a lot of work is in the area of development to create a fund raising strategy for the Federation. We’re also re-starting the website upgrade but this time the first phase will be to solidify the background database that will drive membership, ratings and publications prior to refurbing the website itself.

Two seats on the Executive Board are up for election this summer. Please register to vote on your MSA page at https://new.uschess.org/players/search/ then you’ll receive a ballot in early June that will need to be returned by July 20.

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 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.

Last year the WCA partnered with an online registration system and the first year proved quite successful. The vendor has agreed to allow us to partner with other clubs in the state to allow them to use our portal for their events. The webpage can be located at https://onlineregistration.cc/. Scroll down to our events under ‘Wisconsin Chess Association’.

When deciding on when to hold an event, tournament organizers need to contact the state tournament clearinghouse director Guy Hoffman to find open dates on the tournament calendar. Guy can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Congratulations to Madison Memorial High School for taking their second State Scholastic Championship. The core of the winning team has now won at the K-5, K-8 and high school levels! Congratulations to Elm Grove’s Pilgrim Park Middle School for winning the K-8 State Team Championship and to Wauwatosa’s McKinley Elementary School for repeating as the K-5 State Team Championship. Last month 377 Wisconsin students participated in the State Scholastic Championships at UW-Oshkosh. Thanks to Mark Seghers for putting together a website to track the history of the event. The website is http://wischolasticchesschampionship.blogspot.com/. If anyone has photos from past events that they’d like to share, you may upload them to the site.

Since the State Scholastic is a team Swiss event at the high school level, Wisconsin uses the Wisconsin Junior Open as its qualifier for national junior individual invitational events. Please plan to participate in the event November 2-3 at UW-Oshkosh to qualify for the 2020 GM Arnold Denker Tournament of High School Champions, the Dewain Barber Tournament of K-8 and the National Girl’s Tournament of Champions. In 2019 these events will be held in conjunction with the US Open in Orlando, FL. Our representatives will be Rithwik Mathur, Hersh Singh and Aradh Kaur. Good luck team!

In 2018 US Chess started a fourth invitational at the US Open. With the same format as the Denker, Barber and NGTOC is the National Senior Tournament of Champions. We’ll use the Veterans Tournament held in conjunction with the Wisconsin Junior Open in November to select our representative. For the 2019 NSTOC our rep will be Allen Becker. Good luck Allen!

Congratulations once again to Joziah Rudolph for capturing his third consecutive Wisconsin Chess Tour title. Organizers desiring to have their event considered for Tour status need to contact Tour Committee Chair Guy Hoffman by November of the year before the tour. Tour standings are listed on our website www.wischess.org. The WCA Board is considering a change to the Tour point computation formula. More information will be available after our June meeting.

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 need to e-mail me so that I can approve the event. We have received only a couple of news stories this year and depend on the state players, organizers and TD’s to supply content. If you have an interesting game to share or wish to write up a chess tournament or event, please do so and send it to me. I may be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Respectfully submitted by WCA President, Mike Nietman

The Pawns Alone

  • Written by Administrator
  • Published: 22 August 2012
  • Last Updated: 10 September 2012

Sometimes, because of events in other parts of the board, pawns are left on their own against the enemy King. When this happens, knowing one single rule will be enough to decide the game.

The Rule Of The Square

How can you tell if the enemy king can catch your pawn? One way is to calculate in your head, from the positions below:

"If I move my pawn to e6, then the king moves to c6, my pawn to e7, the king to d7, my pawn to e8 and I get a queen, but then the king takes my queen."

This works, as you see, but it's long and gives you too many chances to make a mistake. A second way is to count moves:

"Let's see, my pawn on e5 queens in 3 moves, while the king on b5 requires 3 moves to get to the queening square."
Read more: The Pawns Alone

Arpad Elo Visits the 1990 World Youth Chess Festival for Peace

  • Written by Mike Nietman
  • Published: 22 June 2012
  • Last Updated: 27 December 2013

By Mike Nietman, Local Organizer, 1990 World Youth Chess Festival for Peace

In July of 1990 Fond du Lac’s Marian College hosted the Under 14, Under 12 and Under 10 Open and Girl’s sections of the World Youth Chess Championships. Over 170 players from 40 countries and six continents descended on the small liberal arts college located sixty miles northwest of Milwaukee. Many famous players competed in the event. International stars included Romania’s Gabriel Schwartzman and a then-relatively-unknown Peter Leko of Hungary. The Americans were led by Tal Shaked, Morgan Pehme, Josh Waitzkin and eventual Under 10 champion Nawrose Nur. But the biggest name was the world’s number one rated woman, Hungary’s Judit Polgar who arrived with her contingent and her father Lazlo.

Most teams that flew came thru Milwaukee’s Mitchell airport; this included the Hungarians. We had staged greeters at the airport to welcome the teams as they landed and to shepherd them to waiting buses for the final leg of their journey to Fond du Lac. We knew the flights most of the teams would be on, so we asked the Milwaukee representatives to notify Hungarian-born and retired Marquette University Physics professor Arpad Elo about Judit’s itinerary, as he had always wanted to meet her.

Read more: Arpad Elo Visits the 1990 World Youth Chess Festival for Peace