2nd Annual Le Jardin Academy Chess Tournament Results

Aloha Hawaii Scholastic players, Coaches, Parents and friends,

For those that were able to make it to this year’s tournament, there was plenty of action and we hope to see even more players at the next five tournaments and USCF tournaments. LJA had a total 43 players and Mililani Chess Day (USCF) tournament had only 9 players! So where were you guys, I know football, soccer, swimming, sailing maybe! Not at the movies or just playing video game’s or watching TV this past Saturday (Sept 24)!! Note: If you want to play better chess games, besides studying / practicing you got to get out there and play in our tournaments! Especially if you’re interested and want to qualify for the HICL’s end of year awards, no play no awards!

We had a lot close battles for both teams and individual players in the Open, Novice and Parent section, we had to use tiebreakers to determine the award winners. Le Jardin High / Intermediate won the Team trophy and so Le Jardin’s perpetual team trophy has return to its home of origin. Thanks Maryknoll for taking care of it! Hanahau'oli Intermediate (another team that I help coach) was tied for 1st came in 2nd and Maryknoll Intermediate came in 3rd via tiebreakers!

The Individual players Open section had another three way tie and William (Billy) Swartworth (Le Jardin Academy) even though he lost the his last round game to Aaron Bright (Moanlua High) who came in 2nd. Billy manage to win via tiebreaker. Kris Aldenderfer (Le Jardin Academy) President of LJA chess club also was tied for 1st and got 3rd place trophy. Board #1 on the stage was displayed via A/V equipment lend to us by Le Jardin Academy and the two wood leather boards I provided were made by Katherine Louise http://www.katherinelouise.biz/gallery.html .

Trenton Lum (Roosevelt) and Kimberly Kidani (Maryknoll) tied for 1st in the Novice section and John Mussack (Holy Family Catholic Academy - Coach) won 1st place in the new Parent section!

For additional details ratings and status please visit www.chess-express.com and if you do not remember your log-in or password just email and I will email back this info. This is HICL’s second season and so only the current “35 open section players” will be listed in the HICL roster until Nov 2005! This is when scholastic players will have the next scheduled scholastic event. So be sure to keep playing and practicing. Remember you need a minimum of 18 games to qualify for the end of year awards. Last year winner’s received some really nice awards and all thirteen had free entries to the Hawaii State Championship and we like to do it again. Donations are welcome to continue to provide these awards, please email to get additional details to frank713@windwardchess.org Last year Le Jardin Academy club, Assets School’s and Windward Chess Club’s Awards were made by Marian Hawkins from Kailua. I also like to thank the Le Jardin Faulty, teachers, chess player’s parents, friends and of course our scholastic players for making this a successful tournament. I made a few mistakes and I promise I will improve on that. Wade Okumura was my TD assistant and we like welcome him to the ranks of TD world; hmm forgot to get him to fill-out a USCF TD form! We’ll just email him a copy!

HICL is a local rating (Only for HCF scholastic tournaments) that I generate via the WinTD pairing program and all players start rating is 1200 each season. We also use CXR Chess Express, Inc. a National chess rating system that updates a player’s rating and also has over 40 plus stats to assist (each player, coach, and parent); into understanding a players strong / weak areas of their play. But to be correct you have to play often, and not just in tournaments, you can also have club games rated via CXR just contact Russ Mollot President of CXR at info@chess-express.com or myself and we will explain how to do it. Bottom line there is no additional cost, just each player’s annual dues, your current CXR accounts can easily be transferred when you start your own CXR rated chess club. If you play at Windward Chess Club or any other CXR affiliate chess club you can have you’re name listed at each of these clubs at no additional cost either. Each club will have their own administrator /deputies and they process player’s games and add new players, paid dues via www.paypal.com etc

We had one Hawaii Chess Board member Larry Reifurth visited us on official business to have me sign the new improved constitution / bylaws to help get HCF the 501(c)3 status to help us make chess events even better! I am also the Windward Chess Club Director and club meets on Wednesdays from 5:30PM to 8:30PM approx and so a HCF board member. Larry also is a STD (is the Senior Tournament Director for U.S. Chess Federation) and runs the Sept Labor Day weekend Hawaii State Championship every year; he gave us some good points for making improvements. Next year we expect to have a larger group, and maybe some more fans to help keep us stay cool. The rain on Friday made things a little humid, I could not stop sweating and was not working that hard either! If I left anyone out I did not mean too!

Oh yes, a big hand to Russ Mollot President of CXR – Chess Express, Inc. and Jean Troendle (Cajun Chess www.cajunchess.com – New Orleans) she is still not operational to selling chess equipment, but promises ASAP she will be back in business. Also to HCF - Hawaii Chess Federation for promoting our tournament via their web site at www.hawaiichess.org, check here often to see when the next tournament is scheduled. And just to update you my dad ended up staying in Houston and only his backyard wooden fence got blown down, Houston, Texas was very lucky indeed!

Mahalo to everyone for your outstanding support to scholastic chess,

Frank Alejandro
WCC Director
LJACC Chess Coach

What is CXR? How do some Hawaii Chess clubs use it?

Chess Expess, Inc. CXR (Chess eXpress Ratings) is a chess rating & statistical service. CXR is in the business of providing you with the most complete set of personal performance metrics possible, to help you track and improve your play. CXR service is available through CXR-affiliated chess clubs and tournament directors. CXR is the fastest-growing chess rating authority in the English-speaking world, and has been recognized by many masters, grandmasters, TDs, club officials, and players as the new standard in chess metrics.

Now who uses CXR in Hawaii, Le Jardin Academy CC (LJACC). Maryknoll School CC (KNOLL), Assets School CC (ASSET). Windward Chess Club (WMCHI / WCC), Kaneohe Scholastic Chess Club (KSCHI), and (HICL) - Hawaii Interscholastic Chess League. Any club that has a minimum of 8 players can start a CXR club at no additional charge beside the annual membership dues, you do have to a admin person such as a coach, parent or team leader that updates records, and enters game, this can be delegated to deputies!

Have you noticed there seems to be new scholastic chess club in Kaneohe, well actually since we were getting so many new scholastic members without there own "home clubs" and have been initially placing them in the Windward Chess Club I decided to put all scholastic players that had no home club in the so called Kaneohe Scholastic Chess Club, so basically they are Windward Chess clubs players and chess players who play in the HICL "without home clubs". The other nice thing is that players can be imported in to whatever clubs they play by the admin person of that club, but they have only one home club! So those scholastic players who do play at Windward Chess Club occasionally will also show up on the WCC roster! And when their name appears on a Top 30 or Hot list** that home club will appear next to their name and rating, etc.!

Two new Hawaii Chess Champions!!!

Aloha,

Ohana East Hotel was the place to be on Sept 3rd to Sept 5th for Hawaii chess players: There were 42 USCF players of which 24 were CXR players and more then half were HICL scholastic players.
Congrats to Hawaii Open State Champions, Cornelius Rubsamen and Chet Gionson Hawaii's new co-champions both with 4.0 scores three wins, two draws and no losses. (1600 USCF and below) winner Soliven Lansangan with a 4.5 score one draw and no losses, won this section tournament. For prize info and new state champion photos of the see HCF web site www.hawaiichess.org. To review some of the games played go to HCIL 2005 games

Hawaii Chess Federation was finally able to submit the USCF tournaments in an amazing one day turn around for USCF to process these two tournaments. Several other recent tournaments that were held up due to software bugs, were worked out by USCF's new rating system and were processed Sept 5 via the new USCF TD / Affiliate account system! Yeah!!

CXR members also had their games processed overnight, even though there were only 24 CXR players in the 42 players event. So please check your new USCF www.uschess.org and CXR www.chess-express.com ratings for those that have been wondering what their new rating were especially for the "Unrated new members".

For the most current U.S. Chess Federation ratings results and wallcharts and (CXR) Chess Express ratings and 40 plus stats see the following link for additional details: http://www.windwardchess.org/clubstandings/ratinslinks.html

If anyone who played in the Hawaii state championships, has any chess notated games from this event that you would like to share, please email at frank713@windwardchess.org.

HCF will be posting the new Interscholastic schedule soon, so keep practicing and remember winning is 99 percent tactics!

Reminder the first Interscholastic Chess Tournament is at Le Jardin Academy on Sept 24 see www.windwardchess.org/forms/2005LJACC_CXR_Tourlessphotos.doc

Mahalo to STD Larry Reifurth for submitting the ratings report to the USCF for the quick processing and helping us get CXR ratings process quickly as well!

Paco

Windward Chess Club & 2005 U.S. Open news 01-02

Its Middle of August:

You can sense summer coming to end and the start of school year, but you can also sense there is OTB (over the board) chess battles going on everywhere, especially in the mainland. EMILY J LAU tied for 4th place against (47 players - 6 rounds 4 1/2 points) in the 2005 SP National Invitational for Girls! DANTON T LEE against (44 players - 6 rounds 2 1/2 points) played in the Denker Tournament of High School Champions and found some very tough competition! Only (home schooled 9th grader this year) Robert Lau Hawaii Scholastic co-champion with Danton Lee played in the 2005. U. S. Open this year, out of 454 players in this event Robert was the only Hawaii player in the huge U.S. Open tournament! Hmm what happen to the rest of the Hawaii USCF rated players? I know Gas prices are to high, hmm I was not able to make it either! Maybe next year in Chicago, IL!

Last time I (Frank Alejandro) was there (Chicago, IL) playing chess was in 1973 in the National High School Championships, I think its time I visited the U.S. Open again this time in Oakbrook, IL! Last trip to U.S Open was in 1999 in Reno, NV had 5 points (4) 1/2 points byes and won 3 out 5 in rounds 5 through 9.

Reminder: Both the Denker and Polgar scholastic tournaments gave away up to 5 scholarships worth $40,000.00 from the University of Texas at Dallas offering a four-year, full tuition and fees scholarships this year, two in Denker and three in the Polgar, plus many other awards! So is it worth playing chess and winning these events, what do you think!!!

Updated 8/16/05: After 9 rounds ROBERT M LAU finished with 6 points, having taken a 1/2 point bye in the first round and having scored an additional 5 1/2 points in rounds 2 to 9. We'll see if Emily, Danton or Robert will each give us a notated chess game to be presented here later this month! Please congratulate these fine scholastic chess players for traveling to Phoenix, AZ and representing Hawaii in these three events!

Emily will attending college so we wish her much success and we hope she continues playing in chess tournaments! Both Danton and Robert will be returning for another year of outstanding Hawaii interscholastic chess tournaments! Please give Guy Ontai and Randy Prothero a big Mahalo for their continuing support of scholastic chess and USCF /CXR rated events!

For those looking for the USCF wallchart of the July 4th - Rapids Chess Championship tournament, here's the link from USCF web site: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?200507042371. The 2005 Hawaii Rapids Champions are PAUL Y IINUMA & CORNELIUS RUBSAMEN both with 5 1/2 points out of six rounds!

The Windward Chess Quads continue, the last one for the summer will be on August 24 and the top Quad winners for Adults and scholastic will be awarded a free entry into the Hawaii State Championships, so if you have not been to Windward Mall lately, what are waiting for? Current leaders are Nelson Rodriquez (4 wins) (but due to a 59 day TDY to S. Korea he will not be here) so its wide open! For Scholastic Katie Tanabe and Billy Swartworth are tied as the current leaders with three Quad wins each! I will be on vacation August 28 to 31, but will see you Labor Day weekend!

For additional CXR ratings stats please visit www.chess-express.com! Russ Mollot just added a seasonal rating column that will start Sept 1 for all players! Resets each year in Sept, so now you can measure how your doing each year, the more you play the better the stats will help you know your game! The seasonal rating starts no matter if your a provisional or rated player! Russ is currently working on some more upgrades so we we will keep you posted! Want to start your own CXR club, just email Russ at info@chess-express.com for details and he'll get started! Of course all the other ratings and stats will continue to update after each game, they do not reset each year, just the seasonal rating and then its also added to your overall stats and ratings just like USCF, but you lots more data! Hmm! Think of it as you any sports, each year teams start with no stats and at the end of the year you have seasonal stats which are added to the overall stats, well CXR is doing something like that! No other chess rating system has ever attempted to do this for chess players, and at such a low annual cost you cannot go wrong using it!

Always check Hawaii Chess Federation web site for up to date information on Hawaii chess events tournamnets and results! www.hawaiichess.org.

August 21th & 28th Poolside Chess Camp at Mililani by Cornelius Rubsamen

Sept. 3rd Hawaii Blitz Championship at Ohana East Hotel Waikiki - TD Frank Alejandro

Sept 3rd to 5th Hawaii State Championships at Ohana East Hotel at Waikiki USCF rated - TD Larry Reifurth

Sept 24th Mililani Chess Day at Mililani - USCF rated - TD Randy Prothero

Sept 24th 2nd Annual Le Jardin Academy Open Scholastic Tournament CXR / HICL rated Kailua - TD Frank Alejandro

There will be at least 5 maybe 6 more scholastic tournament this season and of course more USCF tournaments so be sure to check Hawaii's Chess Federation web site regularly at www.hawaiichess.org!

USCF elected a New 2005 US Executive Board they are: Robert Tanner, Secretary (AZ), Joel Channing, VP Finance (FL), Greg Shahade (NY) (POC for the CXR affiliate New York Masters League), Bill Goichberg, President (NY), Don Schultz, VP (FL (photo L to R)

For more photos and news about U.S. Chess visit Susan Polgar's web site at http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com

Reminder to CXR players: ALL your USCF rated games games will also be rated by CXR! If your playing out of Hawaii (mainland) please advise via email to frank713@windwardchess.org to ensure I am aware and I can explain the details I'll need! There is no additional cost (besides the annual dues) for this service! So take advantage of it! I normally have 7 days for completion of tournament so be sure to let know ASAP about your mainland tournament plans!

Did you know you can stored your chess notation of each CXR rated game at www.chess-express.com, just log-in and find the game ID number and then follow menu to location where you can copy and paste the chess notation for future review! Remember both players have access to this game to ensure the notation is correct!

I know this a chess blog, but I also run the only affiliated American Go Club the "Kaneohe Go Club" http://go.meetup.com/179 and AGA just finished their own 489 players U.S. Go Congress in Washington State see www.usgo.org for more details see http://www.usgo.org/congress/2005.

Mahalo, and see you OTB either on the Chess board or Go board!!

Windward Chess Club news 01-01

June is almost over and the current leaders in the WCC Quad tournaments for winning is Nelson Rodriguez Doran (3) and Katie Tanabe (2) wins. Reminder, you have until the end of August to become the top winners. The Adult and scholastic players who win the most Quads (June to August) will qualify to have their entry fee paid for both the "Speed and Open or Reserve sections" of the Hawaii State Championships held during the Labor Day weekend Sept 3 to 5th, 2005. For a closer inspection of these Quad tournament results see www.windwardchess.org - Results section! You have two more months so come on out and try to qualify for these awards!

Tournament Notice: July 4th Hawaii Chess federation Hawaii State Rapids Championships at Mililani Town Center see http://chess.meetup.com/9 for more details and map. This is a USCF rated tournament, for CXR players your results will also be rated by CXR, even against non-CXR players. That's one more thing that makes CXR ratings special! As for only USCF members (players) your ratings will not be effected by CXR rating these games. Questions email me at frank713@windwardchess.org.

Help Needed! We still need chess players to help give beginner lessons on Wednesdays either OTB - Over-the-board or on demo board. So come help a new player become a better chess player! Or if you need refreshing stop by and play some skittles games with our young players as well as our seasoned players. Hmm, if you want to play me, you have to wait until I'm done with the beginner lessons and running the Quad tournaments I run each week. Hope to see you soon!

Insurance Notice: State Farm has renewed our insurance policy for WCC , so we need your donations for this and other expenses, via our suggested $12 WCC annual membership donations per member is a good start. CXR - Chess Express, Inc. Russ Mollot info@chess-express.com has offered to donate 50 percent of the insurance cost if the club gets the other half via donations. We are still a little short! Checkout the article on page 45, spring 2005 of the new Squares Magazine called "Different Ways of Rating" by Russ Mollot! In the article Russ discusses the "parbables for not changing to better ratings system" and list examples of how CXR helps a chessplayer!

Why do we need insurance? GGP Windward Mall management requires this for any organization that meets at the mall. Our WCC web site has a "Make a Donation button" as well as WCC membership form for those who want to get on the email list and / or join CXR or make a donation to help the club!

Mahalo! To Windward Mall (WM), Chess Express, Inc. (CXR), Andrew Fong our State Farm Agent (808) 263-2290, J & J Seafood Store and others who have given their time and donations to help the Windward Chess Club continue to meet at the mall to promote chess for everyone! This will be WCC's fourth year coming this Oct 2005. We hope to continue growing and making chess more fun to play!

Notice: We have a related Go Club. Anyone interested in learning the old game of Go! A game older than 4000 years old that started out in China and continues to be played around the world. Kaneohe, Hawaii now has the new AGA - American Go Association affiliated "Kaneohe Go Club" that meets on Mondays 7:00PM at Starbucks (across the street from WM. To be sure you know where we will be meeting as we grow, we recommend you check http://go.meetup.com/179. Do you wonder who ever played Chess and Go, I'll start with "Emmanuel Lasker (1868-1941), World Chess Champions 1894-1921 and myself still a novice Go player! So if I can do it so can you, see you soon on either the chess board or go board! Or meet me at Kiseido Go Server or Chess Academy Server! my ID is frank713 at both os these servers! If you have not seen the realtionship between these two clubs its that I direct and play at both these clubs! So stop by and see what its all about!

Mahalo!

Paco

Aloha - Welcome to Windward Chess Club's blog!

Our main goal is to promote chess for the community and to provide mentors for school chess programs. The club combines educational and social activities. Members come to play, to learn, and to get together with old friends and make new ones. The players, no matter what their level of skill, experience, or age - speak a common language, and one that is often not understood in other areas of a person's life. The rivalries are friendly; the friendships are competitive. The clubs can offer a wide variety of activities. There can be skittles, speed chess or rated games, etc. Club activities can include simultaneous extibitions, lectures, and even formal lessons, EVERY member is important to the success of the chess club.

We look forward to your ideas and feedback to improving and promoting chess in Hawaii!

Mahalo, Paco