February 2008 Scholastic Side

  I hope everyone is staying warm in the winter weather. I am gearing up for what looks like a big turnout at the February 9th Iowa Elementary and Primary Team Championships at Jordan Creek Elementary in West Des Moines. The tournament is for Grades K-6. There will be 23 individual prizes. If your school is not sending a team, your child can still have fun and a chance at a prize. Also, I am again having a free parents section for this tournament. The kids seem to really enjoy watching the parents play so I hope you will consider participating.

  The IASCA crowned 3 champions in January. On the 19th, Dan Brashaw and Matt Anzis shared the Iowa High School Championship at Ankeny’s Northview Middle School. They will have a playoff on March 8th to determine Iowa’s nominee to the Denker tournament of High School Champions in August. Thanks are in order to Ankeny High School chess coach Chuck Lierman, who secured the playing site after the original Ankeny High School site pre-empted us. Jeremy Madison of Ankeny won the youth trophy tournament held with the championship. There were 26 players, which was a nice turnout considering that we had to compete not only with the First Lego League in Ames, but a competing chess tournament in Cedar Rapids. The best thing about the smallish turnout is that many new players from Bondurant got to win a trophy in their very first tournament. Sometimes organizing and running tournaments can be a chore, what with changing sites at the last moment, dealing with competing tournaments the week before or the day of, getting extra trophies for tie breaks, etc.. It made me feel great to see the new players ear to ear smiles from when they got their trophies until they were leaving the building a half-hour later.

  On January 26th, Melanie Culpepper of Creston won the Iowa Girls Championship with a last round victory over 2 time champion Dhrooti Vyas. The tournament was held at Creston High School and sponsored by Joe Stull, Melanie’s dad. You can see Joe helping direct at many IASCA Scholastic events. There was also a Youth Unrated tournament at the same time which was won by Akash Mitra of Ames. There was some local newspaper publicity of the tournaments and hopefully Joe will be able to give Creston Chess a jump start. Joe will also be conducting a fund-raising effort to help Melanie afford the trip to Dallas for the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls this August in Dallas. While the IASCA does provide a small stipend, it does not begin to cover the expenses involved in a week-long trip. There have been years when expenses have kept the Girls or High School Champions from competing in the national events.