CalNorth Youth Chess Swiss on March 16, 2013

The following e-mail was sent to all registrants of the March 16, 2013 CalNorth Youth Chess Swiss held at Weibel Elementary School. 

The CalNorth Youth Chess staff and myself would like to thank you all for attending the March 16, 2013 Swiss Style tournament.  While 169 players was far from a record for this event, my staff reports that things went more smoothly than most large tournaments and the parents and children were wonderful.

The results, USCF Ratings and photographs can be viewed from the links at http://www.CalNorthYouthChess.org/photographs.html.  As always, you can download any posted photographs gratis.

I look forward to your joining us again on May 11 and June 8 for the always popular CalNorth Youth Chess Quads.  The CalNorth Youth Chess staff wishes everyone attending this year's Super Nationals in Nashville and the Girl's Nationals in Chicago the best of luck.  In fact, good luck to all those players attending any upcoming chess event.

The Vote is In!

Forty-eight families voted as to whether or not the Weibel Team should attend the CalChess State Championships this year.  I had indicated that unless 40 families voted, I did not think the outcome should be binding.  I also wrote that the outcome of the vote had to be clear even if 40 families did vote.   Seven people abstained, 15 voted to attend and 26 voted not to attend.  The outcome is clear.  The Weibel Team players will not be attending the 2013 CalChess Scholastic State Championships.  

A number of people wrote comments on their ballot even though I  did not ask for any.  Rather then print all of the comments, I will simply print one that I think is representative of each side.

To attend:  “I would vote to attend the CalChess State Scholastic Championships even though I really do not like to see Dr. Azhar in charge of this event.”
Not to attend:  “We have to send the right message, so I vote No.”

I have removed my posting of last night as Tom withdrew his permission for his initial response to the parent.  He revised his comments without any history of the events that led up to the initial decision of the Weibel parents not to attend the 2012 CalChess State Championships.  In his revised statement he only presented information on how he felt future situations similar to the ones that occurred to our players, parents and team might be avoided.  He did give permission for the inserted information to be posted along with his willingness to work on any further details of these statements:
FROM TOM:
"1. When a child enters a tournament where I am a director, I want them to be treated absolutely equally regardless of race, background, gender or team/school/coach affiliation.

2. Regardless of the outcome of the vote, all players in Northern California are welcome to have a fun and enjoyable State Championship Event experience.

3. Both John McCumiskey and I (as the chief TDs) have offered to be the direct contacts with any player, parent or coach that may have an issue with any organizer that runs a CalChess tournament, and we will personally help resolve any issues directly with the player, parent or coach.

4.  Both John and I will supervise the TD staffing to ensure that any TD will not oversee a section where they have sibling participating.  We will also be instructing the entire staff as to what their responsibilities are and how issues should be resolved properly."

Tom Langland
CalChess President