Crossroads tournament results

As always, the Crossroads K-6 tournament was our first tournament of the year. We had 14 players participate, with an impressive 8 team members receiving medals for 3 or more wins, including 3 team members playing in their first tournament. Kennard was part of an exciting 5-way tie for 1st place, and the team took home the 2nd place trophy based on tie breaks. Congratulations to everyone who participated!

The Crossroads standings and cross-tables are available at http://gatewaychess.org/.

Tournaments 2013-2014

Date	Name	Location	Trophies	Format
Saturday 10/12, 9 am	Gateway Crossroads tournament	Crossroads School, St. Louis	3 individual per grade 3 team (5th & under)	5 rounds G/30, paired with K-6
Saturday 11/2, 9 am	Gateway Fall tournament*	Lindbergh High School, Sappington	5 individual (5th & under) 2 team (5th & under)	5 rounds G/30, paired with K-6
Tuesdays 11/5 – 12/17, 4:15 – 5:45 pm	Red Rook	McKinley School, St. Louis	3 individual per grade 3 team (4th & under) 3 team (8th & under)	14 rounds G/20, 2 rounds per week, paired with K-4 and K-8 Two sections, 4th & under and 8th & under. Younger players may play up.
Saturday 12/7, 9 am	Gateway Board tournament*	Chaminade High School, Creve Coeur	8 individual (5th & under) 2 team (5th & under)	6 rounds G/30, paired with K-9
Saturday 1/11, 9 am	Gateway Class tournament*	Festus High School, Festus	10 individual per board 2 team (5th & under)	4 rounds G/60, paired with K-12 Assigned to 1 of 4 boards according to USCF rating (1000+, 800-999, 600-799, under 600) and only paired with other players on the same board
Thursdays 1/16 – 2/20, ~4:30 – 6 pm	Gateway Junior High League tournament	Wydown Middle School, Clayton	TBD	6 rounds G/30, K-9, 1 round per week
Saturday 1/25, 9 am	Gateway Team tournament*	Pattonville High School, Maryland Heights	Team division: 2 individual per board (5th & under) 2 team (5th & under) Individual division: 1 per grade	4 rounds G/60, paired with K-12 Compete as a 5-person team. Individuals not on a team may also compete against other individuals not on a team.
Saturday 2/1, 9 am	Chris Bollinger Memorial tournament*	Wydown Middle School, Clayton	5 individual (5th & under) 2 team (5th & under)	5 rounds G/30, paired with K-9
Saturday 2/15, 9 am	Gateway Action tournament*	SLU Center for Global Citizenship, St. Louis	4 individual (5th & under) 4 team (5th & under)	6 rounds G/30, paired with K-12
Saturday 3/1	State Championship tournament	Battle High School, Columbia, MO	TBD	TBD
TBD, March or April	KCJA Chess tournament	KCJA	1 per quad	round-robin quads, G/30, K-6

Tournaments with a (*) are USCF-rated.
G/30 means 30 minutes per player, so the longest possible game would be 60 minutes if both players used all their time.
See http://www.gatewaychess.org/ and http://redrookchess.com/ for the latest tournament details. If something on those websites contradicts this post, it's safe to assume this post is wrong.

Kennard Quads 2013 Results!

Here are the results for this year's Kennard Quads - a very competitive day of chess for everyone! Thanks to the many volunteers who made this happen! To our visitors - We look forward to seeing you next year!!

2013 Kennard Quads Tournament - April 20th!

KENNARD CJA CHESS TOURNAMENT

All grades (K-6th) welcome--beginners to advanced!

SATURDAY, April 20, 2013

REGISTRATION 8:30 - 9:00 A.M.

First round starts at 9:30 A.M.

Awards 1:00 P.M.

Tournament play to be in the KENNARD CAFETERIA

Pre-registration by email: (name, age, grade, school, parent/guardian name & phone #) to kcjachesstigers@gmail.com

Please indicate if this is the player’s first tournament.

Chess Tigers Free

Early Registration Fee (by April 17)

$5 Kennard students, $10 Others

$12 day of tournament if space available, but must arrive by 9:00 a.m.

Concessions will be available for breakfast and lunch.

Students need not be rated.  Students are encouraged to bring their own clock and chess set but equipment sets will be available for loan.  Tournament will be quads format

A 30-minute time control will be used.

Awards: a trophy for 1st place and a medal for 2nd place in each quad.

Sponsored by the Kennard CJA Chess Tigers  

Tournament Director:  David Sullins

Questions: email kcjachesstigers@gmail.com

Crossroads Results

We had the first tournament of the new year on Saturday.  The team just missed out on a team trophy. We lost out via tie-braks. We will get it next time. We did have two players win individual awards. We had a third place finisher in the kindergarten grade and we had a medalist in the 3rd grade.  We had 21 children play and represent Kennard. Half of them had not played in a tournament before. This is a very young and inexperienced team. I am very proud how they played. They were holding onto second place in the team standings until the very end and just missed the trophy. We had fun and learnd and will continue to do better at the year goes on.

Sorry for the lack of pictures.

Club Policies

The Kennard Chess Tigers invite any KCJA student interested in chess to participate as a member of our chess club. The Chess Tigers are from all grade levels and range in their enthusiasm from introductory students to expert tournament fans. Our meetings are usually evenly divided between chess strategy lessons and “skittle games”. Though our membership is limited, we add new students at the beginning of the school year and throughout the season as spots become available.

Practices: Kennard Chess Tigers meet weekly on Tuesday, immediately after school until 5:30pm in the Library at Kennard. You should pack a snack to send with your child, as this is a very long day. Parents are expected to arrive no later than 5:15pm to pick up your child. The time between parent arrival and practice dismissal is used to communicate necessary information to parents. Failure to pick up your child in a timely fashion will result in a late fee assessment of $1 per minute past 5:45pm. 

Attendance: Members are expected to attend at least 80% of the Tuesday practice sessions. Practice attendance and participation are crucial parts of membership as students learn and master key factors of the game; ranging from naming the pieces, basic chess strategy, logging their moves, and finishing with checkmate.

Behavior: During practice and lessons, members are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that does not disrupt either the lesson time or the practice time. It is important that we respect the school’s property, our instructor’s time, and the adults that are volunteering their proctoring services that day. The first time a student has to be asked to leave a teaching session will result in a parent conference. Continuing offenses will result in a meeting of the Chess Board to determine the appropriate consequence based on severity of offense and regularity of offenses. Each Chess Tiger (and his/her parent) will be required to sign a Behavior Contract indicating that s/he understands these rules.

Instructor: Katlyn Miller will be instructing our children this year. A 8th grader at McKinley Middle School, Katlyn joined us as a coaching assistant last year and took over this fall. Katlyn is a member McKinley's chess team.

Parents: Volunteer time is required of our dedicated Chess Tiger Parents (without whom the club could not operate). Parents will have three volunteer obligations per child throughout the season, though more are encouraged. Sign up will be available at the first practice in September. Volunteer opportunities include, but are not limited to, proctoring Tuesday chess club practices, attending and reserving tables at chess tournaments, carpool transport to Red Rook, fund raising opportunities, and keeping this web site up to date.

Fees: This year the membership fee will be $32 per student and you will need to choose one of two USCF scholastic memberships. The regular scholastic membership is $17 and includes online access to Chess Life for Kids or the premium scholastic membership is $24 and includes a printed copy of Chess Life for Kids. There is also a $12 registration fee for each Gateway Chess League tournament. Please consider the financial obligations, as well as volunteer time, and then ask your child for their thoughts.

Tournaments: All club members are required to join the United States Chess Federation (USCF) and attend at least 3 out of the 7 USCF sponsored tournaments. We are members of the Gateway Chess League for both tournament and league participation, and attend most of their events. These tournaments are held on Saturdays (about once a month) and last all day. A typical tournament begins at 9:00am and does not end until 7:00pm. All tournament registration fees and accumulated late fees must be paid no later than the close of practice the Tuesday before the scheduled tournament date.

Red Rook: Red Rook Chess League is a 7 week tournament the club participates in at McKinley CLA during the months of November and December. The exact dates for this year have not yet been announced.   As a result there will be no chess meetings at Kennard during this time. This year we will be carpooling 2^nd – 5^th graders from Kennard to McKinley. Due to the logistics of car seat and booster seat requirements we are not able to extend the carpool option to our younger members. K-1 students who wish to attend must provide their own transportation. All parents will be expected to pick up their children at McKinley at 5:30pm. Participation in Red Rook counts as 1 tournament toward a member’s 3 tournament requirement. .

Kennard Invitational:

To end the year, the Chess Tigers sponsor a Saturday tournament at Kennard. Other elementary schools are invited and trophies are awarded. This year we are planning to host the tournament in April, exact date TBA.

2010-2011 Season upon us

The KCJA Chess Tigers will start up again in September and the Gateway Chess League tournaments will start up in October.

Looking forward to another fun year of chess with some new faces on the team.

Watch this blog for updates on the team and information about the upcoming tournaments and results of course.