SUPERNATIONALS in April, Nashville TN

Two years ago, the Mill Valley 3rd graders (including one 2nd grader, Jorin McGuire), took home the National Championship in the K-3 Unrated division of the annual elementary school USCF tournament.
The event is again at the amazing Gaylord Hotel on April 3 thru April 5, 2009. This year it's called the SUPERnationals because the high school tournament is the same weekend at the same hotel! Thousands of chess players from around the country. New friends, great fun. Attending so far is Reid, Evan and possibly Kolt. There are many divisions for rated and unrated players of various skill level. Evan will be competing in the K-5 open section.
There will be buses going from the WSCF and some will drive. It's about 9 hours. We are not sure yet but will probably fly. Give it some thought, it is an amazing event!!! Soon I will post some photos from the Gaylord and the nationals a couple years back.

Supernationals IV
Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center 4/3 – 4/5 2009
2802 Opryland Drive
Nashville, TN 37214
615-883-2211
Official Tournament Life Announcement w/details (TLA) under National Events

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to Lake Denoon Parents and Kids!

New USM photos

I just uploaded several more photos from USM. To see them, click on the little camera button on the right side of this screen (the left button that is). Click on the University School folder and you will see the thumbnails (small photos). Click on the photo you want to see.
Want to see something really cool? After clicking on a photo, click on the View Slide Show link at the top and it will give you a nice loop through the event photos with a nice panning and fading effect.

E. Seghers v. J.Hetzel

Below is a good game Evan played last February. This is a good way to see how to take notation. Click on the buttons below the game to progress through the game and you can see the corresponding notation. This is a great new chess engine I found which can help us post our best games. Fax me your games or email me the notation and I will post them!

New Photo Album

I have also added a photo album- see on the right. Let me know if you have photos to add! - Mark

New Chess Calendar (Look on the Right)

See the new chess calendar on the right hand side of this page!
Please consult this calendar to see what's coming for the LDMS Knights. Right now it's only updated through Dec 6... but this is where you can go to see what's coming and when. Thanks! - Mark

LDMS Knights Get a Display Case!

Mr. Oertel and Mr. Nagy were gracious enough to lend the LDMS Knights the front display case outside of the office! Let me know if you have ideas for filling this space with stuff, or if you have trophies you would like to lend to the display!
- Mark/Mr. Seghers

It Takes a Team

While only four players "count" to the team total, it's important to see that EVERYONE contributes to a team win.

At USM on Saturday, out of 6 wins, our players had 5, 4.5, 4, 4, 3.5, 3.5 and 3. Nobody had a losing record! Rachel had a tough loss in round four and came back and won her last two! Every win counts, because it takes away wins from another team. Chris T. and Kolt are almost ALWAYS one of the top 4, and started strong this time, but had a tough finish against some underrated opponents. No problem- we had Brian and Brady step up in the final game and beat players with higher ratings!

The mark of a good team isn't just the same players all the time. It's getting 2 or 3 wins from everybody, and getting at least one win from the first timers! Just like in basketball or any other physical sport, it's about the fundamentals. Mr. Reese taught many of our kids the fundamentals at Mill Valley, and these lessons carry on to our new players.

Great start to the season!!!

LDMS Knights Take K-6 at University School!

The USM K-6 Rulers

When we saw that the University School of Milwaukee chess team was throwing 16 kids into the K-6 division, we knew we had our work cut out for us, and decided to put all 8 of our kids into K-6, rather than pull 2 or three into K-9 as we had thought earlier. USM was gunning for us, I think, because we had taken the first place team and player trophy last year while at Mill Valley. Ironically, all 8 of our team were at Mill Valley last year. Also ironically, the USM tournament is run this year by the brand-new WSCA chess association, headed by former Mill Valley coach Greg Reese! We decided to pull the team together as one and see what we could do.

It was a tough task. Here was our roster. Rachel and Brady were unrated, never having played in a USCF-rated event before.

1. Evan 1387
2. Reid 965
3. Chris 943
4. Kolt 582
5. Brian 485
6. Josh 440
7. Rachel ---
8. Brady ---

The USM school had the following:

1. Andrew B. 1131
2. Sam S. 939
3. John V. 917
4. Charlie B. 911
5. Dakota D. 892
6. Yaseen N. 800
7. Michael K. 692
8. Plus 9 more unrated players

The way the tournament works is, the top four scores from each team are counted. We started out well enough in the first round, going 5-3, tied with USM at 4 points each. Then we had a tough second round, and only two players were 2-0. USM had four at 2-0. We had a great third round, going 6-2 and took a half-point lead which we held until round 5. In round five, we went 4-3-1, and our top four players either lost or drew! It seemed like we were completely out of it at that time. We were down 1.5, 14.5 to USM's 16.0. In round 6, we went 5-2-1, including some very important wins by Brian and Brady to bring their records to 4-2.

Would it be enough? Just barely!!!!

Evan said "I think the people who really stepped up were Brady and Brian. They haven't played in a while, but they got back on track to where they used to be!"

Actually, the entire team stepped up. None of the kids on our 8-person team had a losing record! Evan had 5 points, Reid 4.5, Brady and Brian had 4. Chris T. had 3.5, and Josh, Kolt and Rachel had 3 each.

Way to go LDMS Knights! I will post some pictures later today!

LDMS Roll Call for USM

Playing in the USM tournament tomorrow for LDMS are:

K-9 Division

• Reid Seghers
• Kolt Otterbacher
• Chris Tillson

K-6 Division

• Evan Seghers
• Rachel Gomoll * needs USCF registration
• Josh Bartz
• Brian Schroeder
• Brady Megal * needs USCF registration
• (Zeke Baker tentative) *needs USCF registration

LDMS is going for a team trophy in both K-9 and K-6. The arrangement above gives us a good chance. There will be over 150 kids in this tournament, and the K-6 division is PACKED with good players. The K-9 division is surprisingly small- three experienced players will give us a good shot there- any more than that might be overkill, and we need as many players as possible in the crowded K-6 field.

Click on http://www.wscachess.org/wscachess/custom/signed_up.php?id=1 to see many of the registered participants. We're not shown on the list yet, but the above players have been locked in at the lower registration price (pending payment for tournament and USCF registration.

To play in this tournament, a person must first be registered to the USCF. The WSCA and USM is offering a discount on USCF registration for this tournament. This is a cheap way to sign up for the USCF and get a rating!

Thanks and hope to see many of you there tomorrow!

LDMS Prepared to Rock the WSCA at USM

Is that enough acronyms for you??

This Saturday, LDMS will field a good-sized team at the new WSCA's USM tournament. So far, confirmed we have Reid, Evan, Kolt, Josh, Brady, Chris T, Rachel and Brian.

Still wish to register? No problem, just give me a call or email, thanks! - Mark

Reid takes 2nd Place Trophy in USCF Junior Reserve!

A little out of date (sorry Reid!) but Reid Seghers took 2nd place in the Reserve Section of the recent USCF Wisconsin Junior tournament (under age 20, under 1100 rating for Reserve). Reid won 4.5 out of 5 of his games to boost his rating to over 1000! Great job Reid!
Also attending were Evan Seghers and Josh Bartz, who had some great games and very tough opponents- and took notation to learn from their defeats! Since the tournament, Josh has been working very hard on his game. Way to go Josh!

Next tournament: USM November 22!!!

The next tournament for LDMS as a team is NEXT WEEKEND, November 22, at the prestigious University School of Milwaukee. Last year at USM, Mill Valley Elementary's team took first place! Maybe some of those same players - and some of our new players - can contribute to helping LDMS do it this year! This promises to be a GREAT tournament by a new Chess Association, the WSCA. The tournament flyer can be accessed by clicking here.

Gregory Reese, Sr., who has done so much for Muskego chess and for many of our LDMS players, is one of the organizers of this new Chess Association. Ashish Vaja, a Wisconsin Master and top-flight trainer, and Mike Neitman, a Wisconsin USCF leader, will be tournament directors. I would like very much for us to support this new Chess Association through our attendance and of course through our best efforts as players.

I'd like for us to have a big showing at this tournament!!! Please let me know if your child would like to play. If your child is on the fence, or perhaps fearful of attending their first tournament, let's talk! This would be a great one to start. Remember Chris M's success just a few weeks ago in his first tournament!!! There is a K-6 and a K-9 division- I know we will at least have a K-6.

Thank you very much.

Mark Seghers
(262) 679-4051 home
(414) 379-7401 cell
seghers@gmail.com

Kasparov v. Topalov (1999)

Did you ever hear of Garry Kasparov? An amazing chess player and amazing leader. Actually had the guts to challenge Putin for Prime Minister of Russia (although of course due to the facade of democracy they have over there, Mr. Kasparov was not allowed to win). Sort of like playing chess with no Rooks or a Queen.

Here is an amazing game of his from 1999, rated by some as one of the best games of chess ever played. Click on the controls to move through the game. Check out the Rook sacrifice on move 24! After black takes with pawn, Kasparov makes a devastating check with his remaining Rook- Question here- why doesn't black take back? Give it a little thought... then enjoy the rest of the game...

No Chess Team on Nov 10

NO CHESS ON MONDAY Nov 10. Mr. Seghers will be out of town. Class resumes the following week, on Nov 17.

Watch for the announcements for the beginning of Mr. Antoniewicz' Thursday Chess Club! I strongly recommend this club for players of all skills to learn and practice!

- Mr. Seghers/ Mark

The Internet Chess Club

One thing I strongly recommend to the LDMS players is the Internet Chess Club. You can find the Internet Chess Club, or ICC, at http://www.chessclub.com/.
To register for the ICC, you go to this site, read about it, and then download the "Dasher" software to your computer. There is a free trial, or you can pay right away. For students, the fee is $29 for a full year.
The ICC Dasher is your window into the online chess world. Over 100,000 games are played each day. There's usually about 3,000 people online at any time, sitting at their computers somewhere in the world. To play, you simply ask for a game. The Dasher asks what kind of opponent you want, what color you want to play, how long of a game, etc. You submit your request and wait- usually just a few minutes- and your game begins!
After you're done with the game, you can save and/or print the notation so you can replay the game! In fact, if you EMAIL that notation to me, I can post the ACTUAL GAME here on our blog site!!! Below as an example of how a game looks when it is posted on the Internet. A very sloppy late night game I played recently... I look forward to posting our own games soon as soon as I get some notation from you!

Nov 3 Class Update

Great class today from 3-4 in Room 419.

13 kids today- very attentive, one and all. Thanks to parents for encouragement on your side!

Today, we talked about the great tournament last Saturday, and the two coming up- this weekend in Oshkosh, and the weekend after at Goodrich. Chris said he enjoyed his first tournament and everybody got to see the trophy.
We walked thru a couple of the tournament games, and talked about 1) the scholar's mate and 2) the fools' mate. Kolt had a three-move win on Saturday! We talked about how that happened.
We then talked about decoys leading to wins, and leading to forks which can win at least a piece.
Then, Evan came up and taught the kids a little about ENDGAMES... Evan showed how a pawn can be escorted to the end of the board by a King, and how best to protect the pawn along the way, either with a King or a Rook. The other kids were very respectful and attentive to Evan.

Some kids (Rachel, Brady, Zeke, and others) mentioned they want to become registered for the USCF- this is a great move! I'm awarding 5 chess points for registration. Almost every kid got 3 points today for a great class. I am keeping track of the chess point accumulation and will be posting the tallies very soon.

Mr. Seghers / Mark

LDMS Knights Take First in K5 at Holy Trinity WSCF!!

LDMS Rocks the WSCF!!

On Saturday, Nov 1, Lake Denoon took first place at Holy Trinity Lutheran School in Okauchee, in the WSCF K-8 Championship.

The team of Kolt, Reid, Chris M, and Rachel took 13.5 points, winning by 2.5 over Brookfield Acadamy. Kolt and Reid took 4 points, Rachel won 2.5 points, and...
The big news in this tournament was Chris Mangan, who in his FIRST TOURNAMENT EVER, got THREE WINS!!! This is a great beginning for Chris!! Our goal for new tournament players is usually to win ONE game... that is hard enough... but Chris won THREE! Way to go Chris! Without his wins, we would not have won the tournament!

It is a little nervewracking to play in your first tournament. Chris put aside his nerves, and got it done! In his last game, he was behind, when he saw the opponent's weak point! Sliding his rook to the back row, Chris trapped his overconfident opponent's King in the corner behind his pawns.

Kolt Otterbacher took fifth place to win a trophy in K5! In tiebreakers, Reid took sixth place. Chris took 18th and Rachel took 20th in the crowded K5 field.

The top K-5 teams were as follows:

1 LAKE DENOON MIDDLE SCHOOL, MUSKEGO (4) 13.5

• OTTERBACHER, KOLTON (4.0,546)
• SEGHERS, REID N (4.0,885)
• MANGAN, CHRIS (3.0,369)
• GOMOLL, RACHEL (2.5,345)

2 BROOKFIELD ACADEMY, BROKFIELD (4) 11
KULKARNI, PRANAV (5.0,1122)
ULATOSKI, HANNAH (3.0,457)
YAHIAOUI, SAMMY (2.0,286)
ULATOWSKI, GRETA (1.0,100)

3 TOSA SCHOOL OF HEALTH SCIENCES (6) 10.5
WIJETUNGE, ROSHAN (4.0,704)
TOYE, BRANDON (3.0,497)
MINIX, SAM (2.0,291)
McGEE, MAYA (1.5,202)

4 BLAIR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, WAUKES (9) 10.5
BUE, BEN (3.0,437)
SOLFEST, MIKE (3.0,380)
SOTO, RICARDO (2.5,489)
HAUSER, NICK (2.0,260)
GRAYSON, JON (2.0,221)

In the K-8 division, Evan Seghers played alone and did very well, winning 4 out of his 5 games. His only loss came against the very tough Magellan player Troy Z, who was able to create a passed pawn and promote to win. We'll see you again, Mr. Z! *smile*