LDMS K-9ers Take First at Badger!

After a Strong Showing at USM (2nd place for K-6 and 3rd place for K-12), LDMS took the 1st place trophy in K-9 at this weekend's Badger Open. Evan took 2nd place in the division, and Jason took 4th, and Reid took 5th to all win individual trophies as well. Also participating were Zeke, Josh, and Kolt. Way to go guys, a fun day at a waterpark was a real bonus.

LDMS heads to University School

the people in the pictures move!

A real nice tournament shaping up at University School this Saturday! The last two years, we have won their K-6 first place trophy by a slim margin thanks to a last-round win by Jorin Maguire! We have won first place individually as well, the last three years. This year our powerful group of 7th graders will do their best in the huge, hotly contested K-12 division.

Never seen a tournament? Come on out to watch!

Lake Denoon Middle School will have a K-12 and a K-6 team for this tournament. If you would like to register and you dont see your child on this list, let me know! List: http://www.wscachess.org/wscachess/custom/signed_up.php?id=25

New room for Chess

FYI,
We are moving rooms for chess from now on. Time is the same. Wednesdays, 630-800pm. Room is now 538. This room is right near the front doors. In the main doors, turn to right, and it is the first room there, right off the commons area.
See you next Wednesday! PRACTICE! USM on Nov 20!

Awonder? He certainly is...

To all: (from Mike Nietman of the USCF and WCA)

Here is an e-mail I just got from Yingming ‘Will’ Liang. Awonder was paired up to board one and defeated the top seeded player in the section, a Vietnamese FM who is the Asian U8 Champ!

Note that they are using FIDE ratings and in that section especially, there are a lot of unrateds like Awonder. So, it’ll take several rounds to figure out who all the real players are.

Daily updates from the coaches will be on the headlines at www.uschess.org. In addition, the direct website for the event is http://wycc2010.chessdom.com/. Games start at 8 A.M. central time and top boards may be shown on the internet at a link on the USCF’s story page. It doesn’t look like they have all of the pages on the event site working yet but it is just day one.

Calendar Updated

Please see chess calendar at bottom of this page. Updated thru November so far.
Several more tournaments will be available in Dec and Jan.

2010-2011 Season Underway!

A new season is underway!

It was great to see so many Mill Valley kids at our first chess class on the 13th! Many LDMS kids also showed up, but we were missing several of our top players, who will hopefully join us in week 2. LDMS is getting the word out about the classes now. Several new players from LDMS including some 5th graders. We should have a strong K-6 to go along with our powerful and proven K-8 group this year.
We talked about the upcoming season, and did a demonstration and some puzzles. We played some quick games and had a lot of fun. Everybody admitted they were a little rusty after the long hot Summer! Thanks to all the parents and co-coaches who helped out, this will be a great season!
Next week, at the same time (Wednesday, 630-800pm at LDMS room 419), we will be focusing on ENDGAMES for all divisions.

Chess Begins!!!!

The Knights of Mill Valley and
The Knights of Lake Denoon Middle School
2010-2011 CHESS TEAM UPDATE FOR PARENTS

Hello Chess Parents! Please see information below about the Mill Valley and Lake Denoon Chess Teams! Two Schools - Two Teams - One weekly class!

CHESS TEAM MEETINGS – The Knights meet most Wednesdays from 6:30pm-8:00pm at Lake Denoon Middle School, in Room 419. The first class of the year is NEXT WEDNESDAY at 6:30PM. Some weeks, there will be no class.

To stay informed, please:
1. Make sure I have your EMAIL address- you can email me at Seghers@gmail.com and mention your child’s name, etc., and I will add you to our email list. I rely on email! You can also call me at 262-679-4051. I really need to rely on email- please use this first!
2. Please watch our BLOG on the Internet, at http://mvchess.blogspot.com and http://ldmschess.blogspot.com – these are very important places to go on the Internet for team news, tournament schedules, pictures and MUCH MUCH more! Can anyone help update these? Let me know!

These meetings cover chess tactics and the ins and outs of tournament play. Tournaments are a whole lot of fun, and we hope you will encourage your child to join one to try it out, if he/she hasn’t yet! It is rare that a kid goes to a tournament and does not want to go to another tournament again- usually this helps them "get the fever!" Our goal for each player, and for the team, is IMPROVEMENT. We ask for every player to improve throughout the year as a player, a competitor, and a team member. Through chess, we learn a great deal about competition, sportsmanship, concentration and many other lessons. I ask our students to be attentive and involved during classes. Each child needs to SIGN IN and each parent must SIGN THEM OUT at the end of class- thank you! This is critical, please help.

TOURNAMENTS – The Knights of Mill Valley, and The Knights of Lake Denoon, will be playing in several tournaments this year. These are usually on Saturdays. The schedule will be posted on our BLOG WEB SITE as explained above. Some tournaments are scholastic and do not require a USCF rating, others would require USCF membership. This will be spelled out on the blog as information becomes available about each tournament. It's best to become USCF Certified if you can- this way your child can have a USCF Rating and can track their progress as they learn.

RIDE SHARE: Some parents would like their children to participate in Chess Team meetings and tournaments, but rides are a problem. We MAY sometimes be able to ride share between parents. Please contact me if you would either like to offer another child a ride, or if your child ever needs a ride. We’ll set up meetings between parents to discuss. You can also leave a comment on the blog, or do a “Reply to All” on the emails I send.

PRACTICE: The best, and really the ONLY way for your child to improve their game is PRACTICE. I recommend the Internet Chess Club- easy to find online, or online play, if there is no competitive players at home. Kids learn quickly, by taking notation and playing lots of games! I also recommend ChessMaster program for the computer. There are endless web sites and instructional books out there as well. Please let me know if you have questions about any of this. Historically, the best players come from homes with parents who play chess and/or are active and supportive. There is not much that can be learned in the 1.5 hours per week of class- this is just the beginning.

Thank you!
Mark Seghers

LDMS Knights Win Joust at Bay Lane

USCF Open Division (not pictured = Chris)
USCF U-700 Division

K-6 Division

Congratulations again to Lake Denoon Middle School chess team for a great tournament at Bay Lane Middle School. Two more 1st place team trophies, and a close 2nd. We also took home 6 more individual trophies.
Our cross-town rivals hosted their own tournament, and LDMS brought 14 players who divided into three divisions: K-12, K-6 and Under700 rated. Our K-6 team of Jason, Kolt, Brian, Anthony and Blake took 1st place.
Our U-700 team of Josh, Rachel, Jacob, Willa, and John also took 1st place in that division. Wins by Rachel and Willa in the 6th round iced it for LDMS. Way to go Girls!!!!

Our USCF Open (k-12) team of Evan and Reid, Jorin and Chris (k-3 unrated national champs a few years ago) tied for first place, but took 2nd place on tie-breakers to a very tough Eisenhower Middle School. Gregory Jr of Bay lane won the K-12 division by avenging his loss at Grade Level to Evan! Evan said "I didn't really blunder today... he really just outplayed me. He deserved it." This was a very tough division on this day!
Individual trophies went to Jason who went 6-0 to win the K-6 Division, Josh who went 5-1 to take 2nd in the U-700 division. Great job Jason and Josh!!!
Other individual trophies were won by Kolton, Brian, Evan, and Reid.

Kudos to Mr. Reese and the WSCA for holding a great, well-organized and fun tournament!
Full results can be found by clicking here: http://www.wscachess.org/wscachess/custom/results/BayLane2010.htm

NEXT UP: Elmwood on 3/13 and then the State Scholastic tournament on 3/20-21 !!!!

LDMS Takes 6th Grade State Championship

Royal Blue, plus Kolt in the Yellow hat

Congratulation to the Lake Denoon Chess Team, who won another state championship at the Milwaukee School of Engineering this weekend. The team of Evan, Reid, Jason, Kolt, Brian, Chris T., Rachel, Zeke, and Blake won first place in the state for 6th grade, scoring 13 out of a possible 15 points.
Evan went 5-0 to win the 1st place individual trophy. Reid went 4-1 to take 5th place trophy. In fifth grade, Jorin and Jacob G. didnt have enough for a team, but Jorin won the 3rd place individual trophy in 5th grade.

Click here for FULL RESULTS from the WSCF web site. Kudos to the WSCF for a well-run tournament and a great venue at MSOE. Best skittles room... EVER....

Great job Lake Denoon Chess Team!

Grade Level Roll Call

For Grade Level so far, we have the following players so far:
5 Jorin
5 Jacob G
6 Evan
6 Reid
6 Jason
6 Chris
6 Kolt
6 Rachel
6 Zeke
6 Blake
We are locked in at the $20 rate- please RSVP if you want to play and arent on the list above!!!

Next Up: WI Grade Level at MSOE

Next Saturday, Feb 20, is one of my favorite events of the year. Hundreds of kids around the state come together for the Wisconsin Grade Level Chess Tournament. Last year, with a team of Reid, Evan, Chris, Kolt, Jason, Brian, Rachel, Josh and Zeke, we won the first place trophy for 5th Grade, edging out University School and their amazing Expert-level leader Sasha. Click here to read about and see pictures of Lake Denoon's 5th Grade Level Championship last year.
This year, we have a great shot at both the 6th place, and also the 5th place, trophies, if we have good participation. So far, we have Reid, Evan, Jason, and Rachel signed up for 6th grade, and JacobG and Jorin signed up for 5th grade. This year the tournament will be held at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, 1025 N. Broadway 53202 <-click for map Click here to see the tournament flyer with all the details. I will be taking a van, and can take a couple more kids. To sign up, just RSVP via email to me at s e g h e r s @ g m a i l . c o m (without the spaces) and I will register you- please dont register yourselves.

Please consider joining us for this amazing, well organized, well attended annual event!!

Thank you.

Evan, Reid, Kolt and Josh represent LDMS

The team of Reid, Evan, Kolt and Josh will be representing LDMS in the annual US Amateur Team North tournament tomorrow at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Go LDMS Knights!

LDMS 6th Graders take Sheboygan K-12

Brian, Reid, Kolt, Evan

7 strong High School players came down from Southern Door High School to take the K-12 Division of the chess tournament at Sheboygan Christian on Saturday. Instead, four 6th graders- Reid & Evan Seghers, Kolt Otterbacher, and Brian Schroeder came up from Muskego Wisconsin and took home the first place trophy! Reid went 5-0 to win first, Kolt had 4.5 to take 2nd, Evan 4.0 to take 4th overall, and Brian had 3 out of 5 to take 9th.

Congratulations to the Golda Meir team who took the K-6 division.

LDMS In-Class Tournament Update!

So far thru 4 rounds, we have a three-way tie for first place: Evan, Reid and Rachel Gomoll each have 3.5 out of a possible 4. Following closely behind, we have Kolt and Jason at 3 out of 4.

In the 5th round, we have the following projected pairings (White vs. Black shown):
Round 5
Reid (3.5) Vs. Evan (3.5)
Rachel (3.5) Vs. Jason (3.0)
Kolt (3.0) Vs. Chris (2.5)
Brian Vs. JacobG
Jorin Vs. Blake
Josh Vs. JacobS
Zeke Vs. Anthony
David Vs. Ben
John Vs. Cassie
Willa - TBD

If Rachel beats Jason, then she will play the winner of the game between Reid and Evan for the 09-10 LDMS tournament championship! If Jason beats Rachel, then the winner of Reid Vs. Evan is the champion. If Reid and Evan Draw, and Rachel beats Jason, Rachel is the champion. If Reid and Evan Draw, and Jason beats Rachel, then there will be a three-way tie between Jason, Reid and Evan which will be played off in subsequent weeks. A tie breaker will not decide this tournament!!!

LDMS Tournament Pictures

The WSCA pictures are now available online for Lake Denoon
More coming up soon!

LDMS In-class Tournament!

We are holding a 5-round in-class tournament at LDMS.

The winner of this tournament gets their name on a plaque for 2010, that's already up in the chess room. This is the continuation of a great tradition put in place originally by the previous chess coach, Mr. Antoniewicz.

Below are the standings so far: (M=Miss, B=BYE, Wn = win against player #n, Ln= loss against player #n. Example: L5 = loss to rachel)

Round 3 is this week!!!

Standings after 2nd round (Place-Name-1- 2- 3- 4- 5- TOTAL)
1 -Reid -W10 -W13 -2.0
2 -Chris -W9 -W11- 2.0
3 -Jason- W7 -W8- 2.0
4 -Evan -M- W14- 1.5
5 -Rachel -W17- M- 1.5
6 -JacobG- W16- M- 1.5
7 -Kolt -L7- W16- 1.0
8 -Jorin -W15- L3- 1.0
9 -Brian- L2- W17- 1.0
10- Josh- L1- W15- 1.0
11- David- W12 -L2- 1.0
12- John- L 11-B- 1.0
13- JacobS- M- L1- 0.5
14- Ben- M- L4- 0.5
15- Anthony-L8- L10- 0.0
16- Cassie- L6- L7 0.0
17- Blake- L5- L9 0.0

Here are the projected Pairings for round 3!!

ROUND 3 (White shown first)
Chris vs. Reid
Jason vs. Evan
JacobG vs. Rachel
Kolt vs. Josh
Jorin vs. Brian
Josh vs. Kolt
Brian vs. Jorin
Ben vs. JacobS
Cassie vs. Anthony
Blake vs. BYE

Chess at Discovery World on 1/23 !!

Two experiences for the price of one at this tournament at Discovery World!
A discount admission price for participants of $15 enters you in this chess tournament and gives you access to all of Discovery World’s exhibits for the day. $10 Entry fee to Discover World for all adults and siblings accompanying participants.

This will be an easier, unrated, "fun" tournament with the added bonus of getting access to Discovery World! Family of players can get into Discovery World for $10 entry fee. One Year Family Memberships will be awarded to the Champion of each Division!

There are three unrated divisions: K-3, K-6 and K-12. There is also a K-12 USCF-Rated division. Click here for tournament details.

Entry $15 entry fee paid on site at day of tournament for preregistered players. To get pre-registered at the $15 rate, please reply to this email (seghers@gmail.com) and I will pre-register you - do not register on your own please! You can register at the tournament also for $20.
Cash and Check only Checks payable to: Discovery World

Discovery Times and Discovery World Exhibits

Registration will be open at 8:00 and access to the Reiman Aquarium, Great Lakes Future, The Challenge and City of Fresh Water exhibits will be open at 8:30. Other exhibits will open at the normal time of 10:00 am and all will be open till close at 5:00 pm. More info about Discovery World exhibits at http://www.discoveryworld.org/experiences.php

Please RSVP by sending email to me at seghers@gmail.com - that's all you need to do!

Tournament Dates for rest of season

Tournament dates to keep in mind this year (details to come):
Feb 6- Blair Elementary - unrated - Good beginner tournament!
Feb 20- Grade Level tournament - great tournament to play against kids in your own grade
Feb 27- Bay Lane Middle School -rated and unrated divisions, right here in Muskego
Mar 6- Fairview - unrated
Mar 13- Elmwood tournament in New Berlin!
Mar 20-21 - USCF State Scholastic Championships in Oshkosh WI
Mar 27 - St.Johns - unrated
Apr 10 - 5th Annual All-Girls Championship in Sheboygan
Apr 17 - Reagan tournament in New Berlin!
Apr 24-25 - WSCF State Championship at Kalahari in Wisconsin Dells
May 1- Mill Valley Tournament in Muskego!
May 7-8-9 National Elementary Championships in Atlanta!!! Seghers/Tillson going so far.

Reid and Jason lead the LDMS Knights at Home

On Saturday, Lake Denoon Middle School hosted our first scholastic chess tournament! With over 130 players in three divisions, it was a great event, drawing very strong players from all over the state! LDMS had 16 players compete in this very challenging USCF rated tournament.
LDMS won 1st place in K-6, and 2nd place in K-12. Great job LDMS Knights! In K-6, Reid Seghers went 5-1 to win the 2nd place trophy, and Jorin McGuire also went 5-1 to win the 4th place trophy. Kolt Otterbacher, Rachel Gomoll, and Josh Bartz went 4-2. Other members of the 1st place K-6 team included Anthony Gajeski, Zeke Baker, Jake Gomoll, Jake Stys, Blake Reeves, David Petak and John Bennett.
In the very tough K-12 Division, Jason Markowski led the way by winning 3 out his 4 games. Jason raised his USCF rating over 200 points, to 963! Evan Seghers had 2.5. Also in the 2nd place K-12 team were Chris Tillson and Brian Schroeder.
Everyone had fun, loved the school, and thought the WSCA did a great job running the event. Thanks to all the parents who helped, especially Glynis Grochowski who did an amazing job of orchestrating things.
NEXT UP: a tournament this Saturday the 23rd at DISCOVERY WORLD! The tournament fee includes a free pass to Discovery World! Details can be found by clicking here, and I will send more information today and tomorrow. As with all tournaments, DO NOT REGISTER ON YOUR OWN- I will register all players- all you have to do is send me an email saying you will attend!

LDMS 6th Graders take Richards' K-8

Five Players, Five Trophies

In the first time our K-3 national champions, Evan, Reid, Jorin and Chris, have reunited in the same tournament, Lake Denoon Middle School dominated the Richards Elementary K-8 division with another first place team trophy. Jason also played, and the five of them ALL won trophies!

In the K-8 division, the team of Evan, Reid, Chris and Jason easily won the K-8 division. After 5 games, Evan and Reid were both 5-0, Chris was 4.5 - .5, and Jason was 4-1. Since there were no other kids close to them in record (that they had not already played, the WSCF made the unusual decision to pit team members against each other. Evan played Reid on board 1, and Chris played Jason on board 2. I have never seen this before. Evan edged out Reid in the endgame, and Jason beat Chris. Reid lost only to Evan, but mysteriously dropped to 4th place behind a girl he had beaten. Regardless of the odd 6th round pairings, the four K-8 players took 4 of the top 5 trophies in the division.

Jorin was alone in K-5 and went 5-1 to take 3rd place in a large division. Way to go Lake Denoon Knights!

Next week, Lake Denoon hosts its first-ever chess tournament at the school! We are putting together two very strong teams in the K-6 and K-12 divisions. If you have not yet RSVP'ed yet for the tournament, please do! Click here to see details