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