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.