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  Announcements

June Tournament

Overflow crowd at registration

Our last tournament was held June 20, a weekend where there was no other chess tournaments in a large area. This fact, together with our return to advertising with a TLA in Chess Life in an attempt to boost diminished attendance, resulted in an embarrassment of riches. Some 70 people or so came to play - unfortunately we only have space for about 50. For the first time, we had to turn people away. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this may have caused, but we had no choice. We have tried to find larger space, but we were not able to find anything affordable.  We have a good relationship with the Holiday Inn in Elgin, and we request that our players not complain to the hotel in these circumstances. With a wedding scheduled downstairs and another group booked into the dining areas, they had no additional space to offer. And of course we are constrained to follow the fire regulations - if we were to violate these laws we would not be able to hold future events. So your understanding is very appreciated.

June tournament submitted for rating

This tournament has been rated by the USCF on Wednesday, June 24, at 10PM. You should be able to find your updated results by the morning of the 25th.

2009 Tournament Schedule

August 15 Quad Cash Game/80
3 Rounds
Holiday Inn, Elgin 495 Airport Rd, Elgin, IL, 60123-9356
October 17 Swiss Cash Game/60
4 Rounds
Holiday Inn, Elgin 495 Airport Rd, Elgin, IL, 60123-9356
December 19 Quad Cash Game/80
3 Rounds
Holiday Inn, Elgin 495 Airport Rd, Elgin, IL, 60123-9356

As always, registration begins at 8:30 AM, with first round at 9:30, tourney wrapping up by 6:30 PM. Click on the hotel link in the right column for a map of the playing site.

Kids Workshop

There is another chess workshop for kids at the Crystal Lake Public  Library on Thursday evenings starting July 9 and running to August 14. The format will follow the last Spring workshop, with puzzles and discussion followed by casual play for five weeks, and ending with another simultaneous exhibition. The plan is to hold these simuls at least until someone wins the big trophy.

The Crystal Lake Public  Library Spring workshop has ended.  McHenry Area president Bob Cairone gave a simultaneous exhibition on 4/9, facing 21 opponents - sixteen kids from the workshop and five parents.  Six inch trophies were awarded for participation, with a 34 inch trophy available for anyone who took a full point.  Bob's final score was nineteen wins, no losses, and two draws, both against adults. So the big trophy stays put - probably to be offered after another workshop.  Crystal Lake residents should check the Library Beacon for future activity announcements.

Best Wishes to Paul Stump

Paul has offered to act as a club officer and tournament director. Although sidelined by his knee for the February Swiss, we're all hoping Paul will be fully recovered and active for April.

Changes for 2009

With the addition of Paul, we are planning on running a tourney every other month next year. See the schedule above. We're sticking to the third Saturday, with the same time controls.  Another thing we won't be changing is our entry fee, which is already too high at $20.  Not much I can do about that, but I can promise we won't go any higher this year. We're not about winning big money, and we don't have the space to draw a big crowd anyway. And talking about money...

Next Event

McHenry Area Chess will be hosting a four round Swiss on Saturday, February 21, 2009, at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Elgin. For this event the entry fee will be $20. Game/60 time controls.  Cash prizes based on entries. Two sections unless turnout is light, in which case we pay class and upset prizes.  Registration starts at 8:30AM. Round times at 9:30, 1:00 and 3:45. Lunch is before round 2.

2008 Activities

We did not have a championship this year. The financials weren't there, and I'm getting too old to set it all up myself. A championship for 2009 isn't expected either, but if things change you'll see it here first.

In conjunction with Fernando Yepez, McHenry Area Chess has donated 20 chess sets to establish a chess club in Venezuela. More about this later.

Recent Donations

Paul Stump is donating his time. A more generous gift we could not have asked for.

New and Updated Pages

Introduction

We are McHenry Area Chess, an organization of chess enthusiasts in northern Illinois.  If you're in this area and looking for opportunities to play chess, you've found the right place here.  This website contains all the information you'll need to play more and improve your game.  To learn more about us, read about our mission.

Making Your Moves

Use the buttons on the left side of the page to navigate around our website.  We have sections for many aspects of our group and about the game of chess in general, as well as other chess activity in our area.  You can also follow the underlined links on any page, but some of these will take you outside of our site.

Contact Information

We can be reached by any of the means listed below.  Whether you're a new player interested in hearing more about us, or an existing member with a question, we'd love to hear from you.  Also, pleas let us know if you have information about any other chess activity in the McHenry area that's not listed on this site.

Telephone
815-519-3323
Postal address
P.O. Box 1574, Crystal Lake, IL 60039-1574
Electronic mail
General Information: Bob@McHenryAreaChess.org
Tournaments: Bob@McHenryAreaChess.org
Webmaster: Webmaster@McHenryAreaChess.org

Tournament announcements are sent from Tournaments@McHenryAreaChess.org. Please add us to you approved addresses to keep us from falling into the spam folder.

We have been forced to remove the automatic contact form because of an excess of spam, hundreds of emails per day. To prevent this, we are providing a link that will bring up an email form, with our address spoofed by an X in front of our real email address. Simply remove this X to create our real email address, then send it to us. We apologize for the extra effort required, but that's life in the internet age.

Send email to McHenry Area Chess

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Last modified: 02/21/09