Let’s Get Together: ACE Letter III
October 14, 2008
When I first started this Newsletter back in January 2008, I had planned on it being a monthly installment, but I soon realized that I just didn’t have that much to say :); and for that I am sure everyone feels grateful! So with that being said, this is the third chapter of our quarterly Let’s Get Together: ACE Chess Letter; the continued purpose of which is to give everyone some updates, inform people of some things that have changed in our program recently, and finally, give all that are interested a heads up on some things that will be coming their way over the next few months from ACE Chess and other Arizona chess activities.
The first order of business is to notify all regular ACE Chess Trekkers of some significant changes regarding the Master Trek Grand Prix Cup Tournament Series. Starting with the next Master Trek on October 25th, and including the first three Treks of the fall season so far, the Grand Prix Cup points will be awarded for the entire school year – until May. What this means is that there will no longer be a division between the spring and fall seasons of the Grand Prix Cup; each Grand Prix Cup season will consist of 10 total Master Trek tournaments (which we believe will give more time for “real” progress to be recognized and therefore a more accurate reward for Rating Bonuses can be given); and finally, a longer season will allow a little more freedom in both our schedule and yours (trying to squeeze 7 Master Treks in 5 months was getting to be very difficult, especially when you consider that we don’t want to dominate anyone’s schedule or have a player be “punished” in the Grand Prix Cup Standings simply because he or she missed one tournament).
I apologize for the late announcement on this important change to our tournament system and plan, but as we said when we first started the Grand Prix Cup: it is a work in progress. Philosophically, we wish to make every single one of our tournaments “a chess event not like any others”. It is with that continued goal in mind that we have made these changes. Scheduling tournaments on back to back weekends; not being able to provide a high quality Game Review and Lecture experience for all participants; no room on the calendar to reinstate any other types of ACE Chess events such as the highly requested Strategy Sessions; and having to compete with other important Arizona scholastics as well as National Scholastics were just some of the problems we were facing with the previous plan of 7 Treks per Grand Prix Cup season. Waiting until January to implement the “longer” season didn’t make any sense either as that would imply a 10 tournament season that either went on during summer vacation, or skipped several months all together from June through August. We believe that this format will be welcomed by most, and we will accept the criticism and opinions of people who may disagree at Info@AmericanChess.net.
Many of you have already been involved in charting the progress of Arizona’s newly created U.S. Chess League team: The Arizona Scorpions. www.ArizonaScorpions.BlogSpot.com Due to the web site difficulties we have faced over the last month, there has been little to no information about this exciting new addition to the Arizona chess scene. From the “Chess Professional’s” opinion, I believe the U.S. Chess League offers something great for the potential of all chess players: a realistic goal of competing in high level chess matches as a job. Combined with the goal of having more and more major college universities offer full ride “athlete type” scholarships to chess players, the U.S. Chess League could really set the tone for chess players in this country, especially as more and more sponsorship gets involved. Go Scorpions! :)
Coming within the next few weeks will be a redefined mission statement for American Chess Events and its cooperating entities; a faster and more efficiently designed web site layout; a number of Game of the Month awards (unfortunately I can’t blame the web site difficulties for our lack of Games in Review for your enjoyment. Honestly, most of my extra time has been going into my own studies and quest for improvement as I plan on competing in more tournaments and continuing my pursuit for the GM title).
I want to thank everyone for their continued support of ACE Chess. Despite the hard times facing many right now, the education of our children and the continued objective of helping them strive for excellence is still a priority for all of us. We hope that ACE Chess can continue providing every opportunity for those goals be met. Comments and feedback are extremely appreciated… See you on the 25th!!