SIGN UP AND PLAY! It's a wonderful group of players and people and the playing venue is comfortable and convenient -- the hotel is a nice one and very close to the airport and to the interstate. Four games in one day is a LONG day (I know from personal experience, whew!), so if you want to stay over you can get a good rate at the hotel; there is dining on the premises and lots of restaurants nearby even within - gasp - walking distance!
Goddesschess is sponsoring prizes for the chess femmes:
Open: $40 for a win; $20 for a draw
Reserve: $20 for a win; $10 for a draw
Ladies, I put that in large print just so you can't miss it, ahem.
The Ulrich sisters are playing! We therefore expect to make pay-outs to them and other chess femmes and we're thrilled! I must remember to take my camera and I must remember to ask to take photos of the various chess femmes during the day. I must also remember to try the "model pose" which is supposed to make me look 20 years younger and 50 pounds lighter. Well - whatever.
Yes, I'm playing. Don't ask me why. In a fit of madness one day I emailed Ellen Wanek and said Ellen, if you come I'll come too and what's more, I'll stay for all 4 games. That means they'll have to carry me out on a stretcher, as I'll be practically dead from sheer exhaustion. Ambulance drivers, my address will be pinned to my jacket -- please roll me on to my lawn if you don't feel like carrying me to to the front door. Someone, please remember to shove a blood pressure down my throat at 8 p.m. It's the bottle with the blue capsules...
Thus far, there are 75 pre-registered player, including Olympic Youth Chess Championship Gold Medal Winner in his age group Awonder Liang! Not too often one gets to rub shoulders, so to speak, with an Olympic gold medal winner. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!
My adopted chess club is hoping for a great turnout of 150 players this tournament!!!! Can we do it?
I'm not very good at picking out some of the chess femmes' names. You would think I would know the names of every single female player in Wisconsin (and Illinois, too), but I don't! I'll give it a go from the pre-registered list thus far:
Open:
26 Ulrich, Rachel J WI 1763
36 Karimikonda, Teja WI 1439
38 Pahl, Sandra R WI 1373
Reserve:
18 Ulrich, Susanna WI 1161
24 Vootkur, Manisha WI 856
25 Wanek, Ellen WI 852
29 Newton, Jan L WI 575 (LOL!)
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| Shira Evans and I (I'm the short, gorgeous one on the left) survived Hales Corners Chess Challenge - what the heck was it - X? It was October 17, 2010, LOL! And it was my first - my very first ever - chess tournament. I didn't even know how to write down the moves or use the clock. Still don't, come to think of it... |
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| Ahhh! October, 2011 Hales Corners Chess Challenge. BobbseyTwins Ellen Wanek (the blonde) and I (the brunette) poking fun at each other (literally!), while the always calm with onlookers, the sedate Pat Foat (in light hoodie -- she had a son also playing) and the even calmer and more sedate (sedater?) can't recall her name -- shame on me! She whomped me pretty good. I blacked out the ugly memory... |
2 comments:
It would be wonderful if a woman master would show up. Since Wisconsin does not have any (I believe), they would have to travel in from another state. However, this would be a good warm-up tournament for all the women masters playing in the US Championship next month.
Oh, Dreamland! We would LOVE to attract a highly rated female player, an IM or a WGM, to come to Milwaukee and appear at a Hales Corners Challenge. There are some things going against that happening, though. First, it's not FIDE rated and that is a key to attracting some players; we've learned through tournaments that we've worked with in funding to bring WGMs to play that they want to play in FIDE-rated events. As I understand it, that means a minimum of five rounds and that means spreading play over 2 or 3 days. And there are no doubt other requirements that I don't know about -- I'm no organizer and not familiar with what it takes to put an event together like this but I'm sure it's a complicated and involved process. The second thing is the prize money. Hales Corners Challenges just don't pay out very much. They are fantastic local/regional events but the prize money isn't very good.
That leaves private funding to bring a highly-rated player in for a specific event or a simul for charity, perhaps. Goddesschess can't afford it. We spread our dollars around to as many events as we can to try and make as much impact as possible. Spending our entire budget to bring one person to one event just isn't a wise use of our limited funds.
Not saying it couldn't ever happen, but it would take a lot of people working together to make it happen, contributing time, effort, organizational skills and yes - money.
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