Hales Corners Chess Challenge XXIII April 9, 2016

Hola darlings.

A brief update.  Things are not yet back to normal (whatever that is) at Maison Newton, so I am still not back to blogging as my full-time "job" in retirement, but I wanted to let you know that WE BROKE A RECORD IN THE HALES CORNERS CHESS CHALLENGE XXIII!

YES YES YES!  There were twenty (20) chess femmes who entered this year's spring edition of the Hales Corners Chess Challenge, the most EVER!  And we also had the highest female player participation rates in both the Open and Reserve EVER!  There were 99 players, 20 of whom were females, for a female participation rate of 20%.  TWENTY PERCENT!

Yep, I know, I'm screaming in capitals.  Jumping up and down dancing in my chair peeing my panties happy screaming in capitals, people.

Even more impressive to me, though, a whopping seven (7) female players opted to play in the Open Section, where the highest and higher rated - and then there are the brave - players compete; and thirteen (13) female players participated in the Reserve Section.  I know for a fact that we've never had that many female players participate before in the Open and also pretty darn sure that we broke a record for female participation in the Reserve Section as well.  Now that's what I'm talking about!

Here they are, the names of the ladies who participated in both the Open and Reserve (U1600) Sections.  Goddesschess prize money won by the participants is noted in the parentheses. This information is direct from Robin Grochowski of the Southwest Chess Club:

Open Section (7 female players entered, 6 female players won prizes):
Rachel Ulrich ($100)
Anupama Rajendra ($100)
Ritika Pandey ($100)
Divya Pandey ($125)
Neha Mhaskar ($0)
Gauri Menon ($25)
Sandra Hoffman ($50)

Reserve Section (13 female players entered, 13 female players won prizes):
Simran Bhatia ($40)
Ashna Bansal ($20)
Naisha Bepar ($50)
Aradh Kaur ($60)
Radhika Gupta ($40)
Ellen Wanek ($60)
Madeline Weber ($120) (Winner of the Perfect Score award!!!)
Salli Ball ($20)
Megan Chen ($40)
Soumika Gaddameedi ($20)
Sarah Bevans ($20)
Sophie Taylor ($20)
Alexa Loomer ($20)

Free entries to HCC XXIV were won by Rachel Ulrich in the Open Section ($40) and Madeline Weber in the Reserve Section ($30), should they choose to play.

Here is a photo of all of the chess femmes who participated in the Reserve Section:

Cross-table information at the U.S. Chess Federation website.

I'm so happy, words cannot express my joy and my gratitude to all of the chess femmes who came out in support of this particular tournament, it meant SO much to me.  From the bottom of my heart, I thank you all.  I hope you will all participate in the Hales Corners Milwaukee Summer Challenge in June (2-day, 5-round event), and the Hales Corners Chess Challenge in October (1-day, 4-rounds).