Some of you may have heard through the grapevine, although I have kept it rather private; my Mom passed away on March 13. She had been battling declining health due to kidney failure for some years, one tough lady, let me tell you! She had defied the odds too many times before and this time we thought - or maybe it was just me who thought - she might bounce back again this time, too, and be able to celebrate her 89th birthday with us on May 22nd. But it was not to be.
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| Mom holding me, and Dad. 1951. No comments from the Peanut Gallery on my age, please. |
Three separate hospitalizations occurred since May of 2015, and now there are "estate" and other matters that need to be handled. Things have been busy, difficult, exhausting. So I haven't been spending much time here at the blog, but Goddesschess carries on with its funding of female chessplayers at our sponsored events: the Hales Corners Challenges (2 a year); the Hales Corners Summer Challenge, the Grand Pacific Open in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and the Montreal Open Chess Championship in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Grand Pacific Open took place over Easter weekend; all the other events are coming up through the fall.
My chess friends have been keeping me updated on what's going on out there. Right now I'm focused on the Hales Corners Chess Challenge XXIII, which will take place tomorrow. Tom Fogec, particularly, has been a faithful correspondent letting me know the latest on pre-tournament registrations, with emphasis on the chess femmes :)
Ladies, YOU ARE BREAKING RECORDS!!! I swear to goodness that this is the best turn-out of chess femmes yet for a Hales Corners Chess Challenge, with SIX - YES SIX!!! - female players already signed up for the Open! That smashes all prior HCCC records. And you are also breaking records for participation in the Reserve Section, with THIRTEEN chess femmes early-registered! Those numbers were reported yesterday, there may be even more of you registered today, and still Saturday on-site registrations in which more of you will come to play. I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I am with these numbers and how happy this makes me.
So keep it up. Play well. I will be digging through years' worth of accumulated records and what-not at the family home in the basement tomorrow with most of my siblings while you are battling for positions on the chessboards, and I will be thinking of you.
Goddesschess has deposited $1,000 in prize money just for the chess femmes for the Hales Corners Chess Challenge XXIII. Let's see if we can break a record and blow through that prize money so that we need to reimburse the Southwest Chess Club (sponsor of the event) for even MORE MORE MORE!