From the President’s Desk
1/1/2008
Already,
chess January 2008 is here and the Oklahoma
chess peace is over six months old! Wow,
can we hope for at least a repeat of chess 2007? What a fine year for chess in Oklahoma! The main theme of 2007 chess was in each
chess group or team pursuing what they do best for chess in Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Chess Foundation (OCF) was host and sponsor for the US Closed
Championships. Their pursuit of professional chess is unprecedented in Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Scholastic Chess Organization (OSCO), a well run team of
volunteers, set tournament participation record after record in the Tulsa
and Oklahoma City schools. OSCO is recognized Nationwide as one of the
fastest growing scholastic chess organizations in the country. Chess Adventure
Summer Camp 2007 was so successful that the volunteer team had to limit participation to the first one hundred students. A new
organizer, the Oklahoma Chess Union (OCU) held there first tournament in March.
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma Chess Association (OCA)
held the annual Oklahoma State Chess Championship tournament with the largest
participation and strongest competition in over four years. In a historic
business meeting, several OCA bylaws were
changed and most notably the membership voting age was raised to sixteen years
or older. The OCA Policy Board thanks all of
the volunteers, sponsors and organizers for making 2007 a very special year in Oklahoma
chess.
June brought more
good news when Bill Hall, the USCF Executive Director, played in the Oklahoma
Championship Open Section and awarded the OCA
membership a plaque for “Top State Affiliate for Membership Growth.” The
Open Championship was the strongest in years with two Chess Masters, several
Experts and Class A players in attendance.
Juniors were the talk of the tournament. Tulsa
University students John Cope and
Charles Unruh Jr. placed Oklahoma
second and third in the Open section. Ryan Farell, an OSCO premier section
chess player, finished with 4.0 points and walked away with a well deserved
Oklahoma Reserve Champion title. Not to be outdone, eleven year old, Kenny Lin
outright won the Booster Section with suburb play and 4.5 total points. The
average age of the champion’s would have been under 15 years old if it weren’t
for my 54 years of age. Junior and Oklahoma
chess star, Devin Hughes assures me that he will lower the Champion’s average
age by next year.
In August, the
OSCO winners of the Denker, Jacob Berger and Polgar, Rachel Farell represented Oklahoma
in New Jersey during the US Open.
Oklahoma
is blessed with wonderful Denker and Polgar representatives over the last
several years. Last year’s Champion, Rachel Farell, participated in her last Polgar
National K-12 Girls Championship and is moving on to college studies. We hear
that her sister’s are eager to make the Oklahoma Polgar Award a family chess
tradition in the upcoming spring OSCO Championships.
The OCA Policy
Board reached a peace agreement with the Oklahoma Chess Federation for the
benefit of local and national chess. After the peace agreement, OCA endorsed
the Jim Berry campaign for his election to the United States Chess Federation’s
Executive Board. Jim Berry won his
election to the USCF Board and Oklahoma
chess is proud to have him in the governance service of the national parent
organization. Oklahoman’s Jim Gray, Frank Berry and Chuck Unruh also serve on
several active committees within the USCF. Oklahoma
is definitely shouldering their share of the national governance and
championships.
Very notable in
the past year is the leadership responsibility shown by OSCO premier section
juniors. At the Chess Adventure Summer Camps and in the chess clubs, the
premier juniors are in full force teaching and helping fellow chess students. Chess
Adventure relied heavily on the premier juniors once again for a successful
Hardesty Library Summer Chess Program. Rumors are that former OSCO players
Destiny Sawyer, John Cope and Charles Unruh Jr. all teach chess at various school
clubs in the Tulsa area. If OSCO and OCA were to have but one legacy,
let us hope the legacy is in the future leadership of Oklahoma
and National chess through our work with the juniors.
All good things
come to an end and Mike Swatek has given us notice of his proposed OCA officer retirement
in June. The controversial lightening rod of yester year, Mike is truly the one
person most responsible for organizing and changing the Oklahoma Chess
Association’s business plan. The good
news is that Mike is staying in Oklahoma
and requires more time for his expanding duties in OSCO. The 2008-2009 school year has a real possibility of breaking Oklahoma
scholastic attendance records in numbers that approach 500 chess juniors in a
single tournament. Chess Adventure President and OSCO Vice President, Albert
Rine has been working diligently with the Tulsa Public Schools on a promising
major school system wide chess program. Owing to success and the growing chess
mission, the OCA will need a future volunteer webmaster and secretary on our
Policy Board.
Two years ago,
the OCA Policy Board initiated a new cutting
edge business plan on media priority and membership dues. Today, OCA
has a healthy balance sheet, a near record number of members and a good
website. However, the Policy Board is searching for a volunteer interested in the
editor duties for the Oklahoma Chess Bulletin (OCB). Until we have an editor
step forward, the OCA Policy Board
encourages event organizers to send tournament reports and games to our
webmaster for publishing on the internet.
The OCA is
already busy in 2008 with chess teaching presentations and the Oklahoma City
Winter Open tournament January 26th and 27th hosted by Albert Rine
and Jim Gray. Our long time OCA friend and tournament organizer, John Dunlap is
stepping aside from directing the event. For the first time in years, John will
have the opportunity to compete in the tournament. Also, Chess Adventure Summer
Camp is a go for July 28th thru August 1st in Owasso for
its third straight year. On the 12th of this month, OSCO starts the
New Year with a tournament in Norman.
Lastly, Frank Berry and the OCF team are the sponsors and hosts once again this
May for the US Closed Championship. Oklahoma
is poised for another record year in chess.
At the end of
2007, another step confirming the spirit of the May Peace Agreement between the
OCA and OCF was taken by the juniors. Although I was unable to play in the OCF
Holiday Open owing to business obligations, the OSCO juniors attended the event
and were 32% of the total tournament participation. The juniors placed well and had a great time. Who would have predicted this in January
2007? See you soon at an Oklahoma
chess tournament!
Chuck Unruh
OCA President