At kids’ chess tourney, chaos calls checkmate
In protest, players bolt Chicago school event
By Stephanie Banchero
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 17, 2007
In chess terminology, the drama swirling around the Chicago Public Schools chess programs could be called a pawn storm.
A group of coaches and elementary pupils, let’s call them the pawns, joined together last week to make a concerted attack on the king, or the man who runs the district chess program. As in the pawn attack, the young chess enthusiasts and their coaches hope that, by banding together, they can take control of the board.
In layman’s terms, we’d call it a players’ strike.
Last weekend, about 100 Chicago elementary-school pupils and their coaches stormed out of the citywide chess championship, complaining that the event was chaotic and out of control. The tournament was short of chessboards and officials and did not have a coordinator to pair competitors, according to those who attended.
Now, the pawns plan to raise money to stage a renegade citywide tournament April 21.
“We’ve complained for a long time about how poorly run the tournaments are, but no one seems to care,” said John Lee, who coaches the Burbank Elementary School chess team and led the revolt. “So we’ve decided that if you want to do something right, you do it yourself.”
Here is the full article. If that link does not work, try this.
The guy should be fired.
It’s tough to render a judgement here. It could be that the organizer had all the resources necessary to put on the event, and simply screwed up. On the other hand, the organizer might have NOT had the resources to put on the event, especially people to help out, in which case it wasn’t his/her fault. One problem with the chess world (and other worlds as well) is there are too many critics who wouldn’t consider lifting a finger to help, but have plenty to say.
Anon wrote: >
I would strongly disagree. If one has only limited resources, then one should have run a limited tournament. There are a number of ways of limiting the size of one’s tournament. It should be obvious that this guy didn’t know what he was getting himself into. IMO, there is no excuse for that.
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This is also discussed here: http://blog.chess4chicago.com/2007/03/chess_tournamen.html
The reporter understandably had to be balanced, but the “other side” had their facts wrong, and I point this out in the blog. 400 kids DID NOT show up, there was NOT a request for pre-registration, and this has happened more than one occassion, AND, not printed in the article, he purposely held this “tournament” on the same weekend as the elementary state championship to make kids choose and thus reduce his numbers. Those are the facts, and yes, he should be fired, but he won’t be until his boss really feels the heat.
Thomas Larson, ID 12601801, is not a certified as a tournament director by the USCF. If the tournament was unrated (likely) then USCF certification was not required. Nonetheless, if the organizers and participants expected a well-run event, then the staff should have had one or more certified directors.
Michael Aigner
fpawn, had he not put the tournament on THE SAME DAY AS THE STATE TOURNAMENT, we would have had certified officials. It’s a sad situation, but this “renegade” tournament that we’re holding will be great; no longer do we need him.
Lamarr is right. The problem is not that this guy isn’t a USCF-certified TD; its that he doesn’t know how to run a tournament and despite years in scholastic chess doesn’t want to take the trouble to learn how. I’ve worked with superb tournament directors who aren’t certified, but they know what they’re doing.
I hate raking a guy like this in a public forum, but we in Chicago have chaffed under his misleadership for years. The walkout at last week’s championship tournament was not spontaneous; it was a long time in the making.
Here in the Philippines, we call that kind of tournament “business as usual”. If it’s a big tournament run by the local federation expect to be short of chess sets, first rounds starting really really late (once experienced a delay of almost five hours).
So Chicago…welcome to our world.