09.04.18 Maine Chess Association President Michael Dudley has penned the first Maine Chess Association Coaches' Communique. This letter to Maine Chess Coaches provides an update on scholastic chess in Maine, describes the rebirth of the Maine Girls' Championship and introduction of the Maine Women's Championship as well as offers support for chess coaches accross the state. Please help us by passing this on to any and all chess coaches and anyone interested in building scholastic chess in Maine. Thanks!

MAINE CHESS ASSOCIATION COACHES' COMMUNIQUE

3 September 2018

Dear Maine Chess Coaches,

Welcome to another scholastic chess year in Maine! The 2018-2019 scholastic chess season promises to
be the best we've ever had, and I want to start a series of memos talking about issues related to
scholastic chess in Maine. Hopefully this monthly letter to you serves to be of use; any feedback on it,
or items that you'd like to submit, can be sent to me at mainechesspresident@gmail.com, or to Dan
DeLuca at dcdeluca@yahoo.com.

SCHOLASTIC CALENDAR

The 2018-2019 scholastic chess calendar has largely been set, with a few tournaments yet to be planned.
(I am hopeful that some of our mainstays, like the MLK Tournament at Stillwater Montessori and the
All Saints Winter Warmup, will happen but just have yet to be planned!) Here is the tournament
schedule for the next three months:

● SEPTEMBER 2018
○ Bapst End of Summer Tournament, 8 September 2018, John Bapst, Bangor;
○ Saco Quick Chess, 15 September 2018, Hampton Inn, Saco;
○ Houlton Invitational Tournament (>1500 USCF rating), 22 September 2018,
Houlton Art Studio, Houlton;

● OCTOBER 2018
○ National Chess Day Tournament hosted by Brewer Community School, 13 October
2018, Machias Savings Bank, Brewer;
○ Bapst Fall Tournament, 27 October 2018, John Bapst, Bangor;

● NOVEMBER 2018
○ Chess Madness at MCI, 3 November 2018, Maine Central Institute, Pittsfield.

If you have any other tournaments that you know of in the area, please send those announcements to
dcdeluca@yahoo.com to put them on the site! You can visit www.ChessMaine.net for information on
these tournaments and others!

MAINE SCHOLASTIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

It is always helpful to begin planning for scholastics early! This year, the Maine State Team Scholastic
Chess Championships will take place at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on March 2, 2019, and
the Maine Individual Scholastic Chess Championships will take place at John Bapst in Bangor on
March 30, 2019. We have made these venue changes in order to accommodate our growing scholastic
fields, and we're confident that this will help provide a tournament experience of high quality for
everyone.

In preparation for scholastics, we are asking that coaches be ready by doing the following:

● Be sure all team members have a US Chess ID number before registration! Scholastic players will
not be able to play in the tournament without a current membership to US Chess. (Novice
players are exempt from this requirement.)

● Have rosters ready as soon as possible. This year, we are moving to an electronic entry system
over Google Forms. This will streamline our registrant transcription process and have us ready
to go on time at States. This form will be available upon email request sometime in January.

● Be prepared to pay early. This year, payment must be taken at the door upon arrival or in
advance of the event. The goal of this is to make sure that all teams pay, which unfortunately
was not the case last year. Furthermore, clearing up payment allows TDs, coaches, and the
MACC treasurer alike to do their jobs much more efficiently during the tournament. We also
are looking into diversifying our payment methods to include online payments; stay posted for
that possibility!

I will send a reminder of these details regarding the Scholastic Championships later in the year. In the
meantime, talk it up! Let's keep building!

MAINE GIRLS' CLOSED CHAMPIONSHIP

In a change from recent years, the Maine Girls' Closed Championship has been reinstated and will be
held on Saturday, February 2nd, at the Bangor Public Library. The winner of this tournament will be
Maine's nominee for the National Girls Tournament of Champions (held in Orlando, Florida in
2019), and the Susan Polgar Invitational (a yearly camp and tournament run at Webster University in
Saint Louis, Missouri). Alternates will be decided in tournament order, with US Chess tiebreaks
resolving any ties.

This represents an important shift in nominating a girls' champion. In previous years, the highest rated
female player was immediately offered these nominations. Now, that right can go to any female
scholastic player in Maine. I sincerely hope all female players in the State of Maine will attend either
the Girls' Championship or the Women's Championship.

We have a visitor coming for that weekend as well. Woman Grandmaster Sabina Foişor, the US
Women's Chess Champion from 2017 and US Chess Woman Player of the Year for 2017, is visiting
Bangor for a simultaneous exhibition, and a lecture specifically for participants in the Girls' Closed
Championship and its parallel tournament, the Maine Women's Championship. This is bound to be
an amazing event, and we are hopeful that all female players across the state will join us for a great
weekend of chess! The simul is limited to 40 participants, and we anticipate that those seats will go
fast! Please email mainechesspresident@gmail.com to register or for more details. WGM Foişor will
also be present to provide analysis and support at the Girls' and Women's Championships.

SUPPORT FOR COACHES

With such a big year planned, we know that the tasks involved in making chess happen for kids in
Maine can be daunting. Please know that we're always here to help make the most of the experience
and offer expertise whenever we can. If we can be of help in any way, from signing kids up for US
Chess memberships, to finding coaching expertise, to planning a tournament for your school, please
feel free to get in touch with us. Our email addresses are above.

This year is going to be an amazing year of chess. I hope that these monthly memos will be helpful to
you as coaches. If there are messages or items of interest you would like to see put in writing and sent
to coaches around the state, send them our way. Also, if you know of a chess coach that would benefit
from this memo, please feel free to forward it to them.

See you over the board!

Sincerely Yours,

Michael C. Dudley
President, Maine Chess Association
Chess Coach, John Bapst Memorial High School