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Scholastic Extension of the USCF State Chapter Oklahoma Chess Association
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Recent Media Coverage of Oklahoma Scholastic Chess
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Oklahoma Scholastic Chess Articles

These articles were submitted about Oklahoma scholastic chess to share on this website. You may want to search for topics by keyword.

9 Jun 2010

27 Aug 2009

18 Aug 2009

21 Sep 2007 -

Press Releases

These are the press releases we've issued. You may want to search for topics by keyword.

28 July 2007 -

14 May 2007 -

13 Mar 2007 -

3 Feb 2007 -

25 July 2006 -

7 March 2006 -

15 January 2006 -

16 March 2005 -

2005 Oklahoma State Scholastic Chess Championship Results

John Cope of Booker T Washington High in Tulsa won the Oklahoma Scholastic High School Championship with a perfect 5-0 score after his 4th round victory over last year’s champion and this year’s 2nd place finisher Cris Spencer. For this achievement John was awarded a $500 scholarship to represent Oklahoma at the Arnold Denker Tournament of High School Champions in August at the US open in Phoenix.

Destiny Sawyer of King’s Pawns Homeschoolers was victorious in a blitz playoff with Rebecca Twilley of Carl Albert High in Midwest City. They were in a 3-way tie for 3rd place and tied for the top finishing high school girl with 3.5 points apiece. Destiny earned a $500 scholarship to represent Oklahoma at the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls to be held at the US open.

Carl Albert High School pulled ahead of Booker T Washington in the last round for the High School Team Championship.

Dax Chapman of Monte Cassino in Tulsa came away from a perfect 5-0 day with the Grades 6-9 Championship. He received a $200 scholarship that will be used for participation in SuperNationals at Nashville in April. Devin Hughes of Heritage Hall in Edmond was close behind in 2nd place, going undefeated with 4 wins and a draw.

The Grade 6-9 Team Championship was earned by Will Rogers Jr High of Claremore, led by Dakota White and Mikie Record who were part of a 4-way tie for 3rd with 4 wins apiece.

The K-6 Open Championship was won by Drew Cottrill of Tulsa Union for the 3rd year in a row with a perfect 5-0 score!! For this accomplishment he received a $200 scholarship to participate in SuperNationals of a summer chess camp.

2nd place Matt Karber with a 4-0 score led Edmond’s Central Middle School to the Grade K-6 Open team Championship.

K-6 Under 700 Co-Champions were Zach Gilroy of Jenks Southeast Elementary and Carey McCachern of Deer Creek Elementary in Edmond. Both were unrated coming into the tournament. 3rd place finisher Nicholas Twilley of Swartz Elementary was also undefeated with 4 wins after a 1st round half point bye.

The K-6 Under 700 Team Championship was taken home by the 25 players from Madison Elementary School in Norman. They were led by Austin Echols, Drew Mullinix and Xin Shu who were in a 9-way tie for 4th place with 4 points on the day.

K-4 Open Co-Champions were Becky Huang of Northern Hill Elementary in Edmond and Susanna Shaffer of King’s Pawns Homeschoolers. They played each other to a draw in the 4th round and won all of their other games. Afterward they met each other again in a blitz tiebreak for a $200 scholarship to participate in SuperNationals of a summer chess camp. Becky Huang won the playoff and the scholarship.

For the second year in a row, Monte Cassino of Tulsa took home the K-4 Open Championship. They were led by Ryan Nigh who was tied for 3rd with a 4-1 score.

The OSCO Policy Board Election was conducted during the lunch break before the 3rd round. The new OSCO Policy Board includes: President - Robert Epperly of Midwest City, Vice President - Julie Luscomb of Claremore, Treasurer – Rod Whitlatch of Jenks, Secretary – Mike Swatek of Claremore, Immediate Past President – Steve Sawyer of Chouteau, and Members At Large – Donna Jenson of Norman, Kevin Harris of Ada and Kay Dalton of Claremore.

This outstanding event with 203 players and 37 school teams was hosted by Jenks Public Schools Chess Club and Jenks Community Education. Rod Whitlatch did an outstanding job of leading Jenks’ organization of the tournament and recruiting all the wonderful volunteers that helped make the event a success.

Tournament direction was organized by USCF Senior TD Mike Swatek who was tournament Chief TD. Nine other US Chess Federation certified TDs also volunteered their time to help all these kids have a great tournament. They were: Pete Ferris of Coweta, AJ Bailey of Midwest City, Tom Pepper of Oklahoma City, David Patocka of Broken Arrow, Charles M Unruh of Owasso, Ben Shaffer of Chouteau, Steve Sawyer of Locust Grove, Mike Covington of Sand Springs and Michele Swartz of Tulsa. TD floor assistants included Bill Snyder of Tulsa, Robert McDonough of Jenks and Leon Powers of Enid.

Photo galleries from the tournament are on the OSCO website at www.okschess.org with pictures being provided by Pete Ferris of Coweta, Jim Dalton and Howard Thompson of Claremore and Tami Carpenter Photography of Norman.

The new USCF on-line membership and rating report systems by Mike Nolan allowed all members to have USCF ID numbers assigned shortly after the tournament and official post-tournament ratings to already be available at www.uschess.org/msa.

 

22 September 04 -

2004 Middle School Champions Cup won by "Oklahoma Team"

On Saturday, September 18th over 200 scholastic players competed on Main Street in Lindsborg, Kansas in 5 rounds of quick chess. At the end, seven-time World Champion Anatoly Karpov and four-time women's World Champion Susan Polgar presented the Middle School Champions Cup to Rachel, Michelle and Ryan Farell and teammate Devin Hughes. Having competed against each other so often, the close friends appreciated being able to compete as a team representing Oklahoma and would like to thank Dr. Mikhail Korenman, director of the Karpov International School of Chess, for the opportunity.

After a weekend in Lindsborg it was obvious why the USCF named the town "Chess City of the Year". The "Parade of Champions" included the scholastic teams and was watched by more than just parents. The players were able to watch the Karpov - Polgar match, billed as the "Clash of the Titans", and on Sunday Grandmasters Yury Shulman, Irina Krush (current US women's Champion) and Anna Zatonskih gave a free class for the players. It was a great weekend for chess.

 

28 May 04 -

12 August 03 -

29 June 03 -

OSCO Is Now the Official Oklahoma Scholastic Chess Organization

At the 29 June 2003 Annual Members Meeting of the OCA (Oklahoma Chess Association) in Stillwater a proposal was unanimously approved adding the following verbiage to the OCA Bylaws, "the Oklahoma Scholastic Chess Organization is the official State scholastic chess organization responsible for the oversight of scholastic chess issues and State scholastic chess championship tournaments." With this change, OSCO now may organize all state scholastic championship tournaments without the need for OCA involvement. Also, OSCO will be recognized as the US Chess Federation Scholastic Affiliate for Oklahoma, as designated by the OCA.

Another proposal was defeated which would have changed the OCA scholastic membership cost from $5 to $1, changed scholastic status to non-voting, removed them from distribution of the OCB (Oklahoma Chess Bulletin), and simply allowed them to play in OCA adult tournaments. Discussion revealed that this reduced fee was intended to be used for a mandatory OCA membership for all scholastic players in OSCO tournaments, which already has qualified them for free OSCO membership. The discussion also highlighted that just the top rated scholastic players actually participate in OCA tournaments, only about 5% of the total, those players are the few that actually have an interest in the OCB. Also, the administrative burden of the $1 fee was described as simply not worth the trouble.

Due to the annual publication and distribution cost of the OCB of about $8, a proposal was made to convert the existing $5 scholastic membership to a $5 non-OCB membership that would retain all other OCA membership privileges for anyone interested in this option. This would allow the OCA finances to be improved by having only those with an interest in the OCB to pay the full cost, and not to distribute the OCB at a loss to many scholastic members who don't appreciate it or already receive it through a parent or sibling. This motion was tabled for a future meeting due to time constraints.

The OCA Bylaws today allow changes to the Bylaws without notice, with only a simple majority vote of the Policy Board. With the issue of the mandatory OCA membership being strongly favored by the OCA leadership, failure to comply with this and any other demands could cause OSCO to loose it's official status at any time without notice, regardless of how well the requirements of the USCF are being fulfilled. Therefore, 13 scholastic players and their supporters were at the Members Meeting to vote for Policy Board Members that would support their interests on this issue and OSCO. All of the voting scholastic members have permanent USCF ratings, 11 have been to national tournaments, 7 are in the USCF national top 100 list by age, at least five have been state champions, and Jason Kalivas won the Reserve section for under 1800 rated players at the Oklahoma State Championship/Jerry Spann Memorial the same weekend. Total number of voting OCA members at the meeting was 42.  This effort to protect the interests of scholastic chess was successful with the following being elected:

  • Alan Pfeiffer - Vice President (past OCA President)
  • Sergey Galant - Member at Large (2002-3 State Champion)
  • Steve Sawyer - Member at Large for another year
  • Jacqueline Bentele - Member at Large for another year

All the above board members have directed or organized many chess tournaments.

This is the first time in many years that control of the OCA has not been held by a small group that had controlled policy. To express their unhappiness with the change, President Steve Wharry and Secretary/Treasurer/OCB Editor Frank Berry resigned. The President's resignation actually moved him to the position of Immediate Past President, displacing John Ackin. Also, Alan Pfeiffer has now ascended to the position of President of OCA. The open positions will be filled by the Policy Board, per the OCA Bylaws.

Following these changes, there was support expressed by many of the long time OCA members, and fear to outrage expressed by others. Frank Berry has decided to go forward with an independent quarterly Oklahoma Chess Publication that would address adult chess only. Therefore, the OCB will have a new editor. The new members of the OCA Policy Board are drafting a message to the membership to address the concerns stated by some members and facilitate continued normal operation of the OCA. That message will be posted here when it's released.

It looks like the future of scholastic chess in Oklahoma is now brighter than ever. OSCO is now able to confidently go forward with fulfilling the scholastic goals of the USCF for the OCA, without interference, and help as many kids and possible experience all of the benefits of chess.

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