Nevada Chess, Inc.

The 2017 Nevada Chess annual membership meeting was called to order at 3:48PM on Saturday, April 22 by president Alan Losoff at the Las Vegas Chess Center. Alan Losoff, Tom Brownscombe, Sabrina Jauregui, Juan Jauregui, and Charles McVoy were present. Votes for the annual election were counted, and each of the following candidates received 10 votes: Tom Brownscombe, Juan Jauregui, and Alan Losoff. A motion to accept the election results passed unanimously. Tom Brownscombe, Juan Jauregui, and Alan Losoff have been reelected to the Nevada Chess Board of Directors.

Charles McVoy discussed the possibility of a downtown chess park. Charles McVoy also discussed the Las Vegas Library Chess Club. The meeting was adjourned at 4:01PM.

Editor’s Message

(A. Magruder)

The Annual Members Meeting of Nevada Chess, Inc. will be held on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at the Las Vegas Chess Center, 2560 Montessouri St., Ste. 206 Las Vegas NV 89102. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 3:30 PM, but please check nevadachess.org for late changes if you wish to attend. The results of the 2017 election will be tabulated from the ballots and announced at that time.

All current members of Nevada Chess, Inc. can find the content of this bulletin at links on our website, NevadaChess.org. But if you know someone who wants to be a member but does not have easy access to the internet and would like to have this bulletin mailed to them, you could give them the membership form information on the website and have them send it to the editor at the address on the form.

All current members do receive a membership card attached to the January issue each year by mail which shows the expiration year of their membership, and which also contains the current year’s ballot for election of directors. The completed ballot is to be returned by mail to the election committee chairman.

Once again, Nevada Chess, Inc. sponsored our Annual Nevada State Scholastic Tournament, hosted by the Las Vegas Day School. There were 235 young players playing in the four sections: K-3, K-5, K-8 and K-12, with many individual and team trophies and medals distributed during the awards ceremonies. A report may be found on our website, and a link there to complete cross tables of the final results as well. You might also check out USChess.org for the tournament tables to find pre- and post- rating scores of all the players.

Prices increase after March 10th.

The 2017 Nevada State Scholastic Chess Championship will take place on Saturday, March 25th, 2017 at the Las Vegas Day School. More detailed information about this event are posted here.

At the Foundations Building on the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) campus, beginning on the morning of Saturday, December 3, 2016 and ending in the early morning on Sunday, December 4, 2016, chess Grandmaster (GM) Timur Gareyev set a new world record for blindfold chess games played simultaneously. Many people are familiar with the game of chess, considered by many to be the world’s premier strategy game. But few people have ever witnessed a blindfold simultaneous chess exhibition, and very few people have ever successfully performed one.   Read more »

Reno Club News & Announcements (from RenoChess.org)

David Sheryka Memorial Tournament

July 7 and 14, 2016

Reno Chess Club, Reno Nevada

David Sheryka, a longtime member of the Reno Chess Club, passed away on May 25th. David once sported an Expert rating and continued to play Class A chess for the past 20 years. In his honor, and with the generous sponsorship of David’s relative, Jerry Weikel will run a 6-round swiss tournament. Format is a 6-round swiss with rounds 1-3 at Game/30;5 second delay on July 7th and rounds 4-6 on July 14th. Cash prizes will be awarded: 1st: $100, Top A: $50, Top B: $50, Top 1599-below: $40.

The Nevada Chess Community has lost a valued player and frequent competitor in the North – South Team matches held annually in Tonopah, Nevada. We offer our condolences on behalf of our community to David’s friends and family, and from the Directors of Nevada Chess, Inc. He will be missed. – A. Magruder

Editor’s Message

(A. Magruder)

June was a very busy month for Las Vegas chess this year, with 19 (!) events listed in USChess.org, 10 of which took place at the International Chess Festival between June 24th and June 26th. There are far too many crosstables of the events in that list to include a worthy summary of results in this bulletin, except to say the events were well attended, with 666 players in the 2016 edition of the National Open, 264 in the International Youth Championship, 149 in the Youth Trophy Tournament and 108 in the Walter Browne Memorial Blitz competition.

There were 9 other smaller June events in and around Las Vegas, as well as 10 June events in Reno, including an 86 player ChessKidz Tournament with sections for ages 4-7, 8-9 and 10+, run by Chief TD Vernon Young. I’ll bet that was really fun for everyone!

If any of your chess friends complain about not receiving the April issue of this bulletin, you may tell them that that was the last Nevada Chess Bulletin mailed to all paid members, except for the January issue which will continue to include a ballot for paid up members to vote in the year’s election of officers. If they don’t have easy access to the internet and wish to have this bulletin mailed to them, they should indicate that on the membership form, a copy of which they might obtain from their local club, and send it to the editor at the address on the form. Or get ye on the internet, where all the info is in its own neat category on our website, NevadaChess.org.

Called to Order by President Alan Losoff, 2:20 PM

Present were Alan Losoff, Jan Losoff, Juan Jauregui, Tom Brownscombe, Allen Magruder, and
Gale Winds.

Alan Losoff called directors Jerry Weikel and Charles Chinnici to participate by conference call, but they were not available at that time.

The first order of business was tabulating the ballots and results of the 2016 Election. Tom Brownscombe, the election chairperson, opened the ballots. Allen Magruder verified that the membership status of each ballot was up to date, and Alan Losoff tabulated the results. All four candidates on the ballot, Charles Chinnici, Allen Magruder, Jerry Weikel and Gale Winds, were approved for the two year term of office from 2016 to 2017. That concluded the members portion of this meeting.

Since a quorum of at least 4 of the 7 elected directors was present, a few issues were presented for consideration, the first of which was determining the offices of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Alan Losoff volunteered to serve as President, Juan Jauregui agreed to serve as Vice President, Gale Winds agreed to serve as Secretary if Juan Jauregui would serve as Assistant Secretary, and Allen Magruder agreed to serve as Treasurer if Tom Brownscombe would serve as Assistant Treasurer. This arrangement was agreed upon by all involved, and will be in effect until the next election is completed.

The next issue was regarding the Nevada State Individual and Team Matches that have annually taken place in the fall of each year in Tonapah, NV. After a lengthy discussion regarding the difficulty in assembling a team willing to travel to Tonapah, the essential conclusion was that the Southern Nevada organizers and most players were no longer interested in the Tonapah event(s) and wanted to consider other options. Three options were mentioned and should be explored by the relevant Northern and Southern Nevada chess organizations and players for all types of Nevada State Championship events: alternate the yearly event between Northern and Southern Nevada sites; conduct the Individual and Team matches on the internet with supervision by qualified tournament directors; and for the individual state championship, hold a Nevada Championship Open Tournament with format and conditions to be decided.

There was some discussion regarding a separate Nevada Girls Chess Championship Tournament that might take place possibly shortly before the Annual Nevada State Scholastic Championship Tournament. Tom Brownscombe made a motion that such an event be considered. Janelle Losoff, who is co-chairperson of the USCF committee dealing with women’s chess, spoke in favor of the motion. The motion was seconded and approved by all directors present.

Alan Losoff asked board members present for approval to explore hiring a webmaster and an administrative assistant to handle some business affairs of Nevada Chess, Inc. That was approved.

Alan Losoff also made a motion that Allen Magruder be given a lifetime membership in Nevada Chess, Inc. for his years of service, and that was seconded and approved.

The meeting was adjourned at about 4 PM.