1500 compete in Windsor Chess Challenge 2015

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  • 1500 compete in Windsor Chess Challenge 2015

    Another one into the books. Fifteen hundred kids competed this year. John Coleman is making noises that this may be his last one. The look of terror on the faces of myself and several of the other volunteers is all about the realization about how much more work will be involved next year and wondering where we are going to keep 400 chess boards, sets and a pile of clocks if John really makes good on his thought to become a snowbird.

    John uses his own variant of the swiss system which he calls continuous pairing system. Players get paired as soon as they finish their games so that you can have a person on round 3 paired with someone who is playing their 4th game.

    Bellwood School won the school competition with 75 points (top ten scores over eight rounds) with 80 points being the maximum possible.

    There will be a playoff April 4th where individual champions will be decided from among all of those who won silver or gold medals or finished with 6.5/8 or higher.

    A list of medal winners can be found at the following page:

    http://www.chesschallenge.info/15medals.htm
    Last edited by Vlad Drkulec; Friday, 6th March, 2015, 01:56 AM.

  • #2
    Re: 1500 compete in Windsor Chess Challenge 2015

    With the encouragement of Leslie Armstrong, I started the Windsor Chess Challenge in 1999, as a sort-of pre-retirement project. It's been 17 years, and I'm not getting any younger. I organised my first chess tournament in 1961, at Easter, so I'm coming up to my 54th anniversary.

    For the first eight years, we qualified players to the Ontario Chess Challenge provincial finals, until my disatisfaction with the organisation of that event led switching to the Ontario Youth Chess Championship.

    I'm the main organiser, but the event would not be possible with the help and support of the local chess players, who act as arbiters, and retired teachers, who manage each playing room and supervise the children. Volunteers from the high schools record the results of games. This year... I don't have an accurate count, off hand, but there were about 120 volunteers.

    The future? Who knows. I have to give up the Chess Challenge sometime. Apart from health reasons, I seem to be less and less able to deal with the frustrations of dealing with people. If no other organiser wants to take the event on, maybe it will have to die.
    Last edited by John Coleman; Friday, 6th March, 2015, 10:13 AM.

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    • #3
      Re: 1500 compete in Windsor Chess Challenge 2015

      Originally posted by John Coleman View Post
      If no other organiser wants to take the event on, maybe it will have to die.
      It will not die. I may, but it won't.

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      • #4
        Re: 1500 compete in Windsor Chess Challenge 2015

        Wow, 1500 players. Great work on this tournament John, a real success story.
        I think many of us other organizers are envious of the 120 volunteers. That is an even more incredible achievement. Your every move should be to encourage those volunteers to take on more and more tasks, fill your gigantic shoes, so you can relax and enjoy what you have built.

        Many thanks!

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        • #5
          Re: 1500 compete in Windsor Chess Challenge 2015

          Originally posted by Bob Gillanders View Post
          Wow, 1500 players. Great work on this tournament John, a real success story.
          I think many of us other organizers are envious of the 120 volunteers. That is an even more incredible achievement. Your every move should be to encourage those volunteers to take on more and more tasks, fill your gigantic shoes, so you can relax and enjoy what you have built.

          Many thanks!
          It's been a known fact, for some years now (a decade perhaps), that John Coleman et al have been very successful with these tournaments. I wonder what the CFC, who includes promoting the growth of chess as part of its mission statement, has done to ensure that the reasons for John's success, as well as his methods, are well understood so that interested youth organizers in other communities have a template to follow? Would I be correct if I guessed nothing?
          "We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
          "Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
          "If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey

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          • #6
            Re: 1500 compete in Windsor Chess Challenge 2015

            Great turn out.

            Does it go down as the largest event in Canada?
            Gary Ruben
            CC - IA and SIM

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            • #7
              Re: 1500 compete in Windsor Chess Challenge 2015

              Maybe a new position John? - consultant organizer or organizer emeritus. What a legacy! Im impressed. Congratulations.

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              • #8
                Re: 1500 compete in Windsor Chess Challenge 2015

                The event is unique on its own. If not the largest numbers - it is year after year with large numbers and dedication very impressive!

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                • #9
                  Re: 1500 compete in Windsor Chess Challenge 2015

                  Originally posted by Peter McKillop View Post
                  It's been a known fact, for some years now (a decade perhaps), that John Coleman et al have been very successful with these tournaments. I wonder what the CFC, who includes promoting the growth of chess as part of its mission statement, has done to ensure that the reasons for John's success, as well as his methods, are well understood so that interested youth organizers in other communities have a template to follow? Would I be correct if I guessed nothing?
                  We are just considering a youth tournament here in Williams Lake.
                  I've passed on links from the CFC website to teachers here. There are some good resources.
                  Sure would be interested in any advise from a 17 year veteran.

                  Parents are scary and yes it takes one to know one.

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