Nathanael Winchell (on left) is a chess lover to be sure, and he contacted the ICA repeatedly to have us organize a tournament in Mountain Home. His patience paid off as Mountain Home now hosts the annual Players Memorial tournament in June each year beginning this past month.
This was also an ICA/ICU partnership which introduced several folks to the Rocky Mountain Rating System where nobody is rated under 1000.
This was also a free tournament with prizes (chess bags, sets, etc.) to change things up a bit from the usual cash prizes or trophies/plaques. This event also attracted twenty-eight players and certainly surprised organizers which showed up to the tournament 15-minutes before show-time! We were only expecting about 12 people and frantically entered all the walk-ins as most people did not register online.
The Players Memorial tournament is a special tournament to honor our fallen comrades and it was befitting that $30 was donated for frames to display pictures and photographs of Idaho chess players in future tournaments.
Alex Machin was a clear winner with a perfect 4.0/4 score. Chris Pentico scored 3.5/4 and Jeff Roland won 3rd place 3.0/4.
