It is great to see the opportunities for tournament play opening up for folks in north Idaho and today we played in the Winter Solstice in the North tournament sponsored by the Lakeland High School Chess Club, the Coeur d'Alene Chess Club and the ICA. Partnerships where clubs come together to produce opportunities are important in states such as Idaho where there are not many tournaments. In this way an overall strategy and coordination of events can take place. We plan on holding a tournament each month in the Rathdrum and Couer d'Alene area. Nine players signed on for today's tournament with ratings from 468 to 1916 and ages 14 to 80 years. As Kenneth Erickson said, "it will be a bit until the ICA tournaments are on people's radar."
The big highlight was the face-off between Kenneth Erickson, Athol and Michael Cambreri, CDA and with the fast time controls being a rating equalizer, Kenneth emerged with a win. Ken's quick-chess rating is much lower than his regular rating, but the quick-rating is sure to rise with this upset. Michael took the loss in stride as he is a chess playing machine and as long as it was an interesting game, Michael left the round appearing pleased. All players won at least $10 (50% of prizes)/ class, while Kenneth won $25. As all indicated as they received their prizes, "it wasn't about the money."
