Idaho Chess Association is pleased to announce this year’s Western Open! The event will be held on Saturday December 12 at 10am Boise time. The Western will be hosted on Chess.com, will be US Chess rated and will be in our usual online classic format of 4SS G/30+5.
I realize that this time of year everyone is thinking about Christmas and the winter solstice and things like that. But hold on! We have tournaments in the pipeline for those too (December 16 & 21). But this next tournament is all about the west. No, it’s not about the cowboy west. It’s about the ICA West Region.
ICA divides the state of Idaho into four regions: North, West, South Central and East. In the old days, pre-Covid, each region would host its own over the board open. The winner would get some prize money and become the champion of that region. The same is true for scholastics, except minus the cash. Each region held its own scholastic qualifier. Those players earning three points or more and those players placing first, second and third went on to “State” – The Idaho State Scholastic Championship.
For the time being, OTB is simply not possible. The ICA board meets every month to discuss OTB and Covid. Please be patient. OTB is definitely coming back. We’re just not quite sure yet when and how. We would really like State to be held OTB. Hopefully, by sometime next year, there’s a way to make that happen. In the meantime, Chess.com is working out great!
LINKS:
Jef can be reached at (208)488-0676 or at TofuNightmare on Chess.com