News From The President

Springtime greetings to all in Montana Chessland. We are now about halfway through the busiest chess schedule that I can remember ever in Montana. My own chess calendar for February, March, and April shows eleven weekend events. We have four youth tournaments, team chess in Missoula, two Bozeman events with accelerated time controls and two more Grand Prix tournaments to go with this year's "early bird" Montana Open in Billings at the end of April. Seems like that ought to be plenty for anybody whatever kind of chess they are looking for.

At the January Thaw, the MCA board met and considered a number of issues.

We made some changes to the MCA bylaws:

1. On those occasions that there is a tie for first place in the Montana State Closed, all the persons in the tie will be seated as state champions in the following year's Montana Closed tournament. To accomodate this change, the format will temporarily revert to the 10-person closed that has been used in the past. After the tied persons are seeded, the rest of the places will follow the same formula that was used for the last 10-person closed. Effective after the 2003 Closed.

2. Dues will increase by $2 per year for adults and $1 for Juniors effective immediately following the March 8, Montana Junior Championship.

3. Entry fee for the Montana Open will increase to $25 advance and $30 at site effective for the 2003 Open.

4. Effective for 2003, the month of April is added to May and June as months in which the State Open may be held.

Two other ideas were discussed at some length but no changes were enacted. These were the suggestions that Grand Prix rules be changed to included faster time controls and that the Grand Prix multiplier rule be altered so as to be in effect only after a person has played in one Grand Prix event.

None of the above is set in stone, and we can take time to debate the issues at the upcoming State Open in Billings.

In the next issue of the Montana Chess News, I will write at some length concerning the ongoing dispute between former MCA officer, Doug Hansen, and several current and past MCA Board members. Mr. Hansen has two complaints before the US Chess Federation's Ethics Committee which could conceivably affect all MCA members. It is a subject upon which it is hard to cast light without generating a great deal of heat at the same time. So it can wait until April.

Hope to see you soon over (or under) the chessboard,

best in chess, dan mccourt