2020-21 VA Scholastic Championships
Qualification Tournament No. 3
Information Email No. 1
(sent at 6:50am on Tuesday, March 10th, 2021)
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PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY -- IT IS
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT
Players, Parents, and Coaches ...
This note is the first of 3 "Information Emails" we
will send.
Each contains 3 or 4 key topics of interest for the
upcoming Qualification Tournament #3. This note focuses
on: 1) Mark Your Calendars, 2) The Chess Platform, and
3)
Your Equipment for the tournament.
TOPIC 1: MARK YOUR CALENDARS. Next week, on Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday (March 16, 17 and 18), the Virginia Chess Federation (VCF) will host a Pre-Tournament Zoom Meeting for Players, Parents and Coaches. You only need to attend one evening, not all 3. Even if you attended the meetings before fQualification Tournaments # 1 and #2, you should sit in for this one ... we have some new information and instructions to share. Dial-in/link information for these meetings will be posted on the VCF home page at the top of the screen--look for it next week on Monday (March 15th). TOPIC 2. The Chess Platform: We are playing all games on the chesskid.com platform. It uses a Fair Play Analysis method endorsed by the US Chess Federation. For the tournament every player is assigned a special UserName. This means:
a. If this is your first Qualification
Tournament with us, you will be given a unique
Username and Password next week by Wednesday
evening. When you receive it, try it out ... DO
NOT wait until Saturday morning to find out that
you cannot log-in. In each tournament we've had
about 15-25 players who had log-in issues.
Lucky for us they identified the issue early and
we got it fixed by Friday evening.
b. If you played in Qualification
Tournament #1 or #2 you will have the same
Username. Check your existing Username account
now to be sure you haven't forgotten your
password!! Your account is active, so you can
check things and play a few practice games.
c. If you already have a chesskid.com account,
DO NOT USE IT to login to Chesskid.com for
the Qualification tournament. You
MUST use the Username and password we assign you.
You can see your UserName NOW on our tournament
page by looking at the list of players who
already have registered. Each Username is of
the form VAQK3SmithJoe or VAQK8JonesSam. If you
did not play in Qualifier #1 or #2 your Username
won't be active until we send it you your
Password next week on Tuesday evening or
Wednesday.
3. Your Equipment: To participate, you need:
a. A reliable
internet connection and a laptop or
desktop computer.
We also recommend a good mouse or
trackball. DO
NOT use a tablet computer, cell
phone, or Chromebook because
they do not work well with Chesskid.com.
So, if you want to have a reliable
and stable connection, don't use a
tablet, cellphone or Chromebook.
b. To practice your
online playing skills.
If you have never played online
chess before, IT IS DIFFERENT. You
don't want your first online chess
experience to be this tournament.
Play some online chess before the
event. In online chess, there is no
"touch-move" rule, and if you
slip-up and drop your piece on a
legal square, the move counts and
cannot be reversed. If you don't
have a chesskid.com account,
you can create one for free and play
online--just go to chesskid.com and
sign up. Any games you win or lose
while "practicing" do not factor
into any rating we are using for the
upcoming Qualification Tournament.
In the next two Information Emails, we will talk about these subjects, among others:
1) Fair Play and how we are
monitoring everyone for violations of
fair play (e.g. cheating)
2) What Chess Ratings we are using
for the Pairings
3) How you earn points for your
school team
4) On tournament day, how your games
will be started
5) On tournament day, when you need
to be online and ready to play
6) On tournament day, where to find
the pairings and standings ... and how
to understand "who" it is you are
playing
7) On tournament day, how you need
to report a problem with your game
Don't Forget about the Pre-Event
Meetings next week on Tuesday, Wednesday
and Thursday -- and you only need to
attend ONE of these meetings!
Mike Hoffpauir VA Chess Federation National Tournament Director Cell (757)846-4805 email to: mhoffpauir@aol.com |