March 7, 2022
Dear
New York State Scholastic Championship Players, Parents, Coaches and Guests,
Thank
You All for attending the 54th edition of the New York State Scholastic
Championships— one of the USCF’s
longest-running scholastic chess tournaments!
It is such a pleasure to welcome
everyone back to Saratoga Springs after three long years!
As you undoubtedly know, we are
requiring that all our attendees be both fully vaccinated, as defined by the
CDC, and also wear masks while in the tournament rooms and surrounding areas.
We have received a number of heartfelt emails expressing your feelings regarding the
vaccination requirements. I can appreciate how passionate you are about
what you are saying in advocating for your players.
To address this question, please
consider the context and history oi our policies on vaccination
requirements.
When we set up the details of the
tournament in 2021, we did not know what the actual Covid data would be in
mid-March. What we did know at the time was that the Omicron cases were
rising to dangerously high levels. If we wanted to have a large
scholastic tournament, we were not willing to do so without also helping to
keep the players safe. We were fortunate both that vaccines were shown to
be effective against variants like Omicron and also that vaccines had been
approved for use by younger children since November.
The only way we could justify having a large indoor chess event with hundreds
of children was to make sure we required that everyone was fully vaccinated,
including public, private and home schooled students. For guidance on
what constitutes full vaccination, we looked to the scientific experts on the
matter, the CDC, and they have said that full vaccination occurs after two
weeks has elapsed since a person's second dose (or one week after the initial
Johnson & Johnson dose): https://www.cdc.gov/
We followed their recommendations and applied them to the requirements of this
tournament. We didn't announce this at the last minute; rather, when we
opened up our online entries in late December we had the requirement for full
vaccination in order to participate in the tournament. By doing so we
received the trust, support and encouragement of a large number of scholastic
players, parents and school administrators, many of whom would not have even
considered making a commitment to traveling out-of-town to an extra-curricular
event comprised of hundreds of youngsters throughout the state otherwise.
We strongly feel that this also is a matter of trust between us and the well
over 800 players who have already signed up in good faith for the tournament
with the correct vaccination documentation. We assured them that the
players would be fully vaccinated and they expect us to follow through on our
own rules which we advertised to them. We are thus obligated to do so.
Please remember that it wasn't that long ago that there were hardly any
in-person events anywhere, particularly large scholastic tournaments, and for
quite some time. We have tried to do our part to keep the train moving
forward. First, by running events online when it was not safe to do so in
person, and later by gradually returning to over-the-board events in a safe manner,
while being mindful of the concerns of the scholastic community.
In our best efforts to do so, some players will not be eligible to participate
at the current time, unfortunately. But as things slowly return to
normal, we anticipate more in person events, including scholastic events, with
more and more young players participating, We definitely look forward to
being able to accommodate them all.
WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER AND WE DEPEND
ON OUR GROUP SOLIDARITY TO HELP KEEP US GOING!
To accommodate our large
group of chess players, the tournament is actually being run in three separate
locations.
The
High School Championship, K-12 Under 1800 and K-12 Under 1200 Sections
will be played in the Excelsior Springs
Ballroom, next to the
Courtyard by Marriott Hotel. The
Courtyard and the Excelsior Springs
Ballroom are about
a ten minute walk north of the Hilton
along Excelsior Avenue. The Courtyard
by Marriott Hotel’s address is 11
Excelsior Avenue, and the address of the Excelsior
Springs Ballroom, next to the hotel, is 47 Excelsior Avenue, in Saratoga
Springs. You should be able to walk to
the end of the Hilton Hotel’s parking lot and then continue north on Excelsior Avenue, past the Olde Bryan Inn and onto
the Courtyard Hotel and the Excelsior Ballroom on the left.
The Excelsior Springs
Ballroom has excellent lighting and playing
conditions to accommodate the High School sections. The Canfield and Carousel Rooms in the Courtyard
by Marriott Hotel (next door to the
Excelsior Springs Ballroom) are available for Skittles, and in the event we
need additional space for the High School sections. The Courtyard will also offer some sandwiches
and premade food items, along with their menu of hot and cold items at the
Bistro. The Saratoga City Center will also operate a separate food concession
geared to our group as well.
We understand the
inconvenience in having the High School sections separated from the rest of the
sections in the Hilton Hotel by
a 10-minute walk outdoors in the winter. However, we are very fortunate to have such a first-rate tournament facility
and hotel
so close to the Hilton
available and able to accommodate our large number of players, and we will try
our best to give our High School participants an outstanding tournament
experience. We will try to text the
pairings to the individual players or parents, and make them available on the
tournament website as well. If you
registered online and provided your cell phone number with the texting pairings
option, you should be all set. If not,
you can provide that information to the Tournament Staff for future texting of
pairings.
Seven sections of the tournament will be played in the Saratoga Springs City Center, adjacent to the Hilton Hotel via an indoor walkway. The Middle School Championship Section will be played in Room C on the first floor, and the K-8 Under 1600 Section will probably be in this room also. The K-8 Under 900, Elementary Championship, K-5 Under 1400, K-5 Under 1000 and K-5 Under 600 Sections will all be playing in the Main Hall on the first floor of the Saratoga Springs City Center, known also as Hall D.
The Primary Championship, K-3 Under 800,
K-1 Championship and K-1 Under 400
Sections will all be held in the Saratoga Ballroom of the Saratoga
Hilton Hotel.
NOTE POSSIBLE ROOM CHANGE: The Primary Championship is scheduled for the Saratoga Ballroom in the Hilton Hotel, but it may be moved to the Main Hall (Room D) of the City Center. We will let you know on Saturday morning whether this move will occur or not. The intent is to reduce the number of players in the Saratoga Ballroom, which is a smaller room than the City Center Main Hall D. This will also make it less crowded in the waiting area outside of the Saratoga Ballroom, while moving the parents and coaches of the Primary Championship players to the main waiting area outside of City Center Main Hall D (which is larger than the waiting area outside the Saratoga Ballroom).
The Skittles Room for these sections will be in Room M1, on the first floor of the Saratoga Springs City Center.
If you're interested in trying out some rated chess yourself while you're
waiting, we have a special side tournament on Sunday morning: the Parents
And Friends Tournament! Registration
is from 9:30 - 10:15 am Eastern
Daylight Time on Sunday March 13th
at Chess Control in the Hilton Hotel, and the four USCF-rated games (30
minutes per game, plus 5-second delay per move, per player) might be played in
the Phila Room of the Hilton Hotel if we are not able to use the Saratoga Springs City Center!
At 9:30 am Eastern Daylight Time on
Sunday March 13th, we will also have a New York
State Chess Association Open House and Tournament Feedback Forum. Here you can learn about NYSCA, a 501 (c) (3) organization and America’s oldest
state chess association, and its efforts to promote and support Chess
in New York State.
Here are some links to
other useful information.
The Continental
Chess website,
which has much chess information and historical data.
The New York State Scholastic
Championships website, which
has the information for this year and the results from prior years.
Some Answers
To Frequently Asked Questions
The Tournament Rules
The
Kindgerten/First Grade Rules
The Continental
Chess Code Of Conduct
A Parents’ And Coaches’ Guide To
Scholastic Chess
Thank
You Very Much for your participation and we truly appreciate your support
as we strive to provide all of you with an excellent tournament!
Thank you all again for coming and welcome to historic Saratoga
Springs, New York!
Steve
Immitt
Chief
Tournament Director
New
York State Scholastic Championships