Feel free to join our group and add content including pictures and tournament announcements.
My name is Jim Hodina and I am a USCF Tournament Director and Scholastic Chess Instructor. When not directing or instructing, I do play some chess. You can view my USCF playing and directing history on the USCF website by clicking here.
I have created this website to provide additional information on chess tournaments and chess clubs in Iowa that you might not find on other websites such as www.iowachess.org. Initially, this will include tournament announcements, flyers, and results. Over time I will try to add additional content primarily focused on scholastic chess for Iowa students, parents, teachers and coaches.
ANNOUNCEMENTS REGARDING UPCOMING AND RECENT CHESS TOURNAMENTS
Iowa City Chess Tournament AnnouncementKirkwood Chess Wars IV (U1100) March 24, 2012 (Click for Flier) 5 round Swiss, Game in 30 minutes Trophies to 1st-6th overall & top U900, U700, U500 & U300 ...
Posted by James Hodina
Prairie Chess Series Starts Saturday March 32012 Prairie Series 3 Scholastic Chess TournamentsPrairie Creek Intermediate School Cafeteria401 76th Ave SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404Three Events: March 3, April 7, and May 5Play ...
Posted Mar 2, 2012 11:14 AM by James Hodina
New Location for the 2012 Iowa Elementary Team ChampionshipThe location for the Elementary Team Championship has moved to the Ames Middle Schoolat 3915 Mortensen Road in Ames, IA, 50010. This is due to a scheduling conflict at ...
Posted Jan 31, 2012 7:59 PM by James Hodina
The Prairie Chess Camp enters its 5th year of summer chess training for school age players. Based on the success of 2011, we are continuing this great chess experience as a 5 day camp. The camp is once again instructed by Senior Masters Alex Betaneli and Eric Santarius from the Wisconsin Chess Academy (and me). The camp will be held at the Kirkwood Community College, Iowa Hall, Iowa Room. Chess Campers will meet together but are often divided into groups based on age and demonstrated ability (USCF rating) to allow the instructors to work with the students at a targeted level. The day runs from 8 – 4:30 pm with a ½ early drop off and pick up. The camp fee is $245 for the five days and includes lunch and morning and afternoon snacks. The camp is limited to 30 students and was sold out in 2011. Click for More Details
Congratulations to Lincoln Elementary School (Iowa City) the 2012 Iowa K-6 Team Champions. With a score of 18 out of 20, Lincoln edged out the favored Weber Elementary School by one-half point.Weber (Iowa City) finished in second place, 2.5 points ahead of Fellows Elementary School (Ames).Cedar Rapids Prairie Creek and Ames’s Sawyer Elementary tied for 4th with 15 points each.Rounding out the field was Ames Middle School, Edwards Elementary School (Ames), Jordan Creek Elementary School (West Des Moines), and Meeker Elementary School (Ames).
One-hundred and eighteen (118) players turned our representing nine (9) schools from Ames, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and West Des Moines.
Weber entered the tournament with a top-four-player rating of 1406 and appeared to have the advantage over the field including Lincoln’s top-four-player rating of 1030. However a couple early round upsets of Weber players resulted in Lincoln with a
half point lead going into the final round. Players from Weber and Lincoln faced each other in 9 games throughout the 5 round individual Swiss format, splitting 4.5 to 4.5. But it was the final round pairing between Michael Takahashi (1101) and Arshaq Saleem (1588) that decided the outcome. Saleem, needing a win, pressed throughout the game. But Takahashi never appeared to be in danger, ultimately trading down to a rook and pawn endgame. With a symmetrical pawn structure, the rooks eventually were traded and the opponents agreed to a draw. The only drama left was to watch Michael’s older sister Mina (1312) win her game where she was a rook up
Additional trophies were also awarded for the top K-3 finishes where Weber took first place. A tie for second resulted between Meeker and Edwards. Fourth place was carried by Lincoln and fifth place by Fellows with Sawyer and Prairie rounding out the K-3 field.
2012 Iowa Girls Championship
2012 IA Girls Championship
Congratulations to Bethany Carson, 2012 Iowa Girls Chess Champion
Bethany Carson repeated as the Iowa Girls Chess Champion, successfully defending her title for the second year in a row. Twenty-three girls participated from Ames, Ackely, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City. There was a six-way tie for second place with scores of 3-1. In tie break order: Charity Carson (2), Mina Takahashi (3), Ana Denison (4), Sara Faith Carson (5), Danielle Roth (6), and Regan Hodina (7).
The 2012 event demonstrated how much girls chess has grown in Iowa. Five girls entered the tournament rated over USCF 1000. In 2010, there was only one. In 2011 there were four and otherwise there have never been more than two. In 2010, the top rated player, Bethany Carson was 1300; the third highest rated player was Regan Hodina at 600. This year, Regan is over 1000 coming in as the 5th highest rated player. Bethany remains the highest female player in Iowa at over USCF 1600.
Trophies were awarded for 1st - 10th place. Six girls participated in their first tournament. All girls received a chess medal for participating.
Lincoln Elementary School, Iowa City, was well represented with 11 girls. Christian Schmitz and Gail Takahasi, parent of Mina and Michael Takahashi, have put notable effort into generating interest among the girls at their school. They have brought their efforts to the local media, promoting chess in the community. Visit these two articles in the Iowa City Press Citizen to learn more:
The 2011 Iowa Grades Championship was held at Ames High School on Saturday, December 3rd. It was back in Central Iowa, after three years at the Wasserbahn Waterpark in the Amana Colonies near Iowa City. There were 129 players, the highest in three years. The tournament was hosted by the Fellows Elementary School Chess Club. The tournament was directed by Bill Broich, Soma Chaudhuri, Jim Hodina, Matt Power and Roger Gotschall.
There were a large number of Fellows Chess parents at hand to help out with set up, registration and the very popular concessions stand! Carter Peterson, a 2nd grader, arrived early with his mother, who was working at the registration desk, to help set up boards and sharpen a hundred pencils that were to be used to take chess notation! This was the fourth year that the spacious Ames High cafeteria has been used to host an early-December state championship.
The Kindergarten and 1st Grade sections were merged, since there were only three kindergarteners registered to play. Josiah Power of Iowa City was the Kindergarten champion for the second year, winning all his four games. Last year, he won the Kindergarten championship as a pre-schooler. Daniel Skrade, playing in his first tournament, won the 1st Grade title. His only loss was to Josiah.
The next four grades champions were all undefeated in four round play. Gordon Lee, of Cedar Rapids, won the 2nd Grade championship for his second straight grades title. Clive Power, of Iowa City, won the 3rd Grade championship for his fourth straight title, having won it every year that he has participated. The 4th Grade championship was won by Michael Takahashi from Iowa City, who won the grades for a second year in a row. Gokul Thangavel was the 5th Grade champion, also winning it for the second time in two years.
The 6th Grade championship had two players, Pranav Krishnamurthy and Mina Takahashi, tied for the top spot, since they drew in the final round. Pranav, from Iowa City, won 1st place on tiebreaks. The 7th and 8th grade sections were merged with Milton Lee from Cedar Rapids winning 7th Grade honors and Daaniel Carson from Eldora, who went undefeated, winning the 8th Grade title.
The high school section had to be merged, with the 9th Grade championship going to Alon Wald of Iowa City, the 10th Grade championship going to Tenson Cai of Ames, the 11th Grade title going to Mukesh Ravichandran of Cedar Rapids and the 12th Grade title going to Alan Zhou of Ankeny. Kushan Tyagi, of Ames, participated as a house player.
Congratulations to all the champions! First through third place trophies and fourth through sixth place medals were given out in every grade. Photos and complete standings
Congratulations to the Jiahua Zhang, Iowa K-12 Scholastic Champion!
Click below to view photos from this event.
Chess players flex their muscle at the 2011 Iowa Scholastic Chess Championships
Jiahua Zhang (Iowa City) won the Iowa K-12 Championship on Saturday November 5. Jiahua went undefeated in a section of Iowa's top scholastic players. Bethany Carson, Arshaq Saleem, and Cub Nobel finished 2nd - 4th with 3 points out of 4. Gokul Thangavel took the 5th place trophy, Chance Maynard grabbed the U1200, Arthur Wold U1000, and Matt Cook U800 while Ghani Muhammad held the score for the top unrated player. Charity Carson was recognized with the trophy for the girl's top score.
Section winners were Milton Lee (K-8), Sarah Faith Carson (K-5), and Gordon Lee (K-3). Complete standings are shown above (scroll down to view).
The tournament was held at Prairie High School (Cedar Rapids), which hosted twenty-nine chess players who participated in their first chess tournament. Twenty-five different schools were represented at the first Iowa Scholastic Championship of the year. The tournament was directed by Chief TD Jim Hodina with Assistant TD Matt Power. Special thanks to Prairie teachers Julie Zastrow and Jim Jones. An additional thank you goes out to parent Jeanette Roth for assisting with registration and USCF memberships.
2011 Scholastic Director's Report
Among many hats, I serve by appointment as the Scholastic Director for the Iowa State Chess Association. I am posting the 2011 Annual Scholastic Report that I have prepared for this past school year.
Attendance at IASCA Scholastic Championship Events in 2011 compared to years 2008, 2009, and 2010.
Attendance increased from 333 participants in 2010 to 363 participants in 2011
Financial report of IASCA Scholastic Championship Events in 2011
IASCA Scholastic Championship events generated $499 that will be used for stipends by our High School and Girls champions to compete in the USCF national championship
Proposed calendar for SY 2012 (Updated to reflect current calendar).
Iowa Individual Grades Championship November 5, 2011, Cedar Rapids
