NSCL-2021_2022-info
The pandemic-adjusted leagues!
[find your pairings for the next event here!]
TL;DR - use the link above to find your next pairing.
As for league meetings: the COVID delta variant has created some uncertainty. Our tentative schedule for the 2021-2022 season is:
Meet 1 at West Las Vegas High School Monday October 11th, 2021
Meet 2 at Santa Fe Prep Friday November 5th, 2021
Meet 3 at St. Mike's High School in Santa Fe on Monday January 17th, 2022
but we are monitoring the situation closely to see if we should return to an online meet for the first date. Contact us to be on our mailing list and we will keep you posted.
We will also soon have coach's meetings to discuss online statewide New Mexico tournaments, like last year's very successful New Mexico Grand Prix series.
and see below for the competitive leagues we are hosting this 2021-2022 school year: the Northern Schools Chess League (several decisions remain to be made), the NM Grand Prix series.
At this time we are hosting Wednesday evening state-wide lessons (5:45pm) and meets (just after 6pm).
Please contact Mark Galassi by email at <mark@galassi.org> or by phone at +1-505-629-0759 to find out how to have your kids join the lessons or the league.
What should coaches do? (not that much once season starts)
Preview: "not much"! If you work with students who play chess (you could be a parent, a teacher, a club coordinator, someone who runs a chess afterschool program, ...) we really would love you to get as many students to participate as possible! Here are steps you could take:
Have your students get accounts on lichess.org
http://lichess.org/ is a full-featured chess web site, based on free and open-source software, and run by volunteers committed to offering a no-cost service. This means that you do not run toxic software on your computer, and there is no advertising, and there are no limits to the learning features you can use. We will use it for our tournaments.
Form one or more teams for your students
As mentioned above, you should first try to get your students to be in a team with their school. If there are schools with fewer than 3 players then you can form a club for students not in school teams.
It's quite easy on http://lichess.org/ - I recommend somewhat canonicalized team names with no spaces, like "MySchoolName-HS-A" for your top high school team, and so forth. Let me (mark@galassi.org) know your team names and I will invite them to our informal Wednesday evening meets and to the league events.
Get "no external help" commitments from students and parents
Ask your students to send you an email with the following text, and keep that email in a folder for your students:
"""I commit to not using any outside help in the chess games I will play in the New Mexico online leagues."""
If the students are too young to use email then their parents should send an email with a similar paragraph:
"""My child has committed to not using any outside help in the chess games they will play in the New Mexico online leagues."""
Send the students schedule reminders
Remind them of upcoming dates and times, of the lichess.org tournament links, and the videocons that will go with each meet. And get them playing in the Wednesday evening friendly events (mentioned above) right away! You only have to send them this one link - it will always have their team's section address.
Remind students of individual chess
We are also organizing individual chess meets on Monday evenings at 7pm. You will find them listed at https://lichess.org/team/newmexicoscholastic and all students are encouraged to come and practice.
Help us find chess organizers in far-flung cities
This is our chance to get far-away places involved in chess. Please let me know if you have contacts for anyone who organizes chess in some far-away location, where their students have not typically showed up for our events.