Dates

Five Wednesdays in 2026: Feb 4, 11, 18, 25; Mar 4.  Mayor Garcia will give prizes on the last evening.

Write to Mark Galassi <mark@galassi.org> before the starting day to sign up.  Call +1-505-629-0759 (voice only) with questions.

Current standings

Goals

Two main goals:

• To offer a tournament in the more European style, played over a protracted period rather than crammed into a day or a weekend.  You play one game in an evening and can prepare and focus hard without getting exhausted.

• To declare a top city student (K-12) in a serious tournament series.

Other goals:

• Family friendly by not tying up a full day or weekend - you simply come to the evenings that the games are played.

• This will have a high profile in the city: mayor Mike Garcia will award the Mayor's Cup and medals to the top 3 in each section.

• We will award a "Brilliance Prize" for the best game submitted in the tournament.

• The very significant Mayor's Cup for the winner; gold/silver/bronze medals for other sections.

• Small cash prizes :-)

• We will also have a "family and friends" grown-up tournament: if you accompany your kid to the tournament, or help in our club, then you can sign up for the "family and friends" tournament.

Tournament format

1. The players are broken down into sections of 6 and play a full round-robin tournament within that section.

2. Games are played every Wednesday evening (1st game is Wed. Feb 4, 2026) at the Santa Fe downtown library.  Show up at 5:50pm and games start at 6:05pm.

3. If you cannot make a date please let the director know well ahead of time and we will try to broker a catch-up game.  If this cannot be coordinated then you lose the game by forfeit (but you will almost certainly always be able to coordinate this if it only happens once or twice).

4. Games are played with director in attendance at downtown library.

5. Time controls: each player has 35 minutes for the whole game, and clocks with a delay setting will have a 5 second delay.

Cost/Prizes/Ratings

• Cost to participate: $1.00 for the whole tournament.

• Prize: the Mayor's cup will be awarded to the winner of the highest rated section.  Other sections get medals for 1st-3rd place.  All sections get cash prizes for 1st-3rd place.

• USCF rated: no, the US chess fedration has become so hard to work with that we will drop this requirement for a while.  You do not need to sign up with USCF.

• Allowed participants: any student from preschool to 12th grade in Santa Fe.  Or friends or family or coaches who can play in the "friends and family" section.

2025-2026 Mayor's Cup -- starts February 4, 2026.

Send email to mark@galassi.org to register.

Friends and Family participants

Format for "friends and family":

• You are not committed to showing up (even though the kids in the main tournament are).

• If you do show up by 6:10pm then I pair you in for a round in that swiss tournament.

• If you don't show up and you let me know before the first day then you get up to 2 half point byes (and then 0 point byes). If you don't fore-warn then you get a 0 point bye.

• I (Mark) plan to play.  I hope you will all consider it.  It would be a fun thing for your kids to see while they are playing their game.