K-12 Showdown: K-5 Sunday Rounds Canceled; Rapid Replacement Event at 11:45 ET; Grades 6-12 Will Continue

Note: We are also holding a rapid replacement tournament starting at 11:45am Eastern on Sunday, 12/13, for all players who were in the K-5 sections. More details below.

Statement from Mike Klein, Chief Chess Officer at ChessKid.com: 

http://www.uschess.org/tournaments/2020/k12onl/K5PlayerMakeup.pdf

Statement from US Chess:

ALL SECTIONS K-5 CANCELLED

Despite our best hopes to continue the K-5 sections of the K-12 Showdown on ChessKid, US Chess administrators and ChessKid administrators could not fully guarantee that those sections would not continue to experience the technical problems that plagued them today.  

So, the painful decision was made to cancel further play in grades K-5.  US Chess and ChessKid apologize to all affected players and parents.  Please disregard our earlier email tonight from US Chess announcing the reduction of the K-5 sections to 5 rounds.  

MAKING IT UP TO YOU

We are announcing several things for the K-5 players in the Showdown as part of our apology for not delivering the type of smoothly run event that US Chess generally delivers.

You can read all of the details in this message from ChessKid. There's a LOT in there!  Here are a few highlights.  

We are giving a full refund to all K-5 players.  No need to ask us for your money back - we'll process your refund next week.

We are also holding a rapid replacement tournament starting at 11:45am Eastern on Sunday, 12/13, for all players who were in the K-5 sections.  It's easy to get in, and should last maybe 2.5 hours.  There's a free lesson from "FunMasterMike" at 11am Eastern too!

All K-5 players in the Showdown get 4 months of free Gold membership on ChessKid.com.

OUR PLEDGE TO YOU

We can’t replace the day you lost, or erase the disappointment you feel about not finishing the event. But we really think this combined offer from ChessKid and US Chess is the most sincere expression of our best effort to do just that. 

For many of you, it was your first time experiencing one of our events.  US Chess events are generally well organized and run on time.  It was our first time attempting to run an online event of this scale, and things did not go well for us or our partners.  We pledge to all of you to learn and improve.  We hope you'll give us the opportunity to show what we've learned from this experience in future online events.

Please read the linked details, and we hope you join us tomorrow!  Thank you for your support and patience.