Prateek Pinisetti, a recipient of the 2017 Scholar-Chess Player Awards was also featured in our Chess: A Game for Life promo series.
Prateek is also on the board of director of Legends Chess, a non-profit helping promote chess in Title 1 Schools in Phoenix. Prateek runs tournaments that help benefit Legends Chess through his organization, "ChessHelps." In his own words and with photos, Prateek breaks down his latest event, held on September 9th.
I have been playing chess since I was in 3
rd grade and I wanted to use my skills as a chess player and expand it to help my school and community, so when I was in 8th grade, I decided to start ChessHelps.
Running a chess tournament is very much like a chess game. No two are exactly the same, but you gain experience and draw upon that just like in a chess game. Even though there will always be some surprises you can deal with them better if you have good preparation.
Opening: This is usually the easiest part of the process: you coordinate with different chess clubs, school officials, find a venue, and come up with a date. Line up your tournament directors and set up the event sign-up mechanism, usually a website, and have a flyer ready.
Middlegame: Just like in chess, this is the hardest part. You have to improvise, calculate and adapt to changing situations. Promoting the event is a key element of this process and can take up a lot of time and effort. You should also make sure you have enough boards, tables and chairs, order trophies and awards, etc.
Endgame: The tournament day dawns, the playing hall is set up, signs are posted and now is the time to finish the game. I am lucky to have excellent tournament directors who make it seem like a breeze. I usually end up playing in this tournament (the OPEN section is usually one of the best with lots of strong players and that is something I cannot pass up!). And before you know it, all the rounds are done, awards distributed and results uploaded to the US Chess rating portal.
This year we had a record number of players with 183 including the unrated section. The tournament was conducted on 9
th September, and we recognized FM Robby Adamson for his many contributions to the Arizona chess community. The Vice-Mayor of City of Chandler, Kevin Hartke, along with Mrs. Terrell, Basis Chandler Principal, were present to kick-off the event. Like in years past, Martha Underwood, Michelle Martinez and Jon Coulter helped direct the tournament.
Martha Underwood, Michelle Martinez and Jon Coulter
Each one of the
ChessHelps cross tables on the US Chess website has a unique story behind it, and even though the individual chess games have wins, losses and draws, ChessHelps is all about community winners.
One of the most impressive results was turned in by
Sandeep Sethuraman, who had an awesome tournament, gaining over 100 rating points!
[pgn]
[Event "Chesshelps 2017"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.09.09"]
[White "Diulger, Alexey"]
[Black "Sethuraman, Sandeep"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D00"]
[WhiteElo "2345"]
[BlackElo "2012"]
[PlyCount "78"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2017.10.07"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c3 d5 3. Bf4 e6 4. e3 c5 5. Nd2 Nc6 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. Bxd6 Qxd6 8. f4
O-O 9. Qf3 a6 10. g4 b5 11. a3 Rb8 12. Ne2 a5 13. g5 Nd7 14. Qh3 g6 15. Qg3 b4
16. axb4 axb4 17. h4 bxc3 18. bxc3 Bb7 19. h5 Ra8 20. Rd1 Ba6 21. Bxg6 fxg6 22.
hxg6 hxg6 23. Qh3 Kf7 24. Qh7+ Ke8 25. Qxg6+ Kd8 26. Rh6 Re8 27. Ng3 Nf8 28.
Qf6+ Kc7 29. Nf3 cxd4 30. cxd4 Qa3 31. Kf2 Rab8 32. Ne5 Nxe5 33. dxe5 Rb2+ 34.
Kf3 Qa2 35. Rg1 Rf2+ 36. Kg4 Be2+ 37. Kh3 Bf3 38. Nh1 Rh2+ 39. Kg3 Rg2+ 0-1
[/pgn]
Prateek Pinisetti, a recipient of the 2017 Scholar-Chess Player Awards was also featured in our Chess: A Game for Life promo series.
Prateek is also on the board of director of Legends Chess, a non-profit helping promote chess in Title 1 Schools in Phoenix. Prateek runs tournaments that help benefit Legends Chess through his organization, "ChessHelps." In his own words and with photos, Prateek breaks down his latest event, held on September 9th.
I have been playing chess since I was in 3rd grade and I wanted to use my skills as a chess player and expand it to help my school and community, so when I was in 8th grade, I decided to start ChessHelps.
Running a chess tournament is very much like a chess game. No two are exactly the same, but you gain experience and draw upon that just like in a chess game. Even though there will always be some surprises you can deal with them better if you have good preparation.
Opening: This is usually the easiest part of the process: you coordinate with different chess clubs, school officials, find a venue, and come up with a date. Line up your tournament directors and set up the event sign-up mechanism, usually a website, and have a flyer ready.
Middlegame: Just like in chess, this is the hardest part. You have to improvise, calculate and adapt to changing situations. Promoting the event is a key element of this process and can take up a lot of time and effort. You should also make sure you have enough boards, tables and chairs, order trophies and awards, etc.
Endgame: The tournament day dawns, the playing hall is set up, signs are posted and now is the time to finish the game. I am lucky to have excellent tournament directors who make it seem like a breeze. I usually end up playing in this tournament (the OPEN section is usually one of the best with lots of strong players and that is something I cannot pass up!). And before you know it, all the rounds are done, awards distributed and results uploaded to the US Chess rating portal.
This year we had a record number of players with 183 including the unrated section. The tournament was conducted on 9th September, and we recognized FM Robby Adamson for his many contributions to the Arizona chess community. The Vice-Mayor of City of Chandler, Kevin Hartke, along with Mrs. Terrell, Basis Chandler Principal, were present to kick-off the event. Like in years past, Martha Underwood, Michelle Martinez and Jon Coulter helped direct the tournament.
Martha Underwood, Michelle Martinez and Jon Coulter
