TOURNAMENT OF QUEENS

I continued my rationale for supporting an all girls tournament stating that only one percent of the 80,000 members of the United States Chess Federation were women. I spoke of how few girls joined chess teams, ours being an exception, and how they quit earlier than the boys. I went on to explain how a tournament of this nature, matching the visiting Washington State girls against our Bay Area young women, was designed to inspire greater female participation. I could still see the skepticism on my young challenger´s face. I am not even sure I convinced myself.

When Elizabeth Shaugnessy, Director of the Berkeley Chess School, originally called me to ask if I had some girls who would participate, I felt it was worth a try. Last year ten Bay Area girls matched talents against some young women from Australia. But, this tournament occurred over the telephone lines. The Washington girls were visiting the Bay Area with the help of a grant Nelson Hanton received. I had met Nelson at a number of Scholastic Nationals. This Middle School math and science teacher always impressed me with the number and the fine quality of the players he brought with him from his school in Tacoma, Washington. I was unaware of his dedication to woman´s chess. While Elizabeth Shaugnessy, former Irish woman´s champion, was the logical person to do the organizing, she was in Ireland attempting to make the Irish Women´s Chess Olympic Team. The task of hosting the Washington girls on Saturday, May 11, 1997, fell to Mark Brown, a Berkeley Chess School instructor. I received a call from him on Friday night asking me to bring my computer. When I arrived I found that I was needed to run the SwisSys pairing program. So rather than just take pictures and help my girls, I worked the tournament. Mark´s attempt to obtain a matching number of California girls fell short. Only 17 California girls showed to challenge the 22 young women from Washington. As the tournament progressed at the International House on the University of California, Berkeley, campus, I wished I had brought along a CD of the Beach Boys´ "California Girls" to inspire our team. The Washington girls proved far superior. They won the match 38.5 to 27.5. We played four 30 minute sudden death rounds. Since Washington had five extra players, they received five full point byes each round. In the last round we paired all the Washington players to prevent their top boards from also getting byes. Four Washington girls played each other and one received a bye. The California girls savored some pride with their victories on the top boards. To create a fairer fourth round, and to give some Washington girls an opportunity to obtain a top trophy, we allowed the best players from each team to face off, ignoring the score groups. Washington had already won the match. A tie ensued for first place: California´s Jocelyn Lee (1419), Valerie Beltran (1279), Martha Lopez (996) and Washington´s Mariana Dearmas (unrated). The three California girls are on their respective age group Top 50 Girls list the Chess Federation recently created. Valerie is 44th on the Under 16 table. Jocelyn is 5th and ten year old Martha is 48th on the Under 13 list.

Nelson thought it would be fairer to have a Blitz playoff for the championship, especially since he wanted to crown the winner with a tiara. Mark and Nelson agreed to follow the Washington rules for Blitz: clock move and if an illegal move is made the opponent has two minutes added to her clock. Since each girl was to play white and black, this meant six rounds. Jocelyn Lee became the Queen of the Tournament of Queens with 4 1/2 to Martha’s 3 points. Valerie became second runner-up with 2 1/2 points and Mariana received the fourth place trophy as third runner-up. Both Valerie and Martha are from Modesto and students of Kevin Cripe.

Nelson had provided ten trophies and medals for each participant. He also distributed Tournament of Queen T-shirts. Yet, the nicest touch was when he handed out roses to all the Mom´s as the next day was Mother´s Day. He even allowed a few of us workers to take roses home to our wives. I need to, as I had told my wife I would only be a few hours, not realizing a would be there all day pairing the tournament. Next year, Nelson is inviting girls from seven states to compete in a Western Regional Tournament of Queens. Maybe in the near future, due to Nelson´s outstanding work on behalf of girls in chess, we will need to hold a Tournament of Kings to keep the boys from fleeing as the girls dominate the sport.

California Chess Journal,© Spring 1997