News

November 18, 2017 - Queen's Quest - Mill Creek Elementary - Rated Sections Only - Team + Individual Awards

Sponsorship Amount:  $1000

Register NOW for the Queen's Quest at Mill Creek Elementary.  Queen's Quest is the largest chess tournament in Madison and is our first team tournament of the year. More individual awards will be handed out as we have created an additional primary section for our youngest competitors.  The top four scores from any school in any section comprise the team score. This is an open tournament for any competitor from any public, private or home school, and the only membership required is a current United State Chess Federation membership.

New this year for Elementary Students:  We are re-imagining Queen's Quest for 2017 recognizing some trends we noticed at last year's fall tournaments.  One trend was how our K-3 sections continue to grow.  When we added an Under 500 section to the K-6 age group, it was because that had grown into the largest section and pairings became unwieldy.  Now, we are seeing the K-3 sections become the largest, so it is time to divide this section into two sections:  a K-3 Under 300 section and a K-3 Championship section.  Therefore, Queen's Quest will become a rated Elementary team and individual tournament with 4 sections:  K-3 Under 300, K-3 Championship, K-6 Under 500, and K-6 Championship.  The time control remains the same at Game 30/d5.  Because this tournament offers both team and individual awards, the registration fee will increase to $25 per person for all registrants including MCCL members.

New this year for Middle and High School Sections:  This year we continue our focus of growing the numbers of those playing middle and high school chess.  Lower turnout in the upper grade levels can be attributed to a number of factors: (1) middle and high school kids are really busy; (2) they do not enjoy the shorter 30 minute game times of many scholastic tournaments, and related to this (3) they do not like to take a ratings hit by having to play in a team tournament with shorter time controls when they have worked for years to establish a rating and have moved to playing in tournaments in longer time controls.  We also recognized that the State Scholastic championship for the older sections use a Game 45/d5 time control, so how does this fit in traditional local scholastic individual and team format?

MCCL has decided to conduct a four-round tournament to determine the winner of the Varsity Section of the MCCL Team Cup Championship for middle and high school players using a Game 45/d5 time control during the Queen's Quest.  Coaches and sponsors for middle and high school chess teams will choose the students who will represent their schools, and there will be no fee for competing in this event.  However, all participants must be MCCL members.  You can read more details about the Varsity MCCL Team Cup Championship in this article.  The MCCL Team Cup Championship is not rated.  Coaches will register teams by emailing the MCCL Executive director by Friday October 6th.

Awards

This is an individual event, with secondary team prizes; team is four highest scorers. Teams may represent a school only. Pairings will be "team blind."

Elementary Individual Awards: Trophies for top 10 individuals in K-3 U300, K-3 Championship, 4-6 U500 (this section only available for 4th-6th graders), K-6 Championship.  Medals to all individuals whose score ties for a 10th place trophy, but loses out on tie‐break.

Elementary Team Awards: Trophies for top 5 teams in K-3 U300, K-3 Championship, 4-6 U500, and K-6 Championship sections.

Which Section Should I Register for?  We will use your official published rating as of November 1st to determine which section you are eligible to compete in.  If you are unrated and in grades K-3rd, you should register for the K-3 Under 300 section.  If you are unrated and in grades 4th-6th, you should register for the 4th-6th Under 500 section.

MCCL TEAM CUP - Awarded to the top Varsity Team (middle and high school section) at the conclusion of the tournament.  The MCCL Team Cup is a traveling trophy that will remain at the winning school for one year beginning in January.

Sponsor the Queen's Quest

If your business is interested in sponsoring the Queen's Quest, please contact MCCL Executive Director Ranae Bartlett at mccl.director@gmail.com. The sponsorship amount for Queen's Quest is $1000.