NM Joshua Mu Repeats as Champion
Raleigh, NC 3-4-13: The 2013 NC Scholastic Championship took place at the Raleigh Convention Center this past weekend. A record 643 players from all
around the state
participated in the event which was sponsored by a
"non-profit" organization called Chess
Achieves? This year, the event hosted
only 26
players in the Championship
Section all vying for a chance to win
the Title and a $1,500
college scholarship?! Eighteen year old NM
Joshua Mu (2224) from Charlotte,
who cut his teeth at the CCC,
defeated 2nd seed 16 year old Expert
Tianqi Wang (2163) in the penultimate round and
went on to take a quick final round Draw
with Tian-shun Jiang (2013) to score 4.5-.5 and secure
the title and the "scholarship" for the second
consecutive year! Josh currently attends
the NC School of Science and Math.
In the K-8 Section, 13 year old CCC
member Daniel Crimisi (1923) finished =1st-2nd
Place with 4.5-.5
with Kireet Panuganti (1622) who won the Title
on tiebreak.As editor of the CCC website, I often receive phone calls and E-mails from many chess players from around the state. Some were concerned about the extremely high entry fee ($69) charged at the site at the 2013 Scholastic Championship this past weekend when every 7th player was only vying for a $12 plastic trophy!? Others were concerned about the policy that the sponsoring affiliate, "Chess Achieves," Bill Clausen, President, (sorry if I misspelled his name; it doesn't seem to be listed anywhere on his website?) refused to give refunds and converted all of the no-show EF's to "donations" to his "non-profit organization?!" One questioned why the scholarship had not been increased to $2,000 as they stated it would? Another questioned why there was any entry fee at all since "Chess Achieves" has 33 different sponsors!? And, still others were curious as to whether any "official accounting" for an event which generated approximately $40 thousand dollars in gross revenue would be published? And, finally, one person asked what Clausen's annual salary was!? My answer to each person was the same... Don't ask me; ask Bill Clausen.
Call it "professional jealousy," but the 2013 NC Scholastic Championship proved something to me! This event has morphed into little more than an annual vacation whereby little kids can travel, make new friends and have fun! The extraordinary turnout of 643 players proved that! However, only 26 of those players competed in the championship section?! And, only 8 of them had ratings over 1800. Therefore, wouldn't it make more sense to simply have an annual event for scholastic players over 1800 in order to determine who the champion would be? Oh, that's right... they need those other 600 (600 X 60 = $36,000) entries to pay for the $1,500 scholarship!? According to his own estimate of expenses, the organizer of this event generated a profit of approximately $28,000! --- So, I've changed my mind! I will no longer serve as the "self ordained defender of the rights of scholastic players." If the parents of 643 children don't care, I DON'T CARE, EITHER! Good job, Bill.
NM Leland Fuerstman