I don’t see how you jump from 2 to 5. The SuperNationals is one event, not three.
Further, as was pointed out above, the USCF did not organize most fo those events. Those were done on a bid basis. Did you bid for them? If you didn’t then you can hardly complain that they went elseware. Idf you want a scholastic national the action tournament is being bid out now. It was held in Brownsville becuase they made a bid. It was held in Chicago in 2009 becuase they made a bid. So if you want a scholastic event in Rochester bid for the NYA and make it happen. Or find a facility that meets all of the needs of the spring event(s) for space, cost and accessibility.
The vast majority of the scholastic nationals have been run in-house by the USCF in recent years (the NYA seems to be the one exception). I know that prior to the 2007 National Junior High in Sacramento, the USCF made no effort to contact anyone in California until less than 3 months before the event. And most of the tournament staff flew in from around the country.
My guess would be IL (of the 10 back room section chiefs at Nashville this year, four were current IL and two used to be in IL), though TX has been growing in recent years and may end up taking the lead.
The Supernationals combines three National tournaments: the National High School, the National Junior High and the National Elementary. It is three events (with 20 or so sections) marketed under one name, not one super-large tournament.
Therefore, if you host the Supernationals, you are hosting three National Scholastics. Knoxville, KC and Nashville would be credited with three tournaments for the years they had Supernationals.
Every Supernationals crowns a High School, Junior High School and Elementary Champion.
Here is the blurb from chess.com on the 2009 event.
US SuperNationals, Tennessee, 3-5 April
« News homeSubmitted by SonofPearl on Thu, 04/02/2009 at 11:37am.
The US Chess SuperNationals are a joint scholastic event for three categories - elementary, junior high, and high school - held together every 4 years as one big chess event.
The Gaylord Opryland resort in Nashville, Tennessee hosts this year’s event from 3-5 April.
The list of star names making an appearance is certainly impressive:
Chess legend, Garry Kasparov (pictured)
Chess playing astronaut, Greg Chamitoff
Women’s World Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk
Grandmaster Maurice Ashley
4-time US Champion Alexander Shabalov
Current US Champion, Yuri Shulman
Current US Women’s Champion, Anna Zatonskih
Semantics. I was on the staff. It is one event with multiple sections. At supernationals one cannot play in both the elementary and junior high sections. In a non-supernationals year, an elementary player can play in the elementary, the junior high, and the high school if they wish to attend all three tournaments.
And you quoted it - “one big chess event”
Must be the cold way up north there - makes it hard to count through the mittens! (just kidding)
In 2009, did USCF crown a Supernationals champion, or three separate division champions?
The only point of this is if you are going to compare across years, the Supernational years combine three championships in one event. In my opinion, a third grader shouldn’t be playing in the National High School anyway. That is what tournaments like the Junior Open are for.
I am somewhat familiar with SuperNationals and I consider it one event, with one Chief TD for it. If you want to count Championship sections, however, it has seven: K-1, K-3, K-5, K-6, K-8, K-9, and K-12. But, if you want to count it as separate events, I guess that makes the National Grades in December 13 separate events, since it has 13 Championship Sections, ah?
I do like the idea that SN is three separate events, though – maybe the Chief should get paid for being the Chief for three Nationals!
Well you can have any opinion you want to have, but that doesn’t make your opinion correct. Every national scholastic event has multiple sections and recognizes the winner of each of those sections.
The rules allow for a 3rd grader to play in the national high school. If you don’t like it, volunteer for the scholastic council and try to get the rules changed.
As I asked before, have you ever been involved in any national scholastic event? Your TD history indicates you have worked events in NY but have you ever been outside the northeast at, in, or as any part of a national scholastic? That way we could judge if you know what you are talking about or not.
Finally, if you want an event in Rochester, BID ON THE NYA.
In the very first National High School Championship in 1969, Paul Jacklyn, a sixth-grader from Long Island, was 6½-½ going into the last round (the nationals were originally eight rounds), after beating Elliot Winslow in Round 7. The prospect of a sixth-grader becoming the first National High School Champion created considerable interest in the last-round game on Board One. But Jacklyn lost in 29 moves to John Watson, who thus won the first National High School Championship. Watson and Winslow later became IMs, and Jacklyn did win the NY State (open) Championship later.
The question was how many nationals a city has had.
As the Supernationals combine three national tournaments (unless you consider each section a National, which I don’t because the winner of each section isn’t a National Champion), they have to count for three when they are held together or the data makes no sense.
For the record, I played in the National High School and have run a USCF National event. I am amazed how angry some people get about taking one event out of the south.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable to count a SuperNationals as 3 events, since there is only one spring national in a SuperNational year, rather than three.
Other than Nashville, I believe the only cities that have expressed any interest in hosting an upcoming SuperNational are Las Vegas and Orlando, and I’m not sure if Las Vegas is still interested (or whether the scholastic community would allow one to be placed there.)
I think we’re contractually committed to Nashville for one or two more SuperNationals, and there has been some discussion in the Scholastic Council as to whether the USCF should even continue to hold SuperNationals.
I’m not angry at all. I asked what your experience was because you never stated what it was. So it was very difficult to understand your perspective in full. Thank you for finally answering my question.
And again - why don’t you bid on the NYA if you want an event in Rochester?
Yes, again, the SN combines the three Spring events into ONE huge event. The argument all along has been that it declares three National Champions – it does not. It declares seven National Champions. The National Elementary has four, the Jr High/MS has two Championship sections and the HS Nationals has only one.
Since you have already run a National event and are familiar with the process, it might be a good idea to do as it has been already suggested – bid on the NYA. I am not sure, however, that working as the Assistant Section Chief of the 1998 US Junior Open qualifies as running the event, but, of course, perhaps you were the organizer. I personally consider running the event when a person is either the organizer or the Chief TD. But, I realize that there is a lot that MSA (or the TD/Affiliate area) does not show. Either way, you can try running a much larger event, and, inasmuch as the NYA is relatively small, it should get over 450 participants, which is much larger than the 1998 US Junior with less than 100.
Just because folks present arguments, here, opposite to yours, does not mean that they are angry. I have been actually running National events for a few years and I have yet to hear anyone from the South expressed anger at Nationals not been conducted strictly in the South. In fact, I personally added my recommendation for the 2009 NYA to be held in Chicago – not exactly the South…
Except for the smaller, often bid-out Nationals, hotel contracts are made years in advance. So the best opportunity to have a National, in the near future, in NY is for someone like you to bid on the NYA. How about it, Karl?
(just kidding)