However, I was very surprised to see International Master Giorgi Margvelashvili http://www.fide.com/ratings/card.phtml?event=13602926
playing in the April 1, 2006 Cris Collinsworth Proscan Foundation 5th Annual Queen City Classic scholastic chess tournament.
I am assuming that IM Margvelashvili is being “home schooled” in that with his chess travels and tournament play does not allow him to attend an American public, private or charter school.
In scholastic chess what are the criterion for being classified as “home schooled?”
Is IM Margvelashvili a scholastic chess player?
Does “home schooled” criterion vary by state?
Must the student be progressing towards a high school diploma?
Home schooling is recognized by section 3321.04 of the Ohio Revised Code and section 3301-34 of the Ohio Administrative Code. In that Administrative Code, I quickly learned several interesting facts about “Home Schooling.” ode.state.oh.us/school_impro … 301-34.asp
Due to the fact that this tournament drew players from several states and I do not know what state the family who is “hosting” IM Margvelashvili lives in, however, if it is Ohio my opinion is that, IM Margvelashvili should not have been eligible to participate in the Queen City Classic scholastic chess tournament.
How do other tournament directors address issues of this nature?
IM Giorgi Margvelashvili and his brother are both homeschooled in the Republic of Georgia. I am not sure what Ohio law or the fact that he is homeschooled has to do with his eligibility in a locally run event.
The organizers felt it was beneficial to have Giorgi be a part of this event. He not only played in the K-12 section, he gave a simul along with GM Ashley and GM Kaidanov the night before the tournament. The winner of the 2004 QCC, Jon Hilton, also homeschooled, lost to Giorgi in the last round of this years event. While I don’t pretend to speak for Jon, he seemed very pleased to have the honor of playing an IM. Their game, which was analyzed live by GM’s Ashley and Kaidanov, was the last game of this 676 player event.
Your complaint to the organizer was the only negative comment I heard with regard to Giorgi. I would say having possibly the highest rated player to ever play in a scholastic chess tournament in the US was a plus for this event. Having come off a tie for first at the US Masters I am sure Giorgi really didn’t care about the 24in trophy he received for his 5-0 result at Queen City.
When I first heard that Giorgi was going to play in the tournament I seriously thought it might be an April Fool’s joke. The tournament was on April 1st after all. After getting to meet him I am very glad that it wasn’t a joke.
I doubt that Ohio law is particularly relevant, since chess may not be an activity that falls under the purview of the Ohio Department of Education.
The scholastic guidelines address the issue of home-schooled players, though this is an area that has been somewhat controversial for many years (especially with regards to team eligibility), dating back to when I was the chair of the Scholastic Committee in the 1980’s, and probably long before then.
I am not sure what the relevance is with USCF scholastic guidelines for national events to this local event. But the USCF guidelines do state that a homeschooled student is eligible to play based on certain age criteria. Georgi would meet this criteria as he just turned 16.
Unless each organizer wants to make up his own guidelines and include them as part of all pre-event publicity, the national event guidelines are probably a good reference with regards to eligibility issues, even though they are not binding upon local organizers.
Ohio has its own guidelines for homeschooled players for state championship events. But since they only address state championship events, I dont see them as being binding either.
I am not following your logic, if we want to run a local scholastic event we either need to adopt the USCF guidelines for National events or publicize our own criteria? I am not sure I have ever seen either treatment mentioned in a flyer or TLA for a scholastic event. I am sure most organizers take the word of the player that they are in fact in school in some capacity and let them enter.
The USCF seems to have three events that are defined as “youth events” as opposed to scholastic, i.e. Jr Chess Congress, Youth Action, and US Junior Open. But it appears all three require the players to be in school.
For the Jr Chess Congress, players under the age of 20 as of Jan 1 can play in the current year’s event. When we last ran the event here in Ohio two years ago we did have a college student in the 18 & under section.
Maybe I didn’t need to revise my boast if the NY Junior isn’t a scholastic event.
The USCF uses the term “Scholastic” rather loosely. The scholastic chess rules cover both true “Scholastic” events (with sections and eligibility based on year in school) and “Youth” events (based strictly on age, I believe). Even true “Scholastic” events are somewhat loose with the definition since I haven’t known of one to exclude a child that is too young to have started school yet and there are also age restrictions for each grade level.
AFAIK the US Junior Open is based strictly on age, though the scholastic chess rules seem to indicate otherwise (they aren’t really that clear on this subject). I thought a HS graduate that hasn’t started college yet would still be able to play. The TLA and flyer for this year’s event only mentions age restrictions and that’s what I remember from ancient history (when I played) as well.