Genesis

And then I went forth preaching the concept of this third tournament. I spoke of it to Jeff Malone, sponsor of the Horizon Chess Club. I spoke of it to Jerry Wheeler, president of the Huntsville Chess Club. I spoke of it to Linda McGuiness, principal of Horizon Elementary. I spoke of it to Ken Corder, president of the Horizon PTA. To the students of the Horizon Chess Club and various other people did I speak of it, and they all saw that it was good.

The tournament was without name so I presented the concept unto the masses to see what they would call it and whatsoever name was picked, that would be the name thereof. But no one came forth with a name for the tournament. So I took the task upon thyself and named it after the school for which it was to take place (Horizon) and the type of players that were eligible to play (Scholastic). And it was so. Henceforth the tournament was known as the Horizon Scholastic.

The tournament hath not yet a director so I sought out the best tournament director in the whole land, Gerald Larson, and said unto him, Would ye like to have dominion over all the chess players who cometh to the event, and over all the helpers, and over all the tournament, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the floor? But Gerald could not give an answer on the selfsame day for his wife had dominion over him and he would need to get her blessing first. And it came to pass after seven days that he did get her blessing and tournament director hath he become.

But for Gerald there were no helpers to help him direct this tournament. So from the Huntsville Chess Club body I took members. And the members who volunteered, which I had taken from the Huntsville Chess Club body, I made into helpers. And their names were: Chris Lasky, Eddie Koen, Scott Vechinski, and on the day of the tournament another helper was found, and his name was Wally Malmborg. These helpers shall be called assistant tournament directors because they were created to help Gerald direct the tournament.

But these assistant tournament directors alone would not be enough to run the whole of this tournament, for there were many other tasks at hand. Jeff Malone and Jerry Wheeler along with members of the Horizon Chess Club would help me in the arduous task of preparing the school for the event. Ken Corder and Jean Bryan would be in charge of all the victuals. Lana Dergunov and Mrs. Stewart would help Jerry with the registration. And on the day of the tournament there came many others to help out in other tasks.

Then I said, Let us create beautiful golden trophies for the victors of this tournament. Thirty and eight trophies would be made. And fixed upon each one would be an image of a Knight with flaming mane. But these trophies, which were created in the image of a Knight, were not without cost. The cost was so great that it did provoke Jerry to speak of it. But this did not concern me for the burden of the cost lieth upon the Huntsville Chess Club and not thyself.

And after all the work that hath been done I saw everything that was made, all the preparations, all the volunteers that sacrificed their time, and behold, it was all very good.

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Individual Competition

There were two team trophies for the Open Section but all three Open players were from Huntsville CC High School so only one trophy was given out. What can we do to get more High School students in these tournaments? Usually the host school does real well in the team competition and this was no exception. The Horizon Elementary team was neck and neck with Randolph throughout the competition but Randolph did edge them out by half a point in the end. The Horizon Primary team had no trouble at all securing the first place trophy. In the Jr. High Section team Discovery easily took first.

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