Virginia Tech Memorial Fund Chess Tournament

Brian Salomon asked that we publish the following letter...

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Dear BCC members and chess enthusiasts,

The Chess Club of Virginia Tech kindly requests your support and participation in its October 13 and 14 tournament commemorating the 32 lives lost and 25 injured persons in the April 16 massacre. To our knowledge, this will be the first sporting-type event to be held with all proceeds going to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. Your contributions are welcome in any form:

- chess sets and clocks to accommodate new players
- lectures and exhibitions from talented players
- corporate sponsorship
- donated items for a possible silent auction

The entire student center is reserved for the occasion, including an 88 seat lecture hall. Local hotels and restaurants are discounting rates for participants. Media attention will be strong so this is a great chance to promote your organization.

Most of all, we want you there as a chess player. Details for players will be forthcoming from the USCF and the Virginia Chess Federation.

To become involved, please contact Chuck Ronco, hokiechem -at- yahoo.com, or respond here and I'll answer what I can.

Respectfully yours,
Brian Salomon

It's always closer than you think

I've been away for awhile and just got a chance to read this e-mail from Brian Salomon:

Members of the chess community may wish to know that Derek O'Dell, friend and active President of the Chess Club of Virginia Tech, is recovering after the shootings Monday.

Derek notified the chess club:

hey everyone, i'm doing ok. I was shot once in the arm. I was in Norris 207 in a german class when the incident occurred. Thank you all very much for your prayers, wishes, messages, and thoughts. I love you all very much and I'm very fortunate to be here still with all of you.

Love,
Derek

My apologies if this has already been covered elsewhere in the blogosphere, as it will take me some time to get through the 800 or so posts waiting for me in Bloglines.

A Master's degree with a minor in Chess

If you want to earn an MBA from Virginia's Hampton University you're going to have to learn to play chess.

Chess is more than fun to first-year students in Hampton's five-year MBA program. It's part of the curriculum. A third of the course Critical Analysis and Strategy is devoted to learning and playing it.

After experimenting with chess in business administration classes for more than a decade, [Sid Howard] Credle[, dean of Hampton University's business school,] formally incorporated it in 2000 into the new MBA program, whose graduates finish with both bachelor's and master's degrees.

The game is a way to teach critical thinking and strategic skills in a dynamic environment.

Just as in, well, the business world.

So who is this Sid Credle guy?

...a past national champion in one of the lower ratings...

Here's his USCF rating card. It's hard to tell from his tournament history where the "past national champion" title came from. Though if you'd like to meet Sid, it looks like you'd have a pretty good shot at it at this year's Foxwoods Open.