Hi all - on behalf of the WCC Board of Directors, the meeting we had last night finds the club on a great footing financially, we approved our annual Christmas / Holiday party and next year's Chess in the Park event, and agreed on a number of ways to improve how the club runs and manages its online presence. Full notes will be posted to the website shortly.
Additionally, I'm happy to announce a couple of changes to tournament play that we're adopting to improve the competitiveness of games for everyone. Please read through these carefully.
- NEW SWISS SECTIONS - UPPER (1200+) and LOWER (U1200)
- Effective 12/1/2025 (after the current running event), the structure of our standard 4-week Swiss events will change from an Open Section and a Reserve (U1000) section to add a rating floor of 1200 to the (currently) Open section. We're open to suggestions for names, but for this post, I'll use the terms Upper (1200+) and Lower (U1200) sections.
- Reason - having such a wide spread of ratings in our Upper section means that everyone (at all ratings) only has 1 or 2 games with players near their own rating, with the other games not being very competitive, which is not much fun for either player. This change allows for better games more often.
- We will use the live (not published) rating when entering, so if a player is quickly improving - the most common reason for lower rated players to want to "play up" - they don't have to wait several weeks for the rating to be published before they are eligible for the Upper section.
- The winner of the Lower section is now awarded the right to "play up" in the Upper section for the next WCC Swiss.
- There will be no "TD discretion" here - if you want to play in the Upper section, either win the Lower section in the prior event, or meet the new 1200 rating floor.
- Note that this is still well below other club's or weekend events' rating minimums for "open" play, which is commonly 1600.
- For reference, players under 1200 playing in the Open section for the last 4 events have a combined record of 5-43-5 (win-loss-draw) against players over 1200, including 1-24-0 against over 1600+ players and 2-13-2 against 1400-1599 players. They have a much more competitive 8-8-4 record against under 1200 (peer) opponents.
- New QUAD Events, and the WCC Ladder System
- We will be adding two new events to the calendar for 2026 (exact dates will be published shortly). These will be "quads" - 4 person round robin events run over 4 weeks as follows:]
- Quads are determined by rating - the goal is to get 6 competitive games in one event!
- Each night for the first 3 weeks, you play 2 G45/d5 games against one other player in your quad. Ideally, after 3 weeks you will have played everyone in your quad!
- Things happen, and one hard thing about quads is that forfeits really mess them up, so we're trying to build a structure that makes it great for all players involved:
- The 4th week is reserved as a makeup week. If you have to miss a week, that's ok, we can accommodate that by having you play on the 4th week.
- To ensure that most players who commit to play actually finish the quad, players are eligible to play in quads ONLY if they:
- Have 10 or more rated games at WCC in the last six months
- Have no more than 1 forfeit loss in that same time period
- To ensure everyone gets a game, unless otherwise communicated, if you are not physically at WCC at 7:00, you will be forfeited and your opponent is free to play that night in the Ladder (see below). You can still make up the games with that opponent in week 4.
- BUT - "I don't want to play in the quads" or "I'm new at WCC, and I'm not yet eligible" or "My quad opponent didn't show up" - what can I do for those four weeks??
- We're trying to make sure EVERYONE gets a competitive game, whether you play the quads or not, so we're also introducing the idea of the "WCC Ladder"
- Each of the 4 weeks of the quad will run "Ladder Play" in parallel for those not in the Quads.
- The Ladder works like this:
- The ladder starts with all club players ranked by rating
- Everyone not playing in a quad match (including quad players who have no opponent that night) are paired off with a player close to them on the ladder.
- Those two will play one USCF rated G/100d5 game
- The result of the the game changes the position of the players on the ladder - if the higher rated player wins, no change to ladder position. If the lower rated player wins they jump ahead of the other player on the ladder. If they draw, the higher rated player moves down one position, and the lower rated player moves up.
- Future Ladder pairings are based on Ladder position, not rating, so it reflects your actual WCC performance.
- This means everyone that comes to WCC gets a game with someone close to them in rating, and there's no multiple week commitment. Importantly, it means that a quad player whose opponent bails STILL gets a game that night!
- The 4th week's Ladder play can include quad players who have finished playing all of their opponents.
- If players like this kind of event, we can add 1 week of "Ladder Play" after every couple of events. Many players have asked for formats with less time commitment than 4 weeks - this may be a way to provide that while still allowing quality games.
I'm happy we have such a talented group of long-serving and senior playing members of the board, as well as a number of other members that provide tremendous insight on how we can improve everyone's overall chess experience. I look forward to implementing these ideas, and to hearing everyone's feedback. Feel free to reply below or send an email.
Thanks!
John D
WCC President
wcc-tds@googlegroups.com
chess@demastri.com
11/6/2025