2026 WCA President's Report

2026 WCA President’s Report April 1, 2026

Wisconsin hosted the 2025 US Open at the Madison Marriot West in Middleton last August. 512 players attended which was two less than the total from the 2013 event held at the same venue but substantially more than the 2018 event which was hexed by the CrossFit Games in Madison that year. Wisconsin players really showed up in 2025. Just under a quarter of the players were from the state!

I continue to be impressed by the number of events held in the state, but we have to work cooperatively in our scheduling of weekend events. There is a problem with concurrent or adjacent weekend events that are making our players select which events they go to instead of possibly participating in multiple events. Organizers need to work together thru the state affiliate in setting dates for their events. The WCA has a tournament clearinghouse that is manned by Guy Hoffman. Please e-mail Guy at schachfuhrer@hotmail.com to ask about available dates. Cooperation between organizers will better ensure your event does not conflict with another event.

Tournament organizers are able to add calendar entries to our website calendar at www.wischess.org and we encourage them to do so. It is free advertising for their events. After submission, you will need to e-mail me so that I can publish your event.

WCA’s financials continue to be on extremely strong ground. Thank you for your support by playing in WCA tournaments!

Andrew Becker, Andrew Schley and Neil Hogg had their terms as WCA Board members expire March 31, 2026. In addition to the incumbents, Edgar Talayko was nominated. Three others who were nominated declined their nomination so an election was held amongst four candidates for three seats. Neil, Andy S. and Andy B. were the top three vote getters and will each serve a three-year term on the WCA Board of Directors.

The WCA sponsors the Marshall Rohland Memorial/Wisconsin Closed Championship, the Arpad Elo Open, the William Martz Memorial/North Central Open, the Wisconsin Memorial, the Game/60 State Championship, the Rapid and Blitz State Championships and the Wisconsin Junior Open and Veterans Tournaments. We’ve also started to sanction a state Women’s Championship and a state Collegiate Championship. All are open for bids from state organizers and/or tournament directors. If you are interested in more details on how to bid for these events, please contact any board member.

Congratulations to IM Tamas Petenyi and Trevor Magness for capturing the 2025 Wisconsin State Chess Championship.

The 2026 Wisconsin State Scholastic Championships was held in March in Middleton under the organization of Chris Wainscott and Alex Betaneli. Congratulations to Middleton High School for winning their first state team championship! Middleton’s Kromrey Middle School won their first K-8 state championship and Green Bay’s Chesterton Academy of St. John Paul II won their first K-5 state championship.

Since the State Scholastic is a team Swiss event at the high school level, Wisconsin uses the Wisconsin Junior Open as its qualifier for the national state invitational events at the US Open. Please plan to participate in the event to qualify for the 2027 GM Arnold Denker National Tournament of High School State Champions, the Dewain Barber National Tournament of Middle School State Champions, the John D. Rockefeller III National Tournament of Elementary School State Champions and the WIM Ruth Haring National Tournament of Girls State Champions which will be held in conjunction with the US Open in Dallas, TX. New in 2026 is the inaugural GM Maurice Ashley National Tournament of K-3 State Champions. In 2026 these events will be held at the US Open in Grand Rapids, MI. Our representatives will be Nicholas Pennington-Cross (Denker), Aradh Kaur (Haring), Chase Ruby (Barber), Gurugrahan Gurumoorthi (Rockefeller) and Shashwath Sabarish (Ashley). Good luck team Wisconsin!

With the same format as the Denker, Barber, Rockefeller, Haring and Ashley is the John T. Irwin National Tournament of Senior State Champions also at the US Open. We use the Veterans Tournament held in conjunction with the Wisconsin Junior Open to select our representative. Mark Lencho will be our 2026 rep. Good luck to him!

Eventually a K-1 event named after Paul Morphy will begin by 2030 but not in 2026.

Congratulations to John DeMastri for capturing the 2025 Wisconsin Chess Tour title. Organizers desiring to have their event considered for Tour status need to contact any board member by November of the year before the Tour. Tour standings are listed on our website www.wischess.org. Organizers of Tour events need to send their checks ($3 per entry) to WCA Treasurer Neil Hogg and a copy of the wall chart (not crosstable) of their Tour event to WCA Tour Statistician John DeMastri. Prizes for the Tour come from the entries to Tour events. Half of the Tour funds go to Tour prizes while the remainder goes to support our national invitational youth members. This is a 50% increase in the Tour’s prize fund.

Hope to see you at a tournament or club soon!

Respectfully submitted by WCA President, Mike Nietman mike.nietman@charter.net.