Chess Club

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Bill Heinemann
Chess Club Advisor
651-451-8412
| gemshein@hotmail.com

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Chess Club Website

Chess Club usually meets twice a week during the school year. Once a week students are instructed by Bill Heinemann and the other practice session is supervised by a parent volunteer. They learn strategy and tactics and practice checkmates and queening pawns. A newsletter is sent out most weeks with news, tournament schedules, ratings, lessons and puzzles.

The Moreland Chess Club started in 1992 and went to its first state tournament in 1996. Since then, the Moreland team has placed in many tournaments and even traveled to Peoria for a National Championship in 1998. Many of Moreland's chess club players have continued to play on various High School Teams and to compete in tournaments.

See the Minnesota School Chess Association for chess resources and information about state tournaments.

Chess Club History

The Moreland Chess Club was started in 1992 by Bill Heinemann originally to give his own son a place to play chess. After several years, some good players were developing including Marjorie, his daughter who won the Kindergarten championship in the Twin Cities grade level tournament. By 1996 we had enough players to take a team to the state tournament. We surprised the Minnesota chess world by upsetting the heavily favored Zachary Lane team which had hundreds of members and had won not only several State Championships, but National championships as well.

Chess club usually meets twice a week during the entire school year. Once a week they are instructed by Bill Heinemann. They learn strategy and tactics and practice checkmates and queening pawns. They also have a worksheet most weeks to work on in class and take home to finish. A newsletter is sent out most weeks with news, tournament schedules, ratings, lessons and puzzles. They also meet once a week after school for practice under the supervision of a parent volunteer.

Since that success in their first State tournament ever, Moreland has gone on to place in the top ten almost every year. Although in 1998 the school changed to a K-4 school, we still managed a 2nd place finish with only 4th graders going against other schools that went up to 6th grade. That year the team traveled to Peoria for the National Championships where we place 17th in the K-5-U900 section. The club has varied in size, but has been in the 20-40 member range most of the time, with average attendance of about 25. Several years we have ordered team T-shirts with the team logo – the Bad Bishops. We have participated in many tournaments, four trips to nationals, and we competed in the first World Chess Championships – held over the internet in the year 2000. We survived the first two rounds and lost on tie-breaks to a team from Virginia in round 3. In 2004 the Moreland Chess Team took 15th place in the Nationals K-3 Championship division in Pittsburgh. In 2005 13 players went to Nashville where the K6U1000 team placed 3rd and the Unrated team placed 12th. In 2006 our school took 23rd place in the National High School tournament U900 section in Milwaukee.

Many of the players have continued to play on various High School Teams and to compete in tournaments both in the Twin Cities and elsewhere. I hope that some day my students will start chess clubs of their own and pass on the love of the game and the wisdom it sheds on life, to children of the next generation.

hall of fame

In order to qualify for the Moreland Chess Hall of Fame a team must either win a trophy at State or at Nationals.

Teams

Year	Trophy	Team *
1996	1st place (20)	Marjorie Heinemann 6, Denny Gillen 5.5, Joe Anderson 5, Rick Burgett 3.5
1997	7th place Elementary (17.5)	Kevin Clark 5, Marjorie Heinemann 4.5, Doug Kline 4, Nathan Howell 4, Joe Pendleton 4
1997	4th place Primary ( 19)	Denny Gillen 6, Andy Ness 4.5, Joe Anderson 4.5, Sam Cutts 4, Andy Gunter 4
1998	2nd place Elementary (20)	Denny Gillen 6, Joe Anderson 5, Andy Ness 5, Greg Rahn 4, Matt Pendleton 4
1998	17th place Nation U900	Joe Anderson 6, Andy Ness 4.5, Denny Gillen 4, Andy Gunter 4
1999	8th place Primary (17.5)	Collin Brezny 5, Drew Edwards 4.5, Mike Edwards 4, Tom Ahern 4
2000	7th place Primary (17)	Tom Ahern 5, Zach Schoen 4, Nick Luna 4, Michael Unruh 4
2001	9th place Primary (14.5)	Michael Unruh 4, Derek Lynch 4, Igor Tokman 3.5, Cedric Holden 3
2002	11th place (Regional Award) Primary (15.5)	Matthew Bridges 4, Zach Turbeville 4, Patrick Ernst 4, Sean Blaeser 3.5
2003	(Regional Award) Elementary (13)	Patrick Ernst 4, Zach Turbeville 4, Kirk Ritter 3, Matt Bridges 2, Larissa Wiger 2
2004	3rd place Primary (19.5)	Marty Kapsch 5, Dylan Bergstrom 5, Imanol Avendano 5, Sean Blaeser 4.5, Luke Munson 4.5
2004	15th place Nation Championship	Dylan Bergstrom 3, Marty Kapsch 2.5, Imanol Avendano 2.5, Emma Alley 2, Sean Blaeser 2, Poul Knick 2
2005	4th place Elementary (19.5)	Poul Knick 5, Dylan Bergstrom 5, Marty Kapsch 5, Imanol Avendano 4.5
2005	3rd place Primary (19.5)	Jack Ganzer 5, Megan Ryan 5, Stacy Wood 5, Emma Alley 4.5
2005	3rd place Nation K6-1000 (17.5)	Dylan Bergstrom 5, Marty Kapsch 5, Imanol Avendano 4.5, Poul Knick 3
2005	12th place Nation Unrated (16.5)	Stacy Wood 5½, D.J. Weber 4, Jack Ganzer 4, Alex Scheuer 3
2006	23rd place 2006 Nation K12 U900	Stacy Wood 4, Ori Routhieaux 4, Jack Ganzer 3, Megan Ryan 3, Emma Alley 3
* Names in bold indicate that a player also won an individual trophy.

Individuals

In order to qualify for the Moreland Hall of fame a player must meet one of the following six criteria:

*	Win a trophy at state while at Moreland.
*	Win a trophy at Nationals while at Moreland.
*	Win a tournament with a perfect 5-0 score while at Moreland.
*	Earn a 100 merit point plaque by the end of 6th grade.
*	Earn a 200 merit point plaque by the end of 12th grade.
*	Make one of the USCF top 50 lists in lifetime. Achieve an Expert Rating (2000) lifetime

Polgar or Denker qualifier (Minnesota's representative at the National Invitational.

Year	Name	Accomplishments
1990	Greg Heinemann	Perfect tournament
1994	Marjorie Heinemann	5 State trophies, 1 National, many perfect tournaments, USCF top 50 ranking (girls under 13 - 24th), 100, 200 and 300 point plaques. Polgar qualifier.
1996	Denny Gillen	3 State trophies, 100-point plaque
1997	Kevin Clark	Trophy at State, 200 point plaque Jr High co-champion
1997	Doug Kline	100 point plaque, 200 point plaque
1998	Andy Ness	perfect tournament, 100 point plaque, 200 point plaque
1998	Joe Anderson	Trophy at Nationals 100 point plaque
1998	Rick Jones	Trophy at Nationals 100 point plaque
1999	Collin Brezny	Trophy at State
2000	Tom Ahern	Trophy at State
2000	Mike Edwards	100 point plaque
2001	Drew Edwards	100 point plaque
2003	Dylan Bergstrom	Many perfect tournaments. Trophy at Nationals. Trophy at State. 100, 200, 300 and 400 point awards. USCF top 100 list.
2004	Marty Kapsch	Trophy at State. Trophy at Nationals, 100 point plaque
2004	Imanol Avendano	Trophy at State, 100 point, 200 point plaque
2004	Patrick Ernst	100 point plaque
2004	Emma Alley	3 trophies at Nationals. 2 perfect tournaments. 100 point plaque.
2005	Stacy Wood	Trophy at Nationals, 100 point plaque.
2005	Sean Blaeser	100 and 200 point plaques
2005	Luke Munson	Perfect tournament, 100 point plaque
2005	Poul Knick	Trophy at State, 100 point plaque
2007	Julian Carter	Perfect tournament.
2008	Jake Colon	100 point plaque
2009	Corey Klooz	100 point plaque
2009	Gabriel Fromm	Trophy at State