List of Nominations and Confirmations Received (as of July 11).
The 2019 US Chess WIM Ruth Haring National Girls Tournament of Champions (formerly the National Girls Invitational Tournament) is a tournament of champions for girls from across the United States. It is held annually in the model of the Denker and Barber Tournaments in conjunction with the US Open. The 2019 event will feature a $5,000 scholarship funded by Robert and Barbara Schiffrin.
Each state affiliate is invited to send one representative, a female player in grades K-12 who has demonstrated her ability in a manner satisfactory to the state affiliate. Each affiliate is encouraged to arrange for an alternate player to attend should the original selected player be unable to participate. If there are an odd number of players, the host state affiliate may include a second participant to complete the field of players.
Description
The winner of the tournament receives the title of US Chess WIM Ruth Haring National Girls Champion of Champions. (In case of ties, co-champions shall be recognized.) The winner (or tiebreak winner if co-champions exist) will qualify for the 2019 World Youth or World Cadet Championship, if the player is eligible to join the US Chess delegation. She will also be seeded into the US Girls Closed Championship, if she qualifies, and will also receive a scholarship and prizes, to be determined by the US Chess Women’s Committee, commensurate with available resources.
Format
The WIM Ruth Haring National Girls Tournament of Champions (RHNGTOC) is FIDE rated. It consists of 6 rounds, and will be completed in time for the participants to play in the US Open if they so desire. Some player expenses will be covered by US Chess and other sponsors, but players must complete all games to be eligible for expense coverage. Illness appeals will be heard by the RHNGTOC subcommittee of the US Chess Women’s Committee.
See Rules
Selection
The US Chess Women’s Committee strongly recommends that each state affiliate organize a Girls State Championship as the mechanism to determine its representative to the National Girls Tournament of Champions. This event, which various affiliates already hold in February or March, could be enthusiastically promoted, especially once the state representative has been named. No State affiliate is required to use a specific selection procedure, but it would certainly be exciting to see 50 girl champions on the cover of “Chess Life”.
See Selection Procedures for Invitees
US Chess and the US Chess Trust have allotted some funds for the WIM Ruth Haring National Girls Tournament of Champions. However, we need your help in generating long-term private sponsorship for this event. If you want to make a difference for the future of Women in Chess, please consider sponsorship of our event.
Special Activities
Simul with WGM Jennifer Yu
This will be taking place Saturday morning, August 3, at 9:00 a.m. This is a free activity. Participants must be there to check in at 8:30 a.m. Up to seven participants from the Haring National Girls Tournament will be eligible to participate with priority given to the lower rated players who register for the event. If you have not already signed-up, send an email to Mike Nietman at mike.nietman@charter.net.
Yoga for Chess
This will also be taking place Saturday morning, August 3 at 10:00 a.m. This is a free activity. This will be open to the first 20 participants that sign-up. It has not yet been determined if this will be taking place at the hotel or at the yoga studio nearby, www.authentic-east.com. Mats will be provided. To sign-up send an email to me at jon@bocachess.com.