Minnesota Chess Survey

Jeffrey Ballew and other members of the Rochester Area Scholastic Chess League have created two versions of a chess survey for the purpose of:

• gathering data about existing chess opportunities in Minnesota, particularly for scholastic chess; and
• soliciting opinions about some questions currently of importance in the Minnesota scholastic chess community

I invite everyone to please visit Minnesota Chess Survey and submit one of the two survey versions.

The challenges of the Chess Castle, MSCA and the overall chess community can be better addressed with more members, more tournaments, bigger turnouts, bigger purses, etc., etc.

In my opinion, the first step is understanding we are all interconnected. Thus, by helping build scholastic chess we are also expanding chess opportunities for adults. Accordingly, tournament directors, sponsors, hosts and chess players are asked to help promote the Minnesota Chess Survey at tournaments and elsewhere.

Time is of the essence as the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) is scheduled to have their annual meeting in February. It is our hope we can provide data which reflects wide support for having MSHSL recognize chess as a sanctioned event. We are of the opinion, that in doing so, more high schools would be inclined to provide resources to establish scholastic chess programs and/or further support existing programs. Similarly, additional scholastic programs would surely follow at the lower levels (elementary and middle schools).

Thank you all for your kind indulgence.