2016 NC State Open Checker Tournament
The 126^th Annual North Carolina Open Checker Tournament held on Friday and Saturday, May 13^th & 14^th 2016

"Clint Pickard Tournament Honoree" 
Econo Lodge Hotel, 2133 Hanford Rd, Burlington, NC 27215  (336) 227-1270  ( map )

Results:

Congratulations Alex! 1st place Winner	Congratulations Jim! 2nd place Winner	Congratulations Michael! 3rd place Winner	Congratulations Larry! 4th place Winner	Congratulations John! 2016 NC State Champion

(Official Crosstable Results)
126^th Annual 2016 North Carolina Open Checker Tournament
May 13^th & 14^th, 2016 - Masters Division 3-Move / Seven 2 game rounds (Round Robin) of 1^1/4 hour per game - playing 4 rounds Friday, 3 rounds Saturday

2016 NC State Open Masters By Round, 2Gm

(Round-Robin)

before

after

Finish

Name

City, State

ACF#

Rate

Rate

Op

Rd1

Rd2

Rd3

Rd4

Rd5

Rd6

Rd7

Pts

Cash

Comments

1

GM Alex Moiseyev

Dublin, OH

10157

2262

2209

5

4T2/2

1T3/5

3T3/8

2T4/12

7T3/15

8T2/17

6T2/19

19

$500.00

Alex wins 2016 NC State Open (5th time: 2000, 05, 10, 15, 16)

2

GM Jim Morrison

Glasgow, KY

10156

2147

2148

6

2T3/3

3T2/5

4T3/8

7T4/12

8T1/13

1T3/16

5T2/18

18

$300.00

3

IM Michael Holmes

Louisville, KY

10144

2115

2127

3

7T2/2

6T2/4

5T1/5

1T3/8

2T4/12

4T2/14

8T3/17

17

$200.00

4

IM Larry Keen

Halls, TN

10149

2103

2108

4

5T2/2

2T3/5

6T1/6

8T2/8

1T4/12

3T2/14

7T2/16

16

$125.00

5

IM John Webster

Stoneville, NC

10147

2075

2081

8

1T4/4

7T2/6

2T1/7

4T2/9

6T3/12

5T2/14

3T1/15

15

$100.00

2016 NC State Open Master Champion (9th time)

6

Teal Stanley

Greensboro, NC

10107

1949

1960

7

3T2/2

8T2/4

1T0/4

6T0/4

5T1/5

2T3/8

4T2/10

10

$90.00

7

John Acker

Columbus, OH

10244

1965

1949

1

8T0/0

5T1/1

7T4/5

3T1/6

4T0/6

6T1/7

2T2/9

9

$85.00

8

Bobby Gerringer

Pittsboro, NC

12442

1908

1904

2

6T1/1

4T1/2

8T3/5

5T0/5

3T0/5

7T1/6

1T2/8

8

$80.00

$1,480.00

Total Master Cash Prize - 63% of Total Prize Fund

Results:

Congratulations Matthew! 1st place Winner	Congratulations Mike! 2nd place Winner	Congratulations Lynn! 3rd place Winner	Congratulations Buck! 4th place Winner	Congratulations Glenn! 2016 NC Majors Champion

(Official Crosstable Results)
126^th Annual 2016 North Carolina Open Checker Tournament
May 13 & 14, 2016 - Majors Division 3-Move / Eight 2 game rounds (Swiss) of 1^1/4 hour per game - playing 4 rounds Friday, 3 rounds Saturday

2016 NC State Open Majors By Round, 2Gm

(Swiss)

before

after

Finish

Name

City, State

ACF#

Rate

Rate

Op

Rd1

Rd2

Rd3

Rd4

Rd5

Rd6

Rd7

Pts

HPts

Cash

Comments

1

Matthew Clark

Fort Mill, SC

10492

1802

1849

2

6T4/4

7T3/7

3T1/8

9T2/10

4T4/14

5T3/17

3T2/19

19

97

$162.50

2-way tie for 1st place on game points Split $200+$125=$325/2

2

Mike Choate

Madisonville, TN

12521

1804

1848

3

8T4/4

10T3/7

2T3/10

4T3/13

7T1/14

6T3/17

2T2/19

19

92

$162.50

2-way tie for 1st place on game points Split $200+$125=$325/2 (Book: Ryan's T,T,&S)

3

Lynn Steelman

Crandall, GA

10111

1779

1790

9

4T2/2

5T2/4

7T2/6

2T2/8

ByeT3/11

10T3/14

7T2/16

16

89

$100.00

(Book: Ryan's Encyclopedia)

4

Buck Smith

Millboro, VA

10091

1820

1799

7

1T4/4

2T1/5

9T2/7

6T2/9

3T3/12

4T1/13

9T2/15

15

87

$90.00

5

Glenn Fuquay

Elon, NC

12582

1665

1677

4

9T2/2

8T2/4

10T4/8

3T1/9

2T0/9

7T3/12

6T2/14

14

96

$82.50

2016 NC Majors Champ 2-way tie for 4th place on game points Split $85+$80=$165/2

6

Mike Ross

Burlington, NC

10110

1843

1794

6

F2T0/0

1T4/4

5T3/7

7T2/9

10T2/11

3T1/12

4T2/14

14

93

$82.50

2-way tie for 4th place on game points Split $85+$80=$165/2

7

Jeff Webster

Stoneville, NC

10218

1800

1751

10

5T3/3

3T1/4

4T0/4

8T4/8

6T2/10

9T1/11

5T2/13

13

89

$72.50

2-way tie for 5th place on game points Split $75+$70=$145/2

8

Grover Minor

Greensboro, NC

12659

1665

1677

5

10T1/1

9T2/3

6T1/4

1T4/8

8T2/10

2T1/11

10T2/13

13

83

$72.50

2-way tie for 5th place on game points Split $75+$70=$145/2

9

J.R. Smith

Greensboro, NC

10098

1612

1608

8

3T0/0

4T2/2

1T4/6

10T0/6

5T2/8

wd

wd

8

$20.00

withdrew after the fifth round

10

Morris Auman

Sophia, NC

12450

1409

1373

1

7T0/0

6T0/0

8T0/0

F5T0/0

wd

wd

wd

0

$20.00

forfeit/withdrew after third round

$865.00

Total Majors Cash Prize - 37% of Total Prize Fund

• Congratulations! To GM Alex Moiseyev from Dublin, OH as the 1st Place Finisher of 2016 North Carolina Open Checker Tournament.  This is his 5th time: 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2016.  Alex received a nice trophy with his cash prize for his accomplishment.
• Congratulations! To GM Jim Morrison from Glasgow, KY in 2nd Place, IM Michael Holmes in 3rd Place, and IM Larry Keen of Hall, TN in 4th Place.
• Congratulations! IM John Webster from Stoneville, NC as our New 2016 North Carolina State Open Master Checker Champion.  This will be John's ninth state title. He also received a nice trophy with his cash prize for his accomplishment.
• Congratulations! To Matthew Clark from Fort Mills, SC as the 1st Place Finisher of 2016 North Carolina State Open Majors Checker Tournament. Mike Choate from Madisonville, TN in 2nd Place, Lynn Steelman from Crandall, GA in 3rd Place, and Buck Smith from Millsboro, VA in 4th Place.
• Congratulations! To Glenn Fuquay from Elon, NC as our New 2016 North Carolina State Open Majors Checker Champion.
• Players were welcomed to Econo Lodge - Burlington by a nice front desk counter display sign announcing: Welcome!! 126th NC Open State Checker Tournament "Clinton C. Pickard Carolina Open Checker Tournament Honoree"  Playing in Conference Room 247.
• JR Smith, NCCA Secretary called on Teal Stanley, NCCA President for our tournament invocation before opening our 126th Annual 2016 North Carolina Checker Association business meeting.  The meeting was called to order at 8:30am Friday, May 13th in the Econo Lodge Hotel conference room 247.  Members in attendance:  6 NCCA Life-Time members were present: John Webster, Jeff Webster, Teal Stanley, JR Smith, Bobby Gerringer, and Matthew Clark; all from North Carolina except Matthew Clark who is Fort Mill, SC. We had 4 other NCCA members: Glenn Fuquay, Grover Minor, Morris Auman, and Mike Ross from NC. There were 8 other out of state players: Alex Moiseyev, Jim Morrison, Michael Holmes, Larry Keen, John Acker, Mike Choate, Lynn Steelman, Matthew Clark, and Buck Smith making a total of 18 players present.  We missed the 4 Ohio Amish player who planned to attend.  Abe Keim from Newcomerstown, OH had just completed successful prostrate cancer surgery, and Joe Weaver from Dundee, OH was in the hospital.  Our sympathy and prayers to both of them. George Cox from Ruffin, NC couldn't attend because he is still recovering from successful heart surgery. Tim Laverty had a family reunion to attend in Cary, NC on Saturday, although he did visit us Thursday evening and Friday.   Rockie Troxler planned to attend but was having episodes of vertigo.
• Teal Stanley welcomed 18 players to the 126th Annual 2016 North Carolina Open Checker Tournament from 7 States: 9 from NC; 2 from TN, OH, & KY; 1 from VA, GA, & SC. 
• We especially appreciate and welcome Michael Holmes from Louisville, KY who drove to Glasgow, KY to pick up Jim Morrison and then to Burlington, NC a 600 mile trip or 12 hours on the road, our most distant players. Also making long travel to the tournament was: Alex Moiseyev from Dublin, OH a 470 mile and 8 hour trip; John Acker from Columbus, OH a 440 mile and 8 hour trip; Lynn Steelman drove up from Crandall, GA to Madisonville, TN to pick up Mike Choate and then drove into Burlington, a 370 mile or 7 hour trip.
• Teal, called for Secretary JR Smith to read last years minutes which were preprinted and available to members.  Smith reviewed the 2015 minutes which were approved as presented and read. 
• Announcements: JR Smith spoke about this year's tournament being in honor of Clint Pickard who is 91 ½ years old and our "Tournament Honoree" who won't be attending because he's bedridden and it's too much of a hardship to make the trip so we will present his plaque to him next week in Sanford, NC.  Anyone who wants to be a part of this visit let me know. There was a poster on the playing room wall telling about Clint's dedicated services to NCCA. “In honor of Clint Pickard - Tournament Honoree” in honor and gratitude for his service as our past District 4 Manager and as a past NCCA Treasurer which he held for 22 years.  Other announcements were displayed as well: Up Coming Checker Tournaments, Tournament Schedule, Playing Rules, & Contributors, Financial Reports, ACF National in Branson, MO, NC State Champions, List of Restaurants, 5/11/16 Times News article about our state tournament.
• John Webster brought two books to be given away to the top place players in the Major and Minor Divisions.  Willie Ryan's Modern Encyclopedia and Ryan's Tricks, Traps, and Shots.  LynnSteelman of Crandall, GA received  Willie Ryan's Modern Encyclopedia, and Mike Choate of Madisonville, TN received Ryan's Tricks, Traps, and Shots.
• Smith announced: We should remember the recent deaths of our NC Checker Players and others we played against: George Gerhauser's wife Jill Gerhauser died 4/22/2016, Vonda Jones's husband Otis Jones 2/4/2016, Clyde C. “Ki” Noll 1/21/2016, Leo Barton Levitt 1/12/2016, James “Jimmy” Grant 12/8/2015, Robert D. Butler 12/7/2015, Worth Pickard 11/17/2015, Rocky Swift's Father Burt Swift 9/20/2015, Harry Meadows 9/10/2015, Myrl Lloyd Sartain 8/23/2015, Jan Roberta Mortimer 7/26/2015, Scott Chapman 8/12/2015, Homer Rankhorn 8/2/2015, Tilton “Bill” William Stanley 6//29/2015, George Wilson Murphy 6/20/2015, Charles “Chase” Walker 5/25/2015, Con McCarrick 5/22/2015, Bruce Morrison 5/3/2015, “Ed” King 4/30/2015, “LW” Lawrence W. Newsom 4/1/2015, Earl Morrison 2/17/2015, “HO” Baldree 2/14/2015, Bill Salot's wife Louise 3/12/2015, Kenneth Giddens 2/3/2015, “Bill” Williams 1/22/2015. We also lost: Sherman S. Gardner 2/27/13, John P. O'Neal 9/22/2012.
• Financial Reporting:  JR Smith, reporting for NCCA Treasurer, as Mike Ross's assistant, reported on the financial status of our security accounts, saying the Edward Jones balance was $13,121.93 as of “EOY” December, 2015, and the RBC Wealth Management account was $13,093.10 for the combined total of  $26,215.03 as of 12/31/2015.  Smith stated that our most current reports as of 5/11/2016 show Edward Jones as $13,821.25 and RBC as $13,978.87 for a combined total of $27,800.12 before this year's $1,400 tournament prize fund withdrawal.  We will take $700.00 from EJ (mutual fund ABWCX) and $700.00 from RBC (Money Market account) for a total of $1,400.00 which balanced withdrawal amounts from both accounts from their inception (total amounts shown are from on-line account pages).  Any member who wants to view the balance or where funds are invested, they have instant access to both accounts by pulling the account pages up on-line. Let me know and I will help you log on, or catch me with a laptop, smart phone or any hand device and we may do this.
• Our fund account objective hasn't changed which produces dividends and interest near what we have withdrawn each year.  We are in fair shape considering the bear market swings 1st quarter, we are in mutual funds, corporate bond funds, and ETFs that offer safety with fair dividends and interest, which is much higher than we would be getting from CDs. The shares' value might fluctuate a little with the market but we are not concentrating as much on growth but for safety and yield.  Smith also had printed report of NCCA's total accumulated prize fund withdrawn for anyone who wanted a copy.  He also said our 2015 Federal Tax Return (990) was filed 3/28/2016.  Two other reports were available: a list of tournament withdrawals and yearly history of the fund accounts. Smith also reported that IRS announced in their EO Update / e-News for Charities & Nonprofits electronic newsletter they were expecting to introduce their newly revised Form 1023 & instructional tutorial and also introducing Form 1023-EZ (application for exemption status) and a reduced application fee based on gross assets and gross income in June 2015 which would save NCCA on our application filing fee of $400 and formerly was $1,000.  They did after 5 years of talking and promising, I took advantage of this and resubmitted our application with the $400 fee on 3/29/2016 and received our “determination letter” in the mail on April 21, 2016.
• Election of officers:  We voted to keep the current officers another year. Teal-president, Jeff-vice-president, JR-secretary, and Mike-treasurer.
• We discussed under topic New Business to play a two division (A & B Class) instead of our planned three divisions and set the entry fee on ratings as: 1900+ $30.00, 1600-1899 $25.00, and 0-1599 $20.00.  We also cut the advertised time of the round from 3 to 2.5 hours or (1^1/4 hour per game) and the number of rounds from 8 to 7, therefore playing 4 rounds Friday and 3 rounds Saturday. We also decided to play the Masters as a round-robin and the Majors as Swiss and last round as king-of-the-hill. We had 8 masters and 10 majors. This carried by majority vote because we didn't have enough players available to field 3 divisions.
• The top North Carolina player in the Masters will be recognized as the 2016 NC State Open Checker Champion and the same for our 2016 NC State Open Majors Champion will be selected from the majors division. Only a NC residences may be a NC Championship title holder.   Rules  
• GM stands for Grand Master, IM for International Master, and CM for Candidate Master, are earned titles given by WCDF to distinguish players.
• ACF Rating - Ratings supplied by ICH Checkers www.icheckers.net Program written by Vadim Khavinson, and updated by Joe Moore, our ACF ratings processor. icheckers ratings  
• "T" separates player's opponent from player's earned game points for that round as: Draw is 1, Win is 2 points, Bye is 3, and Forfeit is 4.  A forward slash "/ " separates earned game points from accumulated (total) game points.  (F) indicates a Forfeit and (wd) designates a Withdrawal.
• Time clocks, game recorder sheets, and extra pens were available on the back table for those players who wanted them.
• Smith also announced, Next year's 127^th Annual 2017 North Carolina Open Checker Tournament will honor John Webster as our Tournament Honoree and be held on Friday and Saturday, May 19^th & 20^th 2017.  This is in keeping with the State Tournament dates as in the past, to be held the first weekend after Mother's Day which is the second Sunday in May.
• Adjournment:  Our meeting adjourned at 8:57am and a copy of the Financial Report, Annual Report, and Minutes are available to members on-line.  We started our 2016 NC State Open Tournament at 9:00 am in the same conference room. 
• Mid-Morning Friday, Times-News Chief Photographer Sam Roberts visited us and took pictures for a final article on our tournament.
• Michael Holmes shared with us his progress with Louisville Checker Club and asked for help and support through contributions, checker books, checker memorabilia, playing material, etc.  He also told us about how Chuck Freeman, Michael & Alex Holmes, Jim Morrison, Arthur Mays and others in their player's sessions select an opening each week, they study it and meet the following week too play, practice, and analyze different lines, variations, as well as studying published play.  They also review how the computer plays and analyze it to get the best lines and cooks available.  This has improved Arthur and Alex tremendously!  Alex Holmes will play in the 2016 World Youth Qualifier at the WQT in Rome.  He will represent the USA very well, as Jim and Michael stated before, Alex has improved tremendously.  We took up a $115 collection Saturday morning in support of his efforts to play in Rome that should help a little toward travel expenses.  We need to continue helping and raising money for Alex Holmes. 
• We appreciated the donations and contributions combined with the entry fees and fund account withdrawals totaled $2,345.00. Again this year, Joe McDaniel graciously supported us with $300.00.
• NCCA Life-Time Members are exempt of any State Tournament entry fees, one of the huge benefits of being a life-time member. 
• NCCA usually designates Tim Laverty to direct our NC State Opens; however, this year Tim had a prior commitment so we asked John Acker to help with our 2016 NC State Tournament.  We appreciate John Acker running the tournament, pairings, keeping score, timely publishing scoresheet & cross-tables with the ChessArbiter Pro Draughts program and posting on ACF forum & his facebook Pro Checkers.  Full results for the Masters are at http://www.procheckers.com/ncmasters, and Majors results are at http://www.procheckers.com/ncmajors.
• Pro Checkers link to Masters Final Standing   http://procheckers.com/ncm…/tournament_table_acc_places.html 
• Pro Checkers link to Majors Final Standing   http://procheckers.com/ncm…/tournament_table_acc_places.html
• We collected 4 renewal ACF Memberships at registration.
• GM Jim Morrison, challenger & GM Alex Moiseyev, 11-Man World Champion reached a preliminary agreement to play their 11-Man Ballot World Championship Match in Burlington, NC over the Labor Day weekend. They confirmed to split the prize fund 60/40 between winner and runner-up of the match.  In the event of a tied match, it will be divided 50/50 and the current title holder, Alex Moiseyev will remain World 11-Man Ballot Champion. We may use Econo Lodge if they can provide us with a fast and dependable WiFi internet, otherwise we will use another hotel.  Their tentative schedule is to play a 16 game match over 4 days as September 2nd thru 5th (Friday-Monday (Labor Day), with the option of playing an additional 4 games (tie breaker play-off) on Tuesday, September 6th, 2016 if an even score after 16 games.  We anticipate John Acker will direct video media by video streaming games, and keeping the public and the checker community updated and informed on the match's progress and final results.
• NCCA Executive Committee made the decision for future State Tournaments we would pay a bonus to the NC Champions in addition to the prize fund pay-out schedule much like Tennessee has been doing.
• Our oldest player was Grover Minor, age 84 with a birthday on July 14th. Our youngest player was John Acker age 34, or he will be on July 18!
• We appreciate Gayle Smith who made sure we had plenty of water, drinks, fruit salad, salsa/cheese dip, chips, dips, veggie trays, dessert salads, cheese & crackers, etc. available throughout the tournament.
• We also enjoyed the Marco's pizza dinner party Friday evening to which all players, family & friends were invited.  We appreciated Brian Durham, Econo Lodge General Manager for working out a deal with Marco's Pizza & their corporate relationship with Marco's. They supplied the pizza, and we definitely appreciated this perk!  The pizza was delicious!  Gayle had fresh salad and dressing to supplement the pizza dinner.  We also appreciate Econo Lodge furnishing hot coffee and ice water in the playing room.  We rented 12 rooms during this tournament, Econo Lodge gave us two complimentary rooms for our continued business.
• A good group of checker players met Thursday afternoon at Econo Lodge for a practice session the evening before the tournament.  I understand some played for seven hours.
• A delightful tournament & wonderful fellowship was had by all who attended.

2016 Tournament Dates  |  2016 Photos  |  2015 Results  |  2014 Results  |  2013 Results   |   2012 Results  |   2011 Results   |  2010 Results   |   2009 Results