DeSoto County Students Dominates 2005 Southern Open!
by Connie Newcomb

1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th places!!!

June 18th, Kosciusko. DeSoto County Students shows brain power in the 2005 Southern Open held in this small town in the heart of Mississippi. Even though our students had to play against each other during the last two rounds, it did not stop them from capturing the top four trophies being awarded in the Kindergarten to 4th grade division.

Leading the group is Brynna Bartlett of Olive Branch, winning First place overall. Second place trophy went to Danielle Newcomb also of Olive Branch. Her younger brother, Justin Newcomb took Third place, and their sister, Evangeline Newcomb went home with the Forth place trophy. Another Northern Mississippi student, Joshua Bussom of Oxford took home the Fifth place award.

1st Mid-South Summer Chess Festival A Success!

We had a successful summer tournament last June 4th in the DeSoto Civic Center. Although summer chess tournament typically draws a low turnout since most students are busy with other summer sports, we managed to have 34 kids signed up. Participants coming from Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Special thanks to Ms Jennifer Klinger of DeSoto Central Elementary and Ms Beth Smith of Chickasaw Elementary School for encouraging their students to attend the tournament.

Keep on Checking our Tournament Calendar
http://www.desotochess.org/calendar.html

I have a wonderful news that some schools in DeSoto County is tentatively planning to host a fund raising scholastic chess tournaments. Well... at least 2 school have already told me of their plans. I will let you know of the dates and locations once I get the signals that they are good to go.

Please keep checking our calendar. I will add the details once I receive more information from each school organizing the tournaments.

Any other school organization who want to host an scholastic chess tournament, let me know. I will help anyway I can.

Olive Branch Chess Club Closed During the Summer!!!

Olive Branch Chess Club will be closed during the summer. We will resume our meeting on August 21, 2005. The location will still be at the McAlister's in Olive Branch. Meeting times from 2:30pm to 5:30pm every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month. Have a wonderful Summer and see you in August!

Both our website and this E-News encourage comments and suggestions. If you have anything that you wish to contribute for the success of our local scholastic chess players, please do let us know. You can e-mail us at info@desotochess.org