As always, I am thankful to our players, coaches, chess parents, chess tournament organizers, tournament directors, Regional Directors, TCA officers, and other individuals in key positions who, as a team, have made TCA a great chess organization and Texas a great chess state! For those of you who have not done so yet, please visit our TCA Facebook page and our TCA website for coverage of many of our events. While on our Facebook page, please “like” it. For those of you whose TCA membership may have lapsed or those who were not TCA members, please renew or join this organization. Most of the TCA memberships are less than $10 per year! To become a member, please visit https://texaschess.org/memberships/
For the first time in many years, the Southwest Open was held in Houston, and it was a great event. Our thanks to all players who participated, and congratulations to GM David Brodsky, who won the SWO Open Section, Rochan Bakthisaran, who won the Reserve Section, and Aryan Vuyyuru, who won the Novice Section. Inasmuch as all three sections were extremely competitive, we had outright winners in all three sections! In this issue, we have the list of winners, lots of pictures, and games from that event. Between the Southwest Open and Southwest Scholastic, we had a combined 375 players! That event, coupled with the upcoming Texas Grade Chess Championships to be held in Houston, on October 20-22, catapulted Region V to the TCA membership leadership with 235 players and clubs! Region VIII is closing the gap quickly, with 181 TCA memberships, as they will be hosting the 2023 Texas Grade Championships South, October 7-8, in Brownsville. Given that both Texas Grade Championships will be held two weeks apart, scholastic players, regardless of where they live in Texas, will be able to play in both events!
Once again, my thanks to all the players, coaches, parents, tournament organizers, tournament directors, and all other individuals who support chess in our state!
With best regards,
Franc
