Another National Event in Hendersonville!

Kevin Hyde brings back the U.S. Masters to North Carolina March 13-21 -- Quality Inn & Suites, 201 Sugarloaf Rd, Hendersonville, NC

For the third time in recent history, the US Masters championship will be held in North Carolina. Kevin also hosted this event in 2006 and 2007. Here is a report on the 2007 event.

This is a great chance to play against some of the country's best and compete for a national title. If you are one of the few reading this who are eligible to play in the top section, I don't have to tell you what it means. Rarely do you have the opportunity to play master after master in a regular North Carolina event. This chance only comes once in a while, so grab it while you can. The event is FIDE rated and title norms are possible.

If your rating doesn’t quite cut the mustard…. Don’t despair. There is plenty of chess for you in Hendersonville as well! Two events running concurrently with the big boys are the N.C. Sub Masters for non-masters and the Sub Sub Masters for those rated under 1000. Each has a reasonable entry fee and a choice of schedules. You can play a game every day if you like; stay in Hendersonville and take in the beautiful scenery and their neat downtown area. Or you can play your games on a still quite leisurely schedule over two weekends.

Best of all for us non-masters, this tournament is a double points North Carolina Grand Prix event! And with nine games, that means you have the potential to make your move in the Grand Prix competition. And while the masters are grinding it out for the points against other very strong players, we in the lower sections are playing for the very same amount of Grand Prix points in the Sub and below!

The hotel is one of the very best Quality Inns I have ever seen. A highlight of this hotel is the indoor putt putt course (which you can see in the 2007 report linked above…there is a video of GM Ehlvest taking on Todd Andrews and Michael Klein in a game).

Let’s all do our best to support Kevin in his continuing effort to bring National chess events to North Carolina. I hope to see everyone at this year’s US Masters in Hendersonville!

Gary Newsom
NCCA President

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