My Thanks

Hello everyone,

First off, congratulations to our division champs: Alex Moiseyev, Teal Stanley, Earl Harvell, and Nick Addante. All three divisions had fierce competition throughout the tournament, with the potential for eight-point rounds creating more than one shakeup in the majors and minors. My own goal was to get 50% in the majors, which I surpassed by a few match points, so despite some painful miscues I'm satisfied with my play.

This tournament could not have happened without financial support from our donors, or without moral and logistical support from way too many players for me to list here. The ACF Executive Committee, particularly Rich Beckwith, answered a lot of my questions during the planning stages, and Alan Millhone supported the idea of a Fortman memorial tournament from day one. Likewise, the Ponder and Fortman families took time out of their summers to visit the tournament, provided a great catered meal on Sunday, and also provided cold drinks for the players. It was a real treat to watch them interact with Richard Fortman's checkers family, and to get to know them a little better.

Thanks are also due to the wonderful staff at the Days Inn of Springfield, who gave us lots of space to work with and who were very accommodating and flexible throughout the week. Onsite, Roger Doll and Kim Willis (with assistance from Rich) handled pairings and processed results, and both did an excellent job of keeping things running smoothly and professionally. As was the case last year, there were some concerns about the computer's pairing choices in the last round, but fortunately we have other software options.

But most of all, I'm grateful to the players who came to the tournament and to those who followed it online: even though I didn't get to write as much as I normally do during tournaments, it was nice to see people watching my videos and responding here and on the forum. I believe Wayne Gober is putting together a bid for the next Nationals, and I hope to see the same outpouring of support for his efforts-- see you in 2011!

John Acker