First time in Belize: tournament directors training

Jan 23-24-25th, Sibun and Caves Branch Jungle Lodge hosted Tournament Directors Training for chess coaches. Representatives of all the districts were present. Coaches who were invited for the training showed in the past exceptional enthusiasm and passion for teaching chess to the kids, as well as advanced understanding of the game. Training was conducted by the Special Guest Instructor: Francisco (Franc) Guadalupe, a native of Puerto Rico now living in the United States in the state of Texas, is a US Chess Federation (USCF) National Tournament Director and World Chess Federation (FIDE) Arbiter. During the past three years, Franc has been the Chief Tournament Director for more National events than any other director in the United States, including the 2006 US Junior Championship, 2006 Final Four US Collegiate Championship, 2006 National K-12 Championships, 2007 US Class Championships, 2007 National K-12 Championships, 2008 National Junior High School Championships, 2008 All Girls Championships, 2008 US Class Championships, 2008 National Youth Action, and the 2008 Pan American Class Championships. He was also the Assistant Arbiter in the 2006 US Championships and the Chief Arbiter for the 2008 World Cup Olympiad Selection for Nigeria, Zone 2. Franc is currently preparing for his next assignment as the Chief Tournament Director of the 2009 SuperNationals. That event, held every four years, will take place in April of this year in Nashville, Tennessee, and will have over 5,000 scholastic participants. Three weeks later, he will also be the Chief Tournament Director for the 2009 All Girls Championships. Franc, who is also a tournament organizer, is a member of the USCF Scholastic Committee and the USCF Tournament Director Certification Committee. His son, Francisco II, is a National Chess Master currently attending college on a full chess scholarship at University of Texas at Dallas. During the course of the 3 days training, Franc Guadalupe helped the coaches to not only learn the rules and best practices on how to run tournaments, but more importantly gave us a chance to apply the newly obtained knowledge. Coaches had a chance to conduct a mini tournament and experience how it feels to be a player, coach and a tournament director.

above:Jose Teul from Toledo district and Virgilio Ruiz from Corozal district practice to be Chief Tournament Directors...
while other coaches had a chance to be tournament participants...
and others learned and practiced how to use Swiss software...

Coaches worked in groups on studying the rules of chess ...
and learning how to apply them to the real life situations ...
during the short breaks in training, we... played chess
Instruction was provided on the best practices of the tournament space set up and each district developed a floor map of their future tournament sites and presented it to the rest of the group...

We learned a lot, we had fun, we bonded and went back to our homes after the training with great memories. Those volunteers are the ones who are shaping the future of this country. In addition to having full time jobs, they find time and energy to dedicate themselves to running the chess clubs after school, organizing chess days and local tournaments on the weekends.