Background
In the 60s and 70s the club met in the spacious basement of the Baker House community center. Al Vermeersh was the president at that time and arranged play within the club and matches against other clubs. There was a regional chess league in which the club participated and it became stronger during the "Fischer boom". When Al moved to Arizona in the late seventies, the club dwindled (as did many chess-related entities during the Fischer "bust") until there were generally only three people (Bob Bloom, Tony Piazza and Walter Henry) playing in a smaller room on the top floor of the community center. Erv Sedlock moved to the area around 1980 and saw the potential that the club had and accepted the vacated presidency and resurrected it. By 1982 it was back to an average attendance of 20 players. Since then that has generally been the lower range of attendance with some nights exceeding 40 players. Per Saint Charles Park District requirements the constitution was written and adopted in 1983 and dues began to be charged then. It was under Erv that the club first became involved in providing a directing staff that organizers of scholastic tournaments (kindergarten through eighth grade) could call upon. The prime mover was the mother (Donna Barstad) of one of the members who wanted her children (John Barstad and later Danielle Barstad) to be able to play tournaments with kids his age and she was willing to organize it if Erv would direct it. She couldn't play the game, but she did know how to organize an event. This small beginning in 1984 grew to the current K-8 tour and both the formation of the governing body that Erv pushed strongly to see created (see www.ilcochess.org) and the growth of what is now often called the Saint Charles directing team (which has valuable members such as Gary Janssen and Wayne Clark who do not even go to the Saint Charles Chess Club). The Saint Charles directing fees for those tournaments are split evenly between the Illinois Chess Association Junior program donation and the Saint Charles Chess Club. When Erv moved to Florida in 2000 the presidency passed to Jeff Wiewel (who first attended in 1974 and missed the near death of the club).