I noticed when looking for a military player that his state, as well as others that participated in the same tournament, was AP. I then was hoping I could find other military members by doing a search for players from that “state”, but was unable to do that in the player search.
Will there eventually be an ability to search for military members - at least overseas ones that list there state as “AP”?
Thanks,
Sara Walsh
I would like to be able to search the database by any state, not just AP.
We recently had a mysterious community member begin playing at our weekly meetings. Late 20s, early 30s, well-groomed, well-dressed. Takes off his suit coat, keeps his tie tied and cuffs snapped. And kicks all our tails, even our only resident Master. Denies having a rating, claiming he only played in college years ago. Refuses to give us more than his first name.
Then one Saturday he appears unexpectedly at one of the community scholatistic tournaments we’ve started hosting regularly. (Hey, those kids will one day be chess-playing college students!) And I become afraid. Very afraid. Because we also open our weekly meetings to inner-city school kids.
So, I sit down at home late the next night with a couple (or six) frosty ones and begin scouring the Member Search List database. Starting with “*,[his first name]” in the text box. Assuming he uses the common spelling. And get 4,085 hits in alphabetical order by last name.
I laboriously scroll through pages and pages of hits, looking for, first, our state then, second, a reasonably high rating about 1800 or more. I’d once overheard him tell one player he’d graduated from University X and another time tell another player he’d graduated from University Y. Which only further piques my suspicions. I check the tournament history of anyone matching my preliminary search strategy.
And I find him. Eventually. (Good thing, because my liquid supplies are running low.) His playing history shows tournaments here in Dallas, then about 4 years in the rural area around University X, then about 2 1/2 years in the metropolitan area around University Y—undergrad then graduate studies—and finally more tournaments back here. I quickly run him through every sex offenders’ database I can find here, there, and everywhere. No hits. I sleep well at last.
Anyway, I’ve taken the scenic route to express my wish for an advanced search option for the Member Search List database. Seconding the Princess’ motion. It could be useful.
If you check the MSA page (the direct one, not the one embedded in the menu structure), you’ll find it can limit the query by state. It also has options for limiting the search results to Military (APO/FPO), US Territories (such as Guam and Puerto Rico) or Foreign.
Go to msa.uschess.org
Thanks Mike, I glanced at the list when I did the search initially, but I must have overlooked it obviously. Now my next question is since there are so few military players, is there a way I can see a list of all players from that “state”?
My great appreciation to taking the time to answer the original question.
Sara Walsh
*Edit: I’m a TD - just had to remember the player query there. Answered my own question.
Okay, maybe I didn’t. Because oddly enough, when I did the query for the state as AP and it sent the results to me, I got 13 names from North Carolina, including my own and other players that I know. The formatting was messed up on the PDF file that it generated as well.
*Edit: Using the zip code generated the 4 players that recently played in an overseas tournament. Is that all that we have listed with Military addresses? I know most use their home addresses to get their magazine delivered to, but only 4?
*Edit2: Research does wonders in answering one’s own questions.
The Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA) realigned the APO/FPO numbers, according to geographic location. AE, AP, and AA will be used as follows:
EUROPE:
AE 090-092 Germany, AE 093 Contingency, AE 094 United Kingdom,
AE 095 Ships, AE 096 Italy, Spain, AE 097 Other Europe,
AE 098 Middle East/Africa
PACIFIC:
AP 962 Korea, AP 963 Japan, AP 964 Philippines, AP 965 Other Pacific
CENTRAL/SOUTH AMERICA:
AA 340 All Countries
Sara Walsh
We have somewhere around 1130 current and former members in ‘states’ AP, AE, and AA. (I’m also checking FP, though I don’t think that’s in use any more.)
It’s possible there are some that are incorrectly coded as some other state, such as CA or VA.
Another reason the count may be so low is that when the player rotates back to the States, the address changes and is no longer AP, etc.
Are you ordering a custom rating list through TD/A or using the MSA page? I don’t know that I’ve ever tried the former with the AA/AE/AP state codes.
I did the list through TD/A. When I was going through player search with MSA, I had to list at least 3 characters for the name search which doesn’t work when you want players from the state. There might be another search where you can do a search without a name without going through the TD/A but I don’t remember where to find it and haven’t looked for it actively.
For your three characters, try %%%
You’re so smart Mike! Thanks. That worked wonderfully. 
I ran the custom list for AA/AE/AP, it came up with around 1000 current and former members when I told it to list all current and former members, including those without a rating. (There are also 130 or so affiliates and subscribers in those state codes, which is why the other count was higher.)
BTW, the PDF version came out fine for me when I looked at it with Adobe Reader on a Mac. Gmail also brought it up OK.
It helps when you wrote the program. 
Mike, why did you choose %%% instead of, for example, ??? or *** ?
Bill Smythe
Because the database is MySQL and we’re using ‘like’ queries, which use % and _ as the wildcard characters.