Visit our Facebook page for up-to-date information on tournament standings, winners, and all other club-related information. Our website will continue to host the schedule, list of champions, and so on. But for news, please join us on Facebook, and feel free to comment and message us!
***** Special event announcement *****
Club president Ernie Johnson has secured a playing site – the Coldenham Reformed Presbyterian Church – for a 3 round G/60 +d5 event on Saturday October 15th.
Registration is from 9:30-9:45am
Rounds: 10am, 12:30pm, 3pm
Entry Fee: $10
Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and top Under 1700
Address:
469 Coldenham Rd
Walden, NY 12586
Hot off the press! Breaking News! Peter Barkman has captured the 2022 Club Championship, edging out Gilad Drillich on tiebreaks.
When the tournament has been submitted and rated by USCF, I will post the full standings and results. Congrats to Peter, and now I must update our list of champions!
Before the 3rd round of the Club Championship, starting at 7pm, we will hold our annual club meeting. This is your chance to elect club officers, discuss ideas and have a say in the direction that the club goes. This is the first meeting in two years and we expect a lot of new faces, voices and suggestions.
Even if you are not playing in the tournament, you can still attend the meeting. And if you want to play in the tournament but missed the first round, no worries! The 2nd round is next Monday, 3/28, and late entries are welcome!
If you would like to attend the meeting but are unable to for whatever reason, feel free to contact the club via Facebook messenger with your comments/suggestions and they will be passed to the officers for review and to bring up at the meeting.
The 2nd greatest event on Earth, or at least one of the most prestigious chess tournament held by our club – the Vassar-Chadwick Club Championship – is starting this Monday, March 21st.
This is a relatively new event for the club, starting in 2017 (and not having been played in 2020 or 2021), and is the Spring premier event. The defending club champion is Mark Courtney (2019).
It is a long time control event – 90 minutes with 5 second delay. Don’t worry if you are new, you don’t have to really be a ‘club regular’ or know the secret handshake, you just have to have a valid and non-expired US Chess Federation membership, and pay the $10 entry fee. That’s $10 for 5 rounds of intense over the board tournament chess – can’t be beat!
What’s the greatest event on Earth? Well some would say that is our Fall premier event, the historic Dutchess County Championship (DCC)…but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
No one has yet won the Double Crown – captured the Club and DCC in the same year. Will someone do it this year? Will it be you? Join us on Monday and good luck to all who compete!
Finally, those so inclined would do a great service to the club and posterity by sending in games from this (or any event) to me – just message the club on Facebook and I’ll post them up for all to see.
There was a long-running chess club hosted out of the East Fishkill Community Library, but the person who ran it has moved on and they are in need of someone who can fill that void. Is there any member of Vassar-Chadwick willing to volunteer their time to run their all-ages chess club?
Preferred times would be Friday afternoon (around 4:30 – 5:30pm) or Saturday morning (around 10 – 11:30am), but they are flexible if you cannot fit those time-frames.
If interested, reply to this message on Facebook and I will get you in touch with the coordinator (I’d rather not spam her email on the internet).
The club received sad news today, the passing of long-time member Richard Whearty. Here are the details from his son Andrew:
Hello, wanted to pass along the sad news that my father, a former member of the chess club, passed away this past week. Richard Whearty passed away on Wednesday March 2nd at his apartment at a senior living facility. he had always enjoyed playing in the chess club and talked often of it.
His funeral will be at Saint Mary’s Church in Poughkeepsie on Monday March 14th at 10am,with a post funeral lunch TBD. His wake will be Sunday March 13 from 4-7pm at Parmele funeral home in Poughkeepsie.
For those who would like to get in contact with Andrew, let me (Scott) know via Facebook or email and I will provide you those details.
The US Amateur Team East was back to in-person fun at the fabulous Parsippany Hilton last month, and a number of club regulars took part in this great event.
While I did not receive any games or photos from those who were there (still time to rectify that!), I did go through the results and hopefully have discovered who attended. If I missed anyone, please let me know in the Facebook comments to this post.
The full results can be found HERE.
Finding Nepo (3/6) consisted of long-time Middletown/Vassar crew:
Board 1: Dore Sheppard
Board 2: Ernie Johnson
Board 3: Mike Semel
Board 4: Peter Barkman (4.5 points out of 5 games!)
Being “experienced”, the team decided to withdraw after their fifth round victory and get home early.
Poughkeepsie Chess Club (3.5/6) consisted of the “new generation”:
Board 1: Alex Sinnot
Board 2: Ron Sperber
Board 3: James Reap
Board 4: David Sperber
Rumor is that the go-to steakhouse saw prices almost double what they used to be. š
Fifteen players participated in the first tournament of the year, which completed this past Monday. Trevor Brooks was the only one with 3 wins and thus captures first place – congrats!
Second and Third are shared with Alex Sinnott and Gilad Drillich, who drew each other in the final round and ended with 2.5 out of 3.
Booster prize goes to unrated(!) Nicholas Polizzi, who finished with 2 wins and a loss only to 2100 rated Alex. Impressive result.
Because I delayed in writing up this report, the tournament has already been rated and you can see the full results here: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?202202077542-13513605
Reminder that the next event is an unrated – and free – Valentine’s Blitz (G/5) on 2/14. Tell your significant other you are treating them to a special event and then bring them to the club! Actually, don’t do that, it probably will not end well.
It’s a strong event, I HOPE to get some games sent to me so I can share with everyone. Hint, hint.
A very symmetric result – 3 wins as White, 3 wins as Black, and 1 draw.
| White | Result | Black |
| Polizzi | 0-1 | Sinnott |
| Johnson | 0-1 | Drillich |
| R. Sperber | 0-1 | T. Brooks |
| VanDommele | 1-0 | Schreck |
| Reap | 1-0 | Topcyzlko |
| Simmons | 1-0 | O’Connor |
| Rader | 1/2-1/2 | D. Sperber |