Bob Simmons completed a perfect 4-0 tournament (!) by upsetting Ernie Johnson in the last round. Trevor Brooks and Darius Jafary tied for 2nd with 3.0/4 each. Congratulations to our winners. The Grand Prix will be updated soon after the official results come in from the TD. So Bob Simmons wins the First Place Trophy and Darius Jafary wins the Top Booster Trophy.
Many years ago the powers that be in the USCF went into agreement with a publishing company, giving them exclusive rights to the rules of the game (and all of the related standards, policies and procedures) as codified by US Chess. Which meant a Tournament Director (or any active player wanting to avoid issues) had to purchase the rule book – it was not available online.
Many members complained, but the contract was apparently very long term (if not forever). Until recently, when an amendment to the contract was put in place, allowing US Chess to publish selected chapters of the rule book (the ones most people are most interested in) online, for free.
You can view, search, and download these sections – CLICK HERE
We are passing along information from the Westchester Chess Club:
We are saddened by the loss of our friend Joe and extend our condolences to family and friends.
The WCC will host a memorial tournament in Joe’s honor. Thanks to Lou Saltaformaggio for the idea and the name – the Joe Guads. It will be G/75;d5 starting in January (Andre is finishing up the winter schedule). There will be a modest entry fee which will go towards a donation to support chess for underprivileged children and students (suggestions welcome!). The tournament is open to members from other clubs and I will do my best to get the word out, but please feel free to forward this to friends of Joe’s. Space in the church is limited to about 40 people. First round will be January 3rd. Let me know if you are interested. Also, please feel free to visit and participate in the WCC, and please let me know if you would like me to add you to my email list. Hope to see you soon.
Alan Kuras
Westchester Chess Club Schedule
You can go to that page to look up the schedule (2019 tournaments not posted yet), as well as details on where the club meets and who to contact for more information.
The Winter and Spring schedule has been posted. View it here.
Our Chadwick Grand Prix has been updated to a easier to view standings sort, and we were able to dig up final results for previous champions. View them here
Happy Thanksgiving from the club leadership to all our members! The Grand Prix has been updated to reflect results of the recently completed Falling Leaves Swiss. The next update will arrive somewhere between Christmas and New Years.
Peter Barkman won the shorter than usual Falling Leaves Swiss with a score of 2.5/3. Ernie Johnson, Trevor Brooks, Craig Fisher, and Harold Stenger followed with 2/3 each. Our next event is the Holiday Leaves Swiss which features a normal four rounds. Thanks to all who participated.
Trevor Brooks completed an undefeated tournament, winning our Club Championship with a final score of 4.5/5. Very well done for our youngest champion ever! Ayman Haoula secured a draw with Trevor in the final round to lock up the Class A prize with 4/5. John Weigand and Hernan Salazar-Chala both finished up with 3/5 to tie for Class B (tiebreaks pending). Newcomer Ahmed Karameldin and veteran Michael Mendez both scored 2.5/5 to tie for Class C (tiebreaks pending).
| I# | Name/Rtng/1D | Rd1 | Rd2 | Rd3 | Rd4 |
| 1 | Ernest Tr Johnson
1989 10089115 (1922) |
W16 | bye | B 8 | B 11 |
| 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 2 | Mark G Courtney
1984 11403387 (1888) |
B17 | w 9 | B 7 | w 8 |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.5 | ||
| 3 | Ayman Haoula
1984 14624013 (1849) |
W18 | B10 | W11 | bye |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 3.5 | ||
| 4 | Eric Horsboll
1943 10661935 (1990) |
bye | B12 | w 5 | B16 |
| 0.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 | ||
| 5 | Alqi Dore
1876 15713707 (1964) |
bve | W14 | B 4 | w 7 |
| 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | ||
| 6 | Robert A Simmons
1833 10104424 (1705) |
B19 | W11 | B15 | W12 |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | ||
| 7 | Trevor Wil Brooks
1819 15363983 (1664) |
W20 | B26 | w 2 | B 5 |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | ||
| 8 | Craig W Fisher
1805 10124743 (1810) |
B21 | bye | w 1 | B 2 |
| 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 2.5 | ||
| 9 | Rasit Topaloglu
1792 14724540 (1639) |
W22 | B 2 | W16 | — |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | U1.0 | ||
| 10 | Jurij Josep Oracz
1.765 16069823 (1506) |
B23 | w 3 | bye | W13 |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.5 | ||
| 11 | John Maxw Weigand
1753 15330742 (982) |
W24 | B 6 | B 3 | w 1 |
| 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 12 | Her Salazar-Chala
1738 15210316 |
B25 | w 4 | B26 | B 6 |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 13 | Harold Stenger
1702 12458408 |
W26 | B20 | W23 | B10 |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 14 | Ahmed Karameldin
1700 16778946 |
bye | B 5 | W19 | W25 |
| 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 | ||
| 15 | Michael O’Connor
1697 12592786 (1579) |
bye | bye | w 6 | bye |
| 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | ||
| 16 | Darius Jafary
1655 14321073 (1578) |
B 1 | W21 | B 9 | w 4 |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 17 | Seamus Gould
1599 15321555 (1541) |
w 2 | B22 | bye | — |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | U1.5 | ||
| 18 | Michael Mendez
1520 12495089 (1554) |
B 3 | W23 | B21 | W26 |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| 19 | Richard Whearty
1469 13468991 (1405) |
w 6 | B25 | B14 | W22 |
| 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 20 | Ori Raz
1358 15447060 (1123) |
B 7 | W13 | B22 | W21 |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 21 | David A Wright
1268 16431640 |
w 8 | B16 | W18 | B20 |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||
| 22 | Michael Guse
1116 12619322 (1111) |
B 9 | W17 | W20 | B19 |
| 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||
| 23 | Barbara Ray
483 16438815 |
W10 | B18 | B13 | bye |
| 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.0 | ||
| 24 | Benjamin Ferrier
unr. 16743206 |
B 11 | bye | bye | bye |
| 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 2.0 | ||
| 25 | Hance Huston
unr. |
W12 | W19 | bye | B14 |
| 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.0 | ||
| 26 | Bertrand Topczylko
unr. 16778355 |
B13 | w 7 | W12 | 818 |
| 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
Published four times a year, Empire Chess is the official magazine for the New York State Chess Association. The current issue, Fall 2018 (click here), has a story on recently held NY State Championship. As our very own Chris Brooks shared first place honors in the Under 2100 section, it was nice to see his last round game against Harold Scott featured in the story. I encourage everyone to check out the magazine, but see below for the game itself.
